My 60th birthday celebrations started on the 15th February thanks to friends going away on holiday before our pre-departure and pre-birthday little gathering a month later. I know my sister will be proud of me celebrating that long!! At that gathering, everybody there wrote me a little note, and some a longer letter, which I carried with me to read today – wow, I definitely feel loved. Have a look at the amazing cake my dear friend Pat had made for me for that lunch!!  We had a number of further small celebrations with various friends leading up to our departure on this trip at the end of March. Then celebrations continued with family when we arrived in Europe – that was very special. I have been thoroughly spoilt! Even the hotel here delivered a bottle of bubbles and left chocolate coated strawberries in the fridge for me.

The most stunning birthday cake

Birthday notes written by many friends

Bubbles from the hotel

Thank you Jonathan for organising these too

So what did I get up to today? We ended up deciding to spend the day in Santa Fe. We went to a gorgeous French bakery, Clafoutis, for breakfast (thanks for the tip Mario), had a walk around town, visited Loretto chapel to see its ‘miraculous’ staircase, returned to Canyon Road, the art gallery road which I first went to back in 2005 when I was looking for venues to hold an Aboriginal art exhibition, had a long chat with the owner of a new gallery there that was just setting up for their opening next week, walked around SantabFe some more, took the bus back to the hotel, rested for a couple of hours to snack and read more of my messages and went out to dinner – thank you Mmy for a delicious meal. And I got some gorgeous yellow roses from Anthony which was a lovely suprise – I had already got my Sidi Adventure boots, new chain and sprocket and even new front disc – what more could a girl want?!

Waiting for our bus to town

It’s official – I am now a Senior!!!

Delicious meal at Restaurant Martin, Santa Fe

One of the best deserts I have ever had

How weird to think I am now 60! How did that happen?! I don’t feel sixty, definitely not in the mind anyway – in the body at times, yes, I feel it, but for now, I can still ignore it mostly so I am determined to keep making the most of it.  Because, you never know what’s around the corner, so why put off to tomorrow the fun you can have today. No regrets, whatever happens… And luckily, I once got a card saying “ageing is inevitable, maturing is optional”!!! Won’t be maturing just yet…

– Anne