Birthdays come around once a year and how – or if – you choose to celebrate is totally up to you. For my brother, when the use by date on the milk reads June 6th, he knows it’s any day now. 

As a kid, my mid-January birthday meant I often missed out on “the big party” because school friends were away on their summer holidays. I’m not complaining but there were years when I felt I was chasing “the big party” still.

Then while at a painting class, I met an older woman who was turning 70. When I asked her what she planned to do for her birthday, she explained that she enjoyed a series of small get togethers with friends over several weeks. Not only was she not up for a big party, she felt this way she’d get to spend better quality time with each of them. Smart woman, I thought.

Nowadays, I enjoy a month long festival I call #Mandypalooza. I like to acknowledge one more year on this earth and enjoy sharing food & wine with family & friends but I do not have the same stamina I once had. Not only is it a great way to extend the celebrations for the whole month of January, it means I can catch up with friends in smaller groups in a range of different ways: coffee mornings, restaurant dinners, lunches with a girlfriend or two but also activity-centred celebrations.

In the past, I’ve hired a bbq boat at Melbourne Docklands to putter around in. One year, we settled in at a country pub beer garden; my kids were small and they could roam comfortably without getting lost or under people’s feet. I’ve done the picnic & Shakespeare thing at Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens and I’ve cooked multi-course meals for my friends. Yes, I cook for my birthday as I actually enjoy it.

I do like a theme, be it a long Italian-style Sunday lunch outside under the trees complete with red-checked tablecloth, or maybe a multi-tiered steamer continuously serving dumplings in small rice bowls. I’ve even hosted a DIY ramen party with all the fixings.