A family dinner in June

I quit having birthday dinners/parties after the 21st.

For the next 30 plus years, my birth month became a period that I selfishly reserve for myself - going wherever I want, doing whatever I want, seeing whomever I want.

Then last year I decided to bring in the family for a dinner get-together again because it was a significant year. I couldn't see waiting another 5 years for the next significant birthday - some old people might not be around by then and I might actually be inexplicably sorry about that fact.

I naively thought I could get away with doing a birthday dinner with family once every 5 years. But as the month and day got nearer, they started asking if we'd all be getting together again, just like last time.

I could not bring myself to disappoint them, so I said yes, of course we will. Just like last time.

Of course the old woman created a lot of tension for everyone in the days leading up to the date.

Finally, on D-Day we are at the restaurant that I so looked forward to. Where the man arranged for a private dining room with the most spectacular view of Singapore from the 33rd floor. Where every course of the meal was thoughtfully pre-ordered, painstakingly prepared and now impeccably presented at the table on exquisite dinner servers.

And I realised too late I did not have my camera to record any of this for posterity.

And so.

I shall remember this occasion in my mind's eye and hold it close in my heart for a very long time to come: an evening of happy memories with my family that is more than a difficult old woman.