Half A Century

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

The dreaded day arrived on Monday – I joined the club of the Fifties.

We refer to the members of the Fifties club often gently as

The Half-Centurions

Alright…

… I admit it…

I just made this term up LOL

I dreaded this day because of several reasons.

For one I couldn’t party it the way I wanted to:

… Invite 50 people to one of my favorite food places – 100% vegetarian

BUT…

Now that I’m 50 I find that it’s not that bad…

… I survied.

If you are also a member of the Half-Centurions you know what I mean. It’s not much different. I still dress the same…

… mostly comfortable cloths.

I still feel the same…

… young. Younger than my passport tells me.

I don’t know. I just don’t feel 50. Know what I mean?

If you are not 50 yet you will understand when you reach the half century threshold.

I was lucky though.

My girlfriend planned a wonderful day – without me knowing about it.

Secrets

It’s kinda fun to learn how well your partner lies.

She had to come up with stories to be able to leave the house to arrange things at the restaurant we ate – twice!

And me not suspecting a thing.

The Morning

She had told her mom and my mom that she would kick me out of bed around 8 am.

She did… but not kick me out. Very gently

I had about an hour time to get ready – which I only learned when my mom called 10 minutes before 9 and kinda spilled the beans. She wasn’t the first to call though. My girlfriend’s mom was first.

I got up to find the dinning table dressed with gifts and flowers and decorations. Ballons on the ceilling.

Yes, you guess right. I cried.

Must be that going into the next phase of my life but my body is doing strange things.

Like sweat.

Like feel cold.

Like cry.

Or I was just overwhelmed. I hadn’t expected any of it.

I have no idea when she did all that. Organizing everything. In the middle of the night I guess.

The Gifts

I got 50 bucks from her mom. Wow. How nice of her.

I got 2000 bucks from my mom. WOW!! That means I have almost enough money for the new iMac (the really fast one with lots of rim, ram and rum).

I also got a voucher from my mom for a new wellness place – actually two of them. I can take someone with me

From my sister I got a voucher for two at one of my favorite food places… the other one… but they are related. Brunch. Never done a brunch there. Really looking forward to that one.

And from my brother I got a SMS and a message on my voice mail.

From someone I don’t know I got an email with a nice message that my girlfriend had to print.

And a few cards.

Flowers from my mom when she came over a couple of days before to bring the present. Now I know why she didn’t want to carry it around too much.

Flowers from my old Xenite friend Cony plus she paid for dinner. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see her again. We decided to go to the next Xena convention in 2014 together. That’s going to be great fun.

It’s funny, she’s a looot younger than me but we connect.

She was also the youngest on that table. She said she should hang out with us more because she usually is the oldest *chuckle*

Not to forget the self-made voucher from my girlfriend for an Apple product of my choice.

My choice at the point in time was a new iMac. My old is reaching its capacity. Gotten slow. Froze all the time. Very very annoying.

Though basically my mom’s donation paid for the new computer I still have my girlfriend’s voucher… iPhone? iPad? iPad mini?

New Computer

When we went to the computer place, actually the Apple shop, on Tuesday I still wasn’t sure which one to get.

Yes, the one with the big screen. It’s really thin, too. But should I get the smaller or the middle or the large one? From the outside they look the same but in the inside they are a tiny bit different. More Rim, Ram, Rum, faster drive and what not. Confusing.

The first time we went and informed ourselves the salesman the big one is the only one to go.

I tended to the middle one though. Do I really need my computer to start up within one second? Or can I wait 5-10 seconds?

So, we are in the store, Tuesday afternoon and it’s swarming with people. I can imagine that a lot of stores are eyeing the Apple store with an envious eye.

Every blue shirt is busy. Last time we talked to a black shirt. I found one and hit him up. He’s there for “business” but he goes in search for a blue shirt.

A few minutes later Simon shows up, a really young guy, and we tell him, we want this computer we were just not sure which one to get.

