Tell me what you did for your 50th

[Spondoolie]

Tell me what you did for your 50th!

Trips, parties, get togethers, adventures

What went really well?
What didn’t go well and why?
Anything you wish you’d done but didn’t?

Thank you!

Lunch and drinks out then a party at home with husband and all our friends.

Family BBQ get together with my family and in-laws.

Weekend abroad with best friends.

Weekend abroad with sisters.

Dinner and cocktails with school mums.

Shopping and posh lunch with husband and kids.

Sounds a lot but all felt quite casual at the time!!

Mine was pretty rubbish

I would've liked fuss, but my family don't seem to think 50 is a big deal

they got a tiny cake after discouraging me from ordering one! They wanted to get it themselves. Not exaggerating when I say tiny. They did realise afterwards and said that was too small.

It was saved by going for lunch with friends another day and they made an effort. Thank goodness for friends.

But basically, I was disappointed

Glad to have the chance to say that! Still annoys me! And before anyone says "you should've told them what you wanted" - I really tried. I was quite clear about it

They asked me for a list of possible birthday gifts and bought one thing from the list.

I don't know maybe your birthdays after 40 aren't a big deal to some people!

Went to a spa alone on actual day ( hate going with others) with meal with dh and dc in the evening. A pub night with some local friends and a weekend away with one of my oldest friends whose big birthday was the same month.

My daughter's 21st was the week before so based on that and the fact I have very little in the way of family and just a handful of close friends locally the day itself was low key - dinner at Mowgli with DD, SIL and three closest friends.

But I did do holidays and other stuff.

Solo weekend in Paris - glad I did it but two nights wasn't enough and would have been more fun with someone

11 days in Yorkshire - also solo but stayed in an Air B&B I've been to several times times before and met up with my cousin who I hadn't seen since my 21st which was fab.

5 days in Sicily with DD - a joint birthday present from my mum - absolutely gorgeous holiday

Also a couple of theatre trips - Unicorn in London with a MN friend, and a weekend in Bristol to see Moulin Rouge with DD.

I also learned to do leaded and copper-foil stained glass.

It seems like a lot written down - tbf I was very glad to see the back of my forties!

I took a trip to Las Vegas with two friends I've known since we were 11.

My 50th was during early lockdown when we weren’t allowed to meet anyone and I live alone. So right up there with most miserable birthdays ever.

I compensated by a few years later taking my delayed 50th birthday present to myself solo trip to Australia for 3 weeks and having the best time ever. Well, apart from on my actual birthday when I had to cancel all plans as I‘d managed to catch Covid in Tasmania. 😡It seems birthdays and Covid are a bit of theme with me. Fortunately I was staying somewhere with absolutely stunning views over the ocean so feeling ill on the sofa could have been much worse.

40th was in Hong Kong, 30th was in Barcelona, 21st was in Paris.

Photos are of where I stayed on my delayed 50th birthday in Tassie (in Bicheno) with my little orange hire car parked outside, pademelons in the garden at night and the sounds of the waves outside.

It was during lockdown, so absolutely nothing.

I wanted to go away but my sisters got involved in the arrangements and I had a really crap meal in a pub.

In all honesty, I've never fully forgiven them for interfering, then making so little effort and the crap presents was the final insult!

Nothing. Cried in the bathroom as was so let down by people I thought cared.

I was seriously ill for a couple of months before my 50th and eventually spent the day in hospital having a venesection during which I collapsed - I don’t recommend it and I’m going away for my 60th .

A balloon ride - great fun - we skimmed very low over the A303 and our landing was on the first tee of a golf course.
Also went to a Rammstein concert, it was excellent.

What I had planned and what I did were very different.

Planned a two week holiday to Bangkok and Hua Hin staying in fabulous hotels. It got cancelled three weeks before we were due to leave because we went into Lockdown.

For my actual 50th birthday we had a takeaway from a local restaurant and were so excited because it was the first week that restaurants had been allowed to open to do takeaway food. The restaurant gave me a free bottle of fizz for my birthday. It was a lovely warm day so we ate in the garden and as it was a Thursday we had the weekly doorstep clapping and socially distanced street party. Our neighbour a few doors down is a well known musician and his family set up their instruments and played music for the street every week so they played while the neighbours sang happy birthday to me.

I made and decorated my own birthday cake just for something to do and had a Zoom party with some girlfriends.

i hope to be able to do my 60th properly!

The plan was a big dream holiday but finances messed that up so I had a party, one where I was the centre of attention for once, I didn’t care who came and who didn’t, I had a handful of people I wanted there anyone else was a bonus. I did everything my way, no giving a shit about what other people liked and didn’t, no not inviting certain people not to upset others. My guest list cut every toxic person I’ve gone NC with out, I didn’t feel the slightest guilt. I didn’t cater to anyone but me and my family. The food was what I wanted, if others didn’t like it tough. I spent the night dancing in a completely amazing outfit none stop with the people closest to me. Everything was what I wanted, no one else and I loved every second of it.

I remember my 40th birthday and my 60th but for some reason not my 50th. Will have to think about this?

Went to my BILs funeral.

Probably wouldn't recommend it though..

What would you like to do OP. It doesn't matter what any of us did.

I took DC’s to Iceland, it was 6 months after DH had died and it had been on the bucket list, I also met some friends in the pub for drinks

Surprise party and even bigger surprise of a trip to the Waterside Inn, overnight stay and back to Portugal the next day. Very sadly my partner came down with norovirus during the journey there and I had it as soon as we got home.

Memorable though.

Visited Krakow with DH and then a long weekend with my best pal to Benidorm. Had a family meal out in the UK as well. Since then my best pal and I have gone to Benidorm every year for our birthdays, we set a president and wished we had done it years ago!

I got a new bike.

Just ideas at the moment!

I have always loved pub quizzes and then lockdown happened so I go into it online. I got into a Sunday night community run by someone who did in venue quizzes pre-covid, and I booked him to do my birthday in 2023. He came over and ran a game show night and it was epic! He does wedding, pubs, birthdays etc. It was so good and he uses photos of my birthday for his marketing!

Happy to pass on his info to anyone who wants it!

nice hotel, more than we normally spend and went to an event we attend every year

Booked a private field on a campsite and took my whole family for a weekend. Firepits, long walks, swimming in the adjacent lake. It was brilliant.

Mine is this summer and this thread is making me really sad because I’ve not really got anyone to celebrate with and I’m autistic and hate birthdays and fuss but feel sad if I don’t do something and then feel weird if it’s not special enough. It’s a strange thing a birthday to me. Feel free to add some punctuation to just stream of consciousness 😩

Nothing. Fuss about adult birthdays - especially my own! - is excruciating.
And why is 50 somehow "better" than 49 or 51..... I really don't understand.