50th birthday round-up

Yes, I've hit the big 5-0, the half century, the gold anniversary. OK, I'll throw modesty out the window and admit that I don't look my age. That's down to my vigorous 22-hour morning routine starting at 3:29 am... nah, I have my parents and their genes to thank for that.

Let's start to where it all began. To have an idea of the type of place I entered this world in 1975, then there's this clip of the Concert for Bangladesh held in the Sidney Myer Bowl in Melbourne, Australia. Those crazy kids with the high-waist flare jeans and knitwear are Sharpies, one of Australia's most notorious youth sub-cultures. More about them here.

Now the big question people had been asking me is whether I'd be doing a big party thing for my jubilee milestone birthday. Well, I had a great party when I turned 18 - I just invited friends and family by casually telling them (no written invites) "Oh, I'm doing something at my place for my 18th on Saturday. Come". And everyone I invited turned up!

My 21st was the complete opposite, and my 30th was OK, but my 40th was deliberately very "me" - at a tacky, brightly lit Armenian restaurant catering for an exclusively ex-Soviet crowd, complete with a musician playing on a Casio keyboard singing your standard cringey Russian and international "restaurant music" hits. They even played Zorba the Greek! The food was brilliant! Trust me, it might've been in London but the ambience was definitely provincial ex-Soviet industrial city. Perfect!

My 50th birthday coincided with Easter, Orthodox and "Catholic" (the double whammy), as well as the end of Pesach (Passover). It just had to be THAT year. My household is culturally Orthodox Christian and Jewish, so that made things a bit tricky. But nothing is more awkward than sharing my birthday with my Jewish father-in-law... and Hitler! Though North Americans who have an affinity for weed are (needlessly) envious of my day of birth.

But I'll let drag queen and insult comedian extraordinaire Bianca del Rio explain why not to do a big-bang 50th birthday...

So I went low-key but still me. This is how it went...

First off was an early dinner the evening before my birthday for the cuisine that I've adored the most in my life, Korean. There's a wonderful Korean restaurant down the road where I live, so it was a short walk away. Bulgogi, KFC, kimchi, muchae namul and fruit-flavoured soju!

Later that evening it was off to Dalston, one of the coolest areas of London, for a special collab night organised by the Balkan London Collective and Bledi, both art collectives and involved with queer people of Balkan (BLC) and SWANA (Bledi) origin. After having been told off by security for not bringing ID to show to them (I'm turning 50, for heaven's sake) and delusions of power ("I'll let you go this time"... seriously?!), I was greeted upon arrival by the sounds of Bosnian turbofolk superstar Halid Bešlić and his 1985 superhit "I zanesen tom ljepotom" ("And Taken Away By That Beauty"). Check out this clip showing a very respectable and orderly Yugoslav crowd watch Halid belt it out...

Of course I know the words to this song; I've been hearing this song since I was 10! What followed music-wise at this event was a cavalcade of songs and singers I'm very familiar with. My "accomplice" was testing me to see if I knew the song and singer and verifying it on Shazam. To be honest, I was surprised to hear so much Armenian stuff. We're talking about here Tatev Asatryan, Armenchik (a firm favourite of mine), Lilit Hovhannisyan. To cover the Arabic side of things, there were your usual Nancy Ajram and Sherine songs, followed by... Lefteris Pantazis. Eek! As the night progressed and the DJ-ing technique leaving much to be desired (talk about vibe-destroying), so "accomplice" and I started critiquing the fashion and styling (or lack thereof) around us of the mainly very young Gen Z crowd, most of whom would have been less than half my age. I mean, what's with those 70s moustache and horrible faux leather jackets that my uncle used to wear? Who'd have thought that Kel from Kath & Kim would be a style icon? Criticising the "youngsters"... yep, I must be 50! Shout out for DJ Tetka Nika (one of my sisters is also a tetka Nika) for playing Seka Aleksić's 2004 hit "Crno i zlatno" (Black and Gold) just after the clock turned midnight heralding officially my entry into my sixth decade, as well as Christ being arisen. However... never on any account should the Romanian cover version of Azis's iconic 2014 chalga hit San Tropez be played at a queer-focused event—always go for the original! 

Waiting home were the eggs I dyed for Easter, a special tradition of mine I describe here. It was time to crack the eggs and save the strongest "for the house". Then it was off to sleep. I'm 50!

I was woken up by some calls. Australia was on the line and they wanted to get in their birthday greetings to me while it was still my birthday in their time zone. I had what could be described as the most chaotic Zoom call with all members of my close family involved calling in from Perth, Melbourne and Noosa in Australia. My brother couldn't even be bothered wearing clothes, so it seemed!

It was also the perfect opportunity to go and do the tradition of throwing the "house egg" into a stream, so off we went to London's Hyde Park for that to happen. Let's just say that I do love the neighbourhood where I live in.

Following that, it was meeting up with my sister, brother-in-law, their son and my sister's best friend so that we can go to our nearby Macedonian restaurant, the award-winning Caffé Bonego. I've known the wonderfully friendly proprietor Sneshka for ages. If you're ever in London and want to have a truly authentic Macedonian food, drink and music experience in a kafana-style atmosphere, Caffé Bonego is the place to go. The restaurant was quite full, and in true Macedonian style we turned up without reservations, but Sneshka saved the day and arranged a table for us. The food was excellent as per usual, the Macedonian rosé wine perfectly paired and the atmosphere was just right, with many of us, me included, as well as Sneshka, singing along to the string of Macedonian, Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian hits being played. Of course they had to put on twice the 1994 Macedonian hit 'Dali chekash stara majchice' ('Are You Waiting For Me, My Dear Old Mother') by the late Goce Arnaudov, a song that guarantees to bring me to tears.

My 6-year-old nephew even was able to enjoy a Životinjsko carstvo chocolate from Croatia, much like how I used to enjoy them when I was at his age and the country was still Yugoslavia.

Oh, did I mention that my sister is a brilliant present buyer? She gives Leslie Knope of Parks and Recreation a run for her money. My sister knows that I love toy buses, so she got me a model of a 1950s Ikarus 66, my most favourite bus when I was a child, and I had the pleasure of being on one in 2023 when I went to an Ikarus bus meet among the Soviet planes of defunct Hungarian airline Málev and the Hungarian Air Force at the Aeropark just outside Ferihegy Terminal 2 in Budapest. My sister also knows that I've been a collector of North Korean propaganda since the 1990s, so she was able to source some rare gems for me, including a rare booklet about Panmunjom (rendered as 'Panmunzom' interestingly on the cover), the armistice village between North and South Korea.

Biggest surprise of the night: my friend Sarah, who's Irish of Czech Jewish origin, and one of the world's leading lights in the world of SEO, called me as she had organised her boyfriend's friends in a beer hall in Kunovice, Czechia, where she too lives, to sing a drunken 'Happy Birthday' to me! 

But eventually the good time at the Macedonian restaurant had to come to an end, so very contently and despite the unseasonably cold night, the walk home was a nice way to finish what turned out to be a great birthday.

So happy birthday to me! As we say in Macedonian, for many more years to come.