All in a morning…

“It’s my birthday” says the honourable lady. “Let’s have breakfast at the inn”
I was so excited. It’s easier to get-up-and-go now, because the children are older and more independent. Did I say that I’m a single mum to 3 young adults, 18, 20 and 21? I’ll leave it with you to work out my age.

I’m really enjoying this season of life where the monthly visitor seems to have gone shy. Mind you, I have not begun to experience night sweats or hot flushes yet; so perhaps eating avocado pears and Moringa seeds are working a trick.
So I’m looking through the hanging cloth rack in my medium sized bedroom, to find a befitting garment for the occasion, when my eye falls on that dress! Yes, the one that got me paid so many compliments, at a speaking event, the one with the dots.

A quick glance in the mirror brings a confident smile to my face and after donning some ‘make up’ which to me now means lipstick, I put on shoes. The lipstick was bought by my ‘long suffering’ daughter who was tired of seeing my constantly bereft-of-grooming-face!
Did I call them shoes? They were more like boots. They were a 3 inch, pointed front, laced-up boot shoe I had worn once in 5 years because they hurt. I call them high heels but the girls tell me it does not qualify as one.
Well for me any shoe with a heel above 2 inches was high heeled. Period.

So doing a balancing act with the boots and pacing the room back and forth as if to get enough practice for the morning meal, the phone buzzed. It was the honourable lady calling to tell me she would be picking me up in 10 minutes. Panic!

“I have to be ready for when she comes,” I mutter to myself as I rub on some face moisturiser the way our beauty mentor, Shirley advised at the women’s event. I’m known to habitually do the last minute running-up-and-down the stairs thing, half-dressed, begging her to wait a few minutes whenever she comes round to pick me up for an event.
So I look over my face to see if there are any hairs out of place so the tweezer can demolish them. You know those little ones that hide in awkward corners around the beautifully crafted facial edges. That sorted, I found a bag and a jacket that had a Zebra pattern – not my favourite, but a little different and never seen by the girls. group, if you know what I mean. A little surprise clothing to initiate some conversation on my arrival.

I was well rewarded as the ‘limo’ of ladies arrived in time for me to complete my final security checks on open windows before leaving the house.
“Hey First Lady!” I don’t believe I remember how I earned the nickname but think it was linked to my meeting and kissing HRH Prince of Wales, Prince Charles at a charity event after winning an entrepreneur award.
Suffice to say, they moved over to make room for me behind the birthday girl and after a few pleasantries we were off at last.
We alighted or embarked from the car to laughter from the boys on the crane ahead doing some building work. Why?

One of the girls had gifted the celebrant some ethnic waist beads and you know what that means. In my usual element, I decided to simulate an African waist dance, to the delight of the testosterone-charged audience, I was unaware of, but who clapped in support.
What! I had not realised I would generate such excitement from my friendly explanation of what the beads were for. We joked about ‘Lady the touch’ the gift giver, providing a manual and some instructions for its use.
We had an amazing breakfast and asked the lady waiter to show us how to pull a chair for the First Lady, the worthy celebrant. I enjoyed watching the smile on her face as we all pretended to serve the birthday queen, running back and forth with drinks, plates and snacks for her enjoyment. Mind you I was also the unofficial photo and videographer for this August occasion – that’s what friends do to make a birthday special, isn’t it?
Our lady waiter was delighted to oblige and really gave us excellent service at the Brewers Fayre.
We had a round of the full English serving amidst laughter as two other girls joined the happy company. We left the meal on a high especially when our waitress said she had so much fun having us.

We stopped to take pictures outside the restaurant too. I forgot to say that I’d been having a little trouble with the boots – shoes as I appeared to limp a little when walking and this did not do me much good when a little ’embarrassing incident occurred. It’s one of those things, but it does not seem to have happened before.
We were walking towards the cars in two groups when after my tip-toeing to prevent ‘the accident’, something travelled down my legs into the shoe.
Oh!….
First Lady noticed and asked what was going wrong. “What’s up with your shoe and what’s that white thing?” Thinking quickly on my feet, my face ashen with embarrassment, I quipped, “It’s a lingerie malfunction.” Outbursts of laughter followed as I made my way back to the car to our next fun destination.

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