Although it’s some years until my next major birthday, a recent spate of friends celebrating birthdays-that-end-in-a-zero set me thinking: what’s the best way to organise festivities so that everyone has a marvellous time?

And so to my next activity:

#23 Plan the Perfect Celebration

Many years ago, when it was fashionable, I threw a fancy dress party for a ‘zero-ending’ birthday (honestly, it was fashionable once) and although it seemed to go well and everyone followed the brief, arriving dressed as their alter egos –

and yes, there was a healthy smattering of bikers, good time girls and men in drag – I was aware that the fancy dress theme didn’t appeal to everyone.

This is completely understandable.

Take regular parties. Some people don’t find standing for hours, holding a drink all that …comfortable.

Image: Wikimedia commons 

It took the Romans to understand the importance of relaxed, stylish seating

And studies of the frisky little octodon degus, a small rodent who lives a life spookily like humans, and whose circadian activities have therefore been closely followed, tell us that we can be divided into 3 activity groups: morning ‘larks’, the 10% who are up early and ready to roll, but fade quickly;  the night ‘owls’,  the 20% who like to sleep late and party late; and of course, the ever popular ‘hummingbirds’ as they’re called, that lucky 70% who can rise early if necessary and party late.

Image: Wikimedia commons

Fear not. Fewer than 90% of these little critters will keep you up with their late night shenanigans…

So my question is: how do you accommodate lark-like friends for whom the idea of an evening celebration is enough to force them to concoct a really bad excuse, even if their spirit is willing to celebrate?

And what about other personality types like introverts, for whom the mention of the word ‘party’ with its spectre of a room full of strangers all carousing happily and noisily, is as appealing as the idea of being water boarded?

Could not all these problems and more be solved by providing a mixture of variety and choice when planning celebrations?  I’m surprised no one’s done this before.

So when my next big event comes around, I’ve decided to celebrate it in a number of ways, just to accommodate all the personality types of my friends.

I’ll send a list of options to everyone, and let each person decide how they’d best like to celebrate with me. And if this involves three or four separate fun-filled events, well, so be it.

So far, I’ve come up with a number of possibilities that I hope will cover most tastes:

• A sumptuous breakfast … with a view: 
  

Of course, I mean a view of the top not from the top of somewhere like Mt Taranaki

• A leisurely YumCha in Chinatown:

 Image:: Wikimedia commons

• A lunch degustation at a very fine city restaurant:

…and they don’t come much finer than Tetsuya’s

• Champagne and canapés in the late afternoon followed by a fabulous film:

• Or perhaps a Gatsby-style party, where the hostess mysteriously disappears at 8pm… but nobody notices.

I can’t wait…