So ladies, this week saw the arrival, for me, of the one day in the year that divides us ladies firmly into two camps, the lovers and the haters. The day you either dread or adore. Some of us go to any lengths to avoid it, whilst others make it a month long event. Yep ladies, it was my birthday.
Now birthdays are a funny thing with us women, if you are in the haters camp, it’s yet another numbers game where the general trick is to defy father time himself in the race to stay young and beautiful. And what strong contenders we are. We have a developed emotional, physical and surgical ways to beat the ever ticking clock, yet ultimately we know we will never win. Time is always one step ahead, mocking us as we trip over our Manolo’s to try and win. How many of us lovingly slap on inches of lotion and potions twice a day just because Clinique or Creme de la Mer promises to make us look 10 years younger? Of course to get the desired effect we must buy into the cleanser, toner, moisturiser, eye crème, night serum, face mask and lip balm. Yes Jo Malone I’m talking about you and your consultant who kindly informed me that lip balm was a crucial part of my skin care routine to prevent me getting ‘any more’ wrinkles around my lips. Thanks for that! The irony is that as your visa shrinks deeper into your Cath Kidston bag at the cost of this time reversing skin care, it’s your face that pays the real price in wrinkles from the stress of being skint. What’s that you can hear? Oh yeah, that would be time giggling as it runs away again whilst plastering your face with yet another wrinkle and kicks your joints with another ache. If that doesn’t float your boat another option is surgery, the modern miracle of the nip and tuck program and a sure fire way to at least make it look life really has a rewind button. But how many people actually look any better for all that money, pain and effort. We only have to look at the likes of Heidi Montag who in one day had more than 20 separate procedures including a brow lift, nose job revision, boob job revision, botox, lipo on stomach and thighs, cheek and lip injections, ear pinning, chin reduction, neck lipo and butt augmentation to see the perils of such drastic action. But what really intrigues us all is the botox injection. Advertised as the lunch time cure for anti aging many of us thought all our prayers had been answered. Until we saw the results. I have to be honest, the first person that I met who had had botox didn’t initially tell me what she had had done and I must admit I wondered if she were socially inept or just rude. The lack of emotion on this persons face was eerily worrying and after one too many botox fixes her look was just pure shock! But for some women they just can’t let go of the past. Janice Dickenson has famously always been open about using plastic surgery to "hang onto what she's got." Which leads me on to the next issue, the mutton dressed as lamb brigade. We all know one who refuses to admit she is the other side of forty, insists on wearing her teenage daughter’s clothes and turning up at festivals, trying to relive her youth whilst wondering if her new tongue piercing has gone septic. The type that turns up at the opening of a club, not because she is genuinely interest in the music but because it IT list will be there, and despite being at least twenty years older than everyone else still cannot hold her alcohol, being sick on vodka shots on the way home.
But what about the other camp, the lovers of all birthday excitement? The ladies who embrace each year with open arms, acknowledging that another laughter line is another memory made with people they love and every day that passes is another opportunity to live life to the full. These are the fun people who plan weekends away with the girls for milestone birthdays, who regardless of age can take up a new challenges both professionally and personally, who aren’t afraid to say yes to life.
As I joined friends and family on my birthday this year for celebrations I reflected on what really matters as we grow older. So this year, when I blew out the birthday candles, instead of wishing for a size zero waist, the two wrinkles around my left eye to disappear or Jimmy Choo to choose me as his muse (a girl can dream!) I hoped for laughter lines of memories, my joints to ache from all the things I have said yes to and it would be nice if the ASDA check out girl to ID me!
xX
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