How do you call it when you're 35yo?

I always dreamt of a birthday bash. It may not be classy or costly or grