Yvette's 40th
Without Prejudice
Always be careful aroumd a person who is having a milestone Birthday, Yvette truned 40 and without a doubt it's been an interesting week.
She never gets upset, or very rarely but this week it's been meltdown time, and fabulous time all at once.
We rarely go out, too many kids making it comfort and convenience to stay home and the night was miserable and rainy.
But with Nat telling us Tom Thumbs was great and my brother telling me,
"Comfort and convenience is the kiss of death"
We decided to be healthily selfish and get out for a change, craving adult company and the bright lights of sociability.
Only took me all afternoon to get ready, as I am so OCD I had to clean the unit right down to every cupboard, clean up my make up, find space for my shoes and cull my winter clothes.
Then and only then could I start getting ready. I have gone down 3 sizes in clothes and everything in my wardrobe including the Designer stuff, I would normally sell on Ebay, fits me.
I spend a leisurely few hours trying on clothes and deciding what to wear, choosing a black lace cocktail dress and footless tights. Bruno Mars on the radio and Kim Wilde for the 80's feel.
I also realise all my underwear is now mostly too big and make a pile of "Too Big" clothes a pile for the op shop and a pile of Yvette's and the boys stuff, which is caught up with mine.
I realise it's years since I prepared for a night out and have forgotten what a pain it is for a woman to get ready to party.
I've exfoliated and waxed and shaved, showered, treated my hair, dried and curled it and applied about 5 different skin polishers, cleansers, toner and moisturiser.
All promising to make me look non wrinkly and have the complexion of a 20 year old...... Hmm doesn't work and I still look my age Which for six days means I am the Mother of two 40 year olds. Impossible.
I tweeze and pluck at eyebrows and dry scrub all my skin as the healthy people at camp Eden, Health Resort, told me to do. Then I moisturise all and walk around letting it all dry and turn up the radio and dance around like a 80's rock chick.
Yvette will always be an 80's rock chick in a way. Her idol Billy Idol's, "White Wedding" being her favourite song, second only to "Rebel Yell".
Getting ready takes ages and that is the only time I want to be a man. he just gets ready and goes.
Women's getting ready is an art in itself, like shopping. men have no idea what women see in shopping. Deb and I once going to Southland and she was 8 months pregnant.
We shopped from 9am till 4pm and stopped to have lunch and again when our feet finally went numb.
We being there all day and treating it as the magical shiny thing, shopping is for women.
Women dress not for Men but for other women.
Because everything fits me now, I have the most insane choice in clothes and it's still never enough. And shoes are treasured and the last thing to be picked.
I make up carefully, foundation, powder, highlighter, wrinkle freeze, bronzer, blush and brush on eye shadow and lipstick.
Then the eyes, eye shadow and liner and curl my lashes and quickly put layers of mascara on before they incurl. Ironically it's Yvette telling me to hurry up and not the other way around.
Finally ready, and spray with the most important scent, perfume, and mine is usually all Retro stuff. Tonight it's K.L. by Lagerfeld, so 70's.
So me and the Rock Chick who is mightily peed off that her fella has not rung for her birthday, nor organised anything and I'm figuring,
"He's so dead", is what she is muttering under her nreath.
She look spectacular, Size 6 body, in pants and boots and long pink tee with tiny leather jacket. Blonde ponytail and front scooped up.
We leave the boys with the big teens and girls, Zach 17, and we know they be fine and we clap our hands in glee at getting out and feeling ourselves and not the care givers, tonight.
The place is great, Tom Thumbs in Chadstone and Yvette looks unhappy and insistes I get hold of Melissa and Grace by mobile.
We find them and then the party begins and we have one shooter, or I do and Yvette has several and I pass on the vodka cruisers at $11.50 each. After that it's beer and beer only, I hate being stung like that for over priced drinks, but there is no entry fee, so I suppose they have to make money, somehow.
Interestingly the gaming room is empty at 10.30 and the club is packed. I like that, I am not a big fan of gambling and have tried to enjoy it but it's not me.
The music is good a live band doing 80's stuff and then tunes rotated by a man in a flat cap who looks 80 if he is a day. All ages of patrons, twisting away to the music. A high ratio of young Indian or Middle Eastern men, who watch shyly and don't say much.
One couple, she a fake blonde with perma tan dirty dancing with some "dude", who shows off his smooth moves and no one is interested, except the orange girl.
I can't look at the girls as the lights make everything glow white that is white and we all look like tanned people from the Bahamas with glowing white teeth.
One lady in a black top and white bra which is clearly visible in the lights and I wonder if she dressed like that deliberately or just doesn't realise.
The men certainly do and they line the edges of the dance floor watching the mainly women dancing but don't want to look like idiots. They do look like idiots but after about 12.30 they get more social as the numerous drinks kick in.
Then the crowd really starts to have fun and we dance to kids in the kitchen and kim Wilde and culture Club and "Sweet Child of Mine", our favourite homage to Lauren, dead now 22 years.
Men swoon over Yvette, but she not interested, just a girl wanting to have fun. An older man guesses we are mother and daughter and chats away telling me he sleeps on his couch..
He and his wife separated and he has no job, no money and no car,
"You're screwed", I say and move away from him and he follows me.
I am amazed at the size of some of the women and think of the uncomfortable summer they are about to have. But they couldn't care less and dance and flirt the same as the size 8's.
Lots of Adele look alikes, and I was one of them and am now free of imprisoning fat. And I have nore energy and never stop during the day any more, no more Nanny naps and donuts to compensate for something.
I don't think people care so much as to what they look like but how they feel and I can only say I feel better not being size 16-18 and better being a 12, soon to be 10.
I wanted a fit brown body, it was one of my goals for Camp Eden and it didn't come till I was ready to give up the fat comfortable body.
Giving up smoking ten months ago made me in to a solid packed old woman and now not even tempted to smoke even when others smoke is a big feeling of achievement.
And from one success, comes others as you build on the feelings of success. Thats what I say to Yvette,
"When you reach a milestone in your life, you have a lot of things to discover"
And it's true, you look at our life and tick the boxes and see if you are satisfied with your life.
Her boyfriend hasn't rung and I know she is being brave about that, but tons of people on Facebook have sent her birthday greetings.
I say to her that she has brought 7 wonderful boys in to the world, and they are all doing great. And she's done it as a single Mother. That's big. And she is proud of them and she's proud of herself.
I think she wanted to be married like her sisters at this age and had her "White Wedding", but she hasn't yet, and I have no doubt she will. And it will be fabulous and for her sake I hope she has enough self comfidence to pick the right man.
The man ogle her and tell me she's beautiful and she ignores them all, she's heard it all her life and it's not what she wants. It's the love of a good man she needs.
But she loves the place and so do I, mainly young, and good music and people dancing with abandon, that's Yvette's favourite thing as she's a good dancer.
We stuff our drunken faces with hot dogs and drop cheese and onion and sauce all over us, as all drunken evenings should end.
And we drive home and she decides she's going back every Friday night with Melissa and Grace. She loved it and the 40th Birthday is marked with a great night out and not just sitting home with the "boys" as we always do.
I loved it too, loved getting dressed up and being only 19 years older than my daughter, I wonder at the women being in their 30's these days before babies happen along. They will be in mid 70's when their babies are 40.
Here's me dancing to Metallica and Guns N Roses and The Angels when my girls think I should be knitting or baby sitting.
"Are they nuts?"
I'm dancing to the music still and Happy Birthday To Yvette, we had a great time,
Love Janette
Always be careful aroumd a person who is having a milestone Birthday, Yvette truned 40 and without a doubt it's been an interesting week.
She never gets upset, or very rarely but this week it's been meltdown time, and fabulous time all at once.
We rarely go out, too many kids making it comfort and convenience to stay home and the night was miserable and rainy.
But with Nat telling us Tom Thumbs was great and my brother telling me,
"Comfort and convenience is the kiss of death"
We decided to be healthily selfish and get out for a change, craving adult company and the bright lights of sociability.
Only took me all afternoon to get ready, as I am so OCD I had to clean the unit right down to every cupboard, clean up my make up, find space for my shoes and cull my winter clothes.
Then and only then could I start getting ready. I have gone down 3 sizes in clothes and everything in my wardrobe including the Designer stuff, I would normally sell on Ebay, fits me.
I spend a leisurely few hours trying on clothes and deciding what to wear, choosing a black lace cocktail dress and footless tights. Bruno Mars on the radio and Kim Wilde for the 80's feel.
I also realise all my underwear is now mostly too big and make a pile of "Too Big" clothes a pile for the op shop and a pile of Yvette's and the boys stuff, which is caught up with mine.
I realise it's years since I prepared for a night out and have forgotten what a pain it is for a woman to get ready to party.
I've exfoliated and waxed and shaved, showered, treated my hair, dried and curled it and applied about 5 different skin polishers, cleansers, toner and moisturiser.
All promising to make me look non wrinkly and have the complexion of a 20 year old...... Hmm doesn't work and I still look my age Which for six days means I am the Mother of two 40 year olds. Impossible.
I tweeze and pluck at eyebrows and dry scrub all my skin as the healthy people at camp Eden, Health Resort, told me to do. Then I moisturise all and walk around letting it all dry and turn up the radio and dance around like a 80's rock chick.
Yvette will always be an 80's rock chick in a way. Her idol Billy Idol's, "White Wedding" being her favourite song, second only to "Rebel Yell".
Getting ready takes ages and that is the only time I want to be a man. he just gets ready and goes.
Women's getting ready is an art in itself, like shopping. men have no idea what women see in shopping. Deb and I once going to Southland and she was 8 months pregnant.
We shopped from 9am till 4pm and stopped to have lunch and again when our feet finally went numb.
We being there all day and treating it as the magical shiny thing, shopping is for women.
Women dress not for Men but for other women.
Because everything fits me now, I have the most insane choice in clothes and it's still never enough. And shoes are treasured and the last thing to be picked.
I make up carefully, foundation, powder, highlighter, wrinkle freeze, bronzer, blush and brush on eye shadow and lipstick.
Then the eyes, eye shadow and liner and curl my lashes and quickly put layers of mascara on before they incurl. Ironically it's Yvette telling me to hurry up and not the other way around.
Finally ready, and spray with the most important scent, perfume, and mine is usually all Retro stuff. Tonight it's K.L. by Lagerfeld, so 70's.
So me and the Rock Chick who is mightily peed off that her fella has not rung for her birthday, nor organised anything and I'm figuring,
"He's so dead", is what she is muttering under her nreath.
She look spectacular, Size 6 body, in pants and boots and long pink tee with tiny leather jacket. Blonde ponytail and front scooped up.
We leave the boys with the big teens and girls, Zach 17, and we know they be fine and we clap our hands in glee at getting out and feeling ourselves and not the care givers, tonight.
The place is great, Tom Thumbs in Chadstone and Yvette looks unhappy and insistes I get hold of Melissa and Grace by mobile.
We find them and then the party begins and we have one shooter, or I do and Yvette has several and I pass on the vodka cruisers at $11.50 each. After that it's beer and beer only, I hate being stung like that for over priced drinks, but there is no entry fee, so I suppose they have to make money, somehow.
Interestingly the gaming room is empty at 10.30 and the club is packed. I like that, I am not a big fan of gambling and have tried to enjoy it but it's not me.
The music is good a live band doing 80's stuff and then tunes rotated by a man in a flat cap who looks 80 if he is a day. All ages of patrons, twisting away to the music. A high ratio of young Indian or Middle Eastern men, who watch shyly and don't say much.
One couple, she a fake blonde with perma tan dirty dancing with some "dude", who shows off his smooth moves and no one is interested, except the orange girl.
I can't look at the girls as the lights make everything glow white that is white and we all look like tanned people from the Bahamas with glowing white teeth.
One lady in a black top and white bra which is clearly visible in the lights and I wonder if she dressed like that deliberately or just doesn't realise.
The men certainly do and they line the edges of the dance floor watching the mainly women dancing but don't want to look like idiots. They do look like idiots but after about 12.30 they get more social as the numerous drinks kick in.
Then the crowd really starts to have fun and we dance to kids in the kitchen and kim Wilde and culture Club and "Sweet Child of Mine", our favourite homage to Lauren, dead now 22 years.
Men swoon over Yvette, but she not interested, just a girl wanting to have fun. An older man guesses we are mother and daughter and chats away telling me he sleeps on his couch..
He and his wife separated and he has no job, no money and no car,
"You're screwed", I say and move away from him and he follows me.
I am amazed at the size of some of the women and think of the uncomfortable summer they are about to have. But they couldn't care less and dance and flirt the same as the size 8's.
Lots of Adele look alikes, and I was one of them and am now free of imprisoning fat. And I have nore energy and never stop during the day any more, no more Nanny naps and donuts to compensate for something.
I don't think people care so much as to what they look like but how they feel and I can only say I feel better not being size 16-18 and better being a 12, soon to be 10.
I wanted a fit brown body, it was one of my goals for Camp Eden and it didn't come till I was ready to give up the fat comfortable body.
Giving up smoking ten months ago made me in to a solid packed old woman and now not even tempted to smoke even when others smoke is a big feeling of achievement.
And from one success, comes others as you build on the feelings of success. Thats what I say to Yvette,
"When you reach a milestone in your life, you have a lot of things to discover"
And it's true, you look at our life and tick the boxes and see if you are satisfied with your life.
Her boyfriend hasn't rung and I know she is being brave about that, but tons of people on Facebook have sent her birthday greetings.
I say to her that she has brought 7 wonderful boys in to the world, and they are all doing great. And she's done it as a single Mother. That's big. And she is proud of them and she's proud of herself.
I think she wanted to be married like her sisters at this age and had her "White Wedding", but she hasn't yet, and I have no doubt she will. And it will be fabulous and for her sake I hope she has enough self comfidence to pick the right man.
The man ogle her and tell me she's beautiful and she ignores them all, she's heard it all her life and it's not what she wants. It's the love of a good man she needs.
But she loves the place and so do I, mainly young, and good music and people dancing with abandon, that's Yvette's favourite thing as she's a good dancer.
We stuff our drunken faces with hot dogs and drop cheese and onion and sauce all over us, as all drunken evenings should end.
And we drive home and she decides she's going back every Friday night with Melissa and Grace. She loved it and the 40th Birthday is marked with a great night out and not just sitting home with the "boys" as we always do.
I loved it too, loved getting dressed up and being only 19 years older than my daughter, I wonder at the women being in their 30's these days before babies happen along. They will be in mid 70's when their babies are 40.
Here's me dancing to Metallica and Guns N Roses and The Angels when my girls think I should be knitting or baby sitting.
"Are they nuts?"
I'm dancing to the music still and Happy Birthday To Yvette, we had a great time,
Love Janette
