Ya big ol' 30

I'm gettin on a bit...
Well, I hit the big THREE-OH this month, and I guess I'm feeling things slip away a little. Though there's a lot I wanna do before I hit something like FIVE-OH, I can't say that life so far has been at all boring.

My birthday was a regular work day, but it all turned out much more special than I'd hoped.

I was first out of bed, cos being a Monday, I was the only one that had to be somewhere. School holidays had started and Nene and Clayton have every Monday off. So I got myself ready and Eli was the first one up. He was very cuddly and made me feel like a special dad.

Later when I was ready to goto work, I went into my bedroom and the kids and Nene gave me presents. Now that I'm 30, practical gifts are much more enjoyable, so I wasn't disappointed when I got a pair of good quality safety glasses.

But a man of 30 also needs leisure time, and lately I've been doing a lot more reading that I have for the past 15 years. Janene bought me the Narnia Chronicles in a boxed book set (seven books). I had already read the first two, and now that I have my new set, I find it easier to hold a thin book, rather than the billion page all-in-one Chronicle that I borrowed from Cpt. Neroli. Now I'm half way through book 3 (The Boy and His Horse).

The last present I got before heading to work was another practical book from Janene, which speaks to the Dad side of me. This book is entitled "Preparing Your Son for Every Man's Battle". Now, for all us blokes, we know what "every man's battle" is... right?

Eli followed me around everywhere that morning, and as I jumped in the car, he opened the gate for me. As I was about to drive off, he signaled for me to stop. I wound down my window, and with a smirk and in a grown up manner he said "Ya big ol' 30!". He smiled at me like a dad proud of a son, and waved me off to work.

So anyway, my day at work was equally warming. I honestly thought I'd get an unimaginative $2.50 mud cake from Woolies - assuming anyone remembered. Well good old Donna, the mother of the office, surprised me alright. She made a donut mountain -- literally... It was 44 iced and cinamon donuts, complete with icing sugar mortar, built into a huge mountain probably a foot high.

Needless to say, by lunch time I wasn't even tempted to use my FREE LARGE TAKEAWAY at Jimmy's kitchen! Yeah... cool present from the Panscott mob :D I used it the following day.

And lastly, to remind me what friends are, Lynton displayed his mateship by giving me a $40 voucher at Mitre 10. I'm carefully writing a list of items to spend it on.

So... with the help of loved ones and good friends/workmates, I eased out of my 20s and into my 30s focusing on things more important than age.