There’s a house on a street near when I live. It’s number 29 and they have a plaque outside with the word “Twentynine” on it. But the ‘e’ has fallen off the end making it “Twentynin”. Someone tried to replace the ‘e’ once but then it disappeared again. It makes me smile every time I walk past.
Anyway, why I have I just told you that random, not-so-exciting story? Because I’ve just turned twentynin(e) myself. It was my birthday last week and I’m now on my 30th lap of the sun.
For the first time in many years, I wasn’t dreading my birthday. Throughout my 20’s I felt reluctant to celebrate getting older as each year brought me closer to needing major surgery on my hip.
You see, for the past decade or more I’ve been under the assumption that I’d need a total hip replacement by the time I turned 30. That’s what all the experts said.
(If you’re new to my life then let me quickly explain that I have hip dysplasia and a whole host of fun conditions that have come as a result of this – maybe I’ll explain more in a future post.)
However, I had some scans (MRI and x-rays) in the summer of 2022 and the results suggested that my hip is in a better condition than everyone was expecting for my age, and that actually, it’s going to be many years before I need a hip replacement. And suddenly, approaching 30 doesn’t feel as scary as it once did.
Also, I had tickets to see my favourite comedian, Peter Kay, so I guess that helped.
I often credit Peter Kay with getting me through one of the toughest periods of my life. I watched Phoenix Nights and Max & Paddy’s Road to Nowhere while I was recovering from the surgery I had on my hip when I was 10. I think the majority of the jokes when straight over my head because, well, I was 10. However I still found him hilarious and he brought a lot of joy to those dark days.
I saw him in Phoenix Nights live in 2015, and I had tickets for his 2018 tour that was sadly cancelled before it even kicked off. So when I found out he was going on tour again at the end of last year and that he just so happened to be performing in Liverpool on my birthday, well, I just felt like it was meant to be.
Getting tickets was a stressful experience given than half of the UK population was also trying to get tickets, and Ticketmaster crashed an hour before tickets even went on sale. I’d almost given up hope after two hours of constantly refreshing a broken website, but my partner pulled through and secured the goods.
Of course, there will be no spoilers here, but what I will say is it was incredible and my face hurt from laughing so much. If you’ve got tickets to see him this year, or the year after, or the year after that, then I promise you he will be worth the wait.
It was easily the best birthday I’ve ever had.
Tickets for Peter Kay – £135 (they were VIP, it was all we could get).
Getting to see your favourite comedian live, in your favourite city, on your birthday, after having tickets for his gig five years ago that was cancelled – priceless.
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