Reasons why we pick this one

After getting another opinion and thinking it through what I really need the computer for, we decided to get the smaller one. It has less rim, ram, rum than the bigger but he says you can hardly tell.

I also don’t plan on using heavy-duty film-making software.

But mostly it was those two reasons:

– it was on stock (the others weren’t)

– it cost 2’049 (remember, I got 2’050 the day before for my birthday)

We left the store with a brand new iMac.

Gosh, that felt good. Paying cash for something big like that.

At home we unpacked it and let the date from the old one move over to the new one which took several hours.

Back to my wonderful birth-day while my computer sets itself up.

It’s  Monday again.

After I was done with the phone calls and opening my gifts we left the house. I had no idea where we went but I was told I don’t need to bring anything.

We ended up in a self-serve restaurant where I got to pick croissants and soft breads, and jam and so on.

Brunch

It was really nice. Not many people there so it was not as noisy as it is during lunch time.

We leisurly walked home and grabbed – without stress – the pre-packed backpacks. All I knew we had to catch a train around 11 am.

Next stop: Wellness

We took the train and I had figured we had to ride it for a while so I got comfortable. But suddenly…

We had to grab our stuff and almost jump out of the train!

A 5-6 minute walk and we ended up at the place where I got those vouchers for.

It used to be a beer brewery. Now there is a wellness place, stores with designer furniture and a wine store. Probably more but that’s about all I noticed.

We got in, got our bathrobes and got changed.

Upstairs and we saw huge pots of water. And I mean huge.

So we soaked for a little while.

Nice. Warm. Bubbly.

And I started to relax.

It was time to leave the pot to go to our next appointment.

We were told the round “trip” for the Irish-Roman thingy would take about half an hour and at 2 pm we had an appointment for a massage.

This is from their website:

Thermal Baths & Spa – stunning and exquisite

A new interpretation of the over 2000 year-old roman bath culture promoting health and well-being.

Bathe in the mystic grotto in the old Hürlimann brewery’s hundred-year-old vaulted stone walls and then enjoy beautiful views of Zurich’s skyline from our outdoor rooftop thermal pool. Immerse yourself and let the distinctive architecture and unique building design take you to another world.

Source of Vitality
The spa’s thermal water is drawn from the legendary “Aqui” springs, deep beneath the city of Zurich. This water is rich in valuable minerals and its soothing warmth promotes wellness and relaxation.

Succumb to the authentic power and spiritual ambience of this setting to celebrate water with all of your senses. Whether you choose the thermal baths or the Irish-Roman spa ritual, within 10 minutes time will cease to exist, and within 20 minutes the outside world will fade away…

Indulge yourself: relax, rejuvenate, revitalize.

Didn’t just relax you, too?

I can only say: if you are in Zurich go there and forget the world for a few hours.

And the massage was just heaven.

Afterwards we got dressed in our bathrobes again and went upstairs to the tiny restaurant and ate a bit.

Because we just didn’t want to leave yet we picked a comfy spot on soft sofas and just relaxed some more. And talked.

Funny. We’ve been together for over 13 years yet I learned something new about her.

I think we need more such relaxing wellness.

The evening

But I didn’t really had a lot of time.

Suddenly she said she was too tired to go back into the city.

I didn’t think it was too bad. I was still relaxed and just happy about the day.

So we left the house, turned right, crossed the street and then I spotted a very good friend in her car.

Coincidence?

10 steps further and we were at the entrance of a restaurant we had heard from another friend but never went.

So we enter and in front of me stands Cony, an old friend.

And I started to cry.

To make a long story short.

That coincidental friend showed up. The friend who had told us about this restaurant also showed up.

I spent a fun evening and ate fabulous food surrounded by good friends.

It was just awesome.

I couldn’t have planned it better.

At the end of dinner I got a wonder candle with a variatey of dessert. For the first time.

I felt very special.

And turning 50 wasn’t that lurking monster anymore.

Well, I think I’ve come to an end with my long winded story.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end and spending some time with me and remembering that wonderful, awesome, perfect day with me.

Wanna leave a message below?