Thirty is an attitude. It says you know what you’re doing and you’ve got what it takes to get where you’re going. The fact is, you’ve never been better or smarter or more ready for adventures than you are right now. So welcome to prime time.
I love any excuse to throw a party.
I often tell my partner how dangerous it would be if we lived in a house, rather than a 2 bedroom condo, because I would be throwing a party for every possible occasion; Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Birthday’s, “Just Because the Sun’s Out”, you name it! But our living circumstances at the moment are not akin to a party pad and venue hire is very expensive so, just for now, I’m okay with not being the super host I eagerly want to be one day.
That said, as far as I’m concerned there is literally NO excuse for not going all out when you reach a milestone birthday.
They say your 30’s are the new 20’s. The dirty 30’s. 30 and fabulous. I don’t care what anyone says, turning 30 is a big deal.
As cliche as it may sound to a guy, it is true that women become much more aware of their body clocks when they turn 30. It’s like you wake up in the morning to the sound of someone arming a ticking time bomb, happy-fucking-birthday, and suddenly we are taking stock on where we’re at in our lives and fretting about the future. Am I where I wanted to be by the time I was 30? Did I do enough in my 20’s? Am I happy with my career? Does my boyfriend still fancy me? All of a sudden it feels like we’ve only got this narrow little window to cram the rest of our youth into. We start doing the math in our head about when we should ideally be married by and when our first child should be born, and overnight we feel like the ageing process has declared war on us and we start thinking about how much money we should start spending on trying to fight it. The very least you can do for yourself in this situation is go fuck it, and throw yourself an over-the-top birthday party. Right!?
To mark my big 3-0 I wanted to have an intimate end-of-summer Palm Springs style pool party in Sydney. It is quite hard to find a house rental that allows parties, but not impossible as I discovered from hours of research! I found a house in Brighton-Le-Sands on stayz.com.au that could be rented for a minimum 2-night stay, that allowed events so long as you left the place as impeccably clean as you found it. It was over $1,000 AUD per night, and also had a rather large bond that needed to be held on top to cover any incidentals, but the place was a perfect party pad – such a good find!
Really modern and very extravagant, the house was directly opposite Brighton-Le-Sands beach. It had a resort-style pool (which was theoretically 2 x pools), an in-built spa, entertainer’s cabana and outdoor kitchen, and huge living rooms both downstairs and upstairs inside. There were three luxurious private bedrooms, and a double bed in the living room by the fireplace (which we thought looked like the perfect location to film some high-class porn!). Combined with the cabana, the sofas, sofa beds and all the ottomans dotted around, you could literally have all of your guests sleepover after a house party. Many of mine did!
The front of the house was all glass with ocean views, and the upstairs living/dining room and open plan kitchen had large balconies both front and back so you could switch between ocean and pool views throughout the afternoon. There were 4 bathrooms, 3 with baths – all of which were either encased in transparent glass or tiled completely in mirrors (refer to my previous “porn house” reference!). One of the bathrooms was actually outside, between the cabana and the outdoor kitchen. The entire wall was glass, so you could soak in the beautiful freestanding bathtub in full view of everyone in the garden and overlooking the pool… if you so chose to! It was an exhibitionist’s dream party pad.
There was a little wear and tear around the place that just highlighted the fact that this house was a party house. But considering the value of it’s real estate and the incredible facilities within, I really thought it was even better than I was expecting. The heated swimming pool even had mosaic tiling in the floor of it that looked just like the Versace logo, though I don’t know if it actually was, which for me really just summed up the extravagant (and maybe a little ostentatious) tastes of the owners who created it.
With a light spattering of Palm Springs style party decor (a la pink flamingos, pineapples and palm leaves), I was treated to not one but two birthday cakes, some impromptu and very heart-warming toasts, just the right amount of booze and dancing (i.e ALOT), and an incredibly memorable way to kick of the next decade of my life!
I didn’t get many photos from the night unfortunately (one regret I have!), and certainly none that look even remotely professional either! But of the ones people did take, you can get a feel for the house below:
What did you do, or want to do, for your 30th? Comment below <3
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