40th birthday - pre-birthday day

I had an amazing time on the day before my birthday. Because my birthday was on a Saturday, we had to celebrate on the Friday at work. On the way up the stairs first thing in the morning I was stopped by one of the German teachers - I thought that she was going to report a computer fault but instead she presented me with a bunch of balloons with greetings written on them in German! She then told me there were some photos of me on the staffroom doors, so I went to look at those.

By the time I got upstairs I had spotted my photos a few other places around the school, and when I walked into the workshop I found my desk (and in fact most of the room) was covered with balloons, streamers, cards and confetti! There were big banners across the window and on my chair. There were also two huge badges with the number 40 on them, one of which I proudly wore all day!

Just before breaktime one of our colleagues came in and started chatting to me, but it wasn't until other people began arriving that I realised we were having a little get-together! There were sausage rolls and other nibbles, and a chocolate cake with candles to blow out. Later I took some birthday cake round to the staff who couldn't make it.

Because it was Red Nose Day (a charity day) we were all able to wear our jeans, which added to the party atmosphere. At lunchtime there was a charity event in the hall, the loudest teacher competition, which was loads of fun. It really felt like the end of term!

One of the best moments of the day happened by chance. I'd gone to a classroom to fix a DVD player, and as I was looking at it I realised that the class had spontaneously burst into song, and were singing Happy Birthday! The teacher had not told them it was my birthday, they had spotted my badge and started singing of their own accord!

I think it was probably the most fun day I've ever had at work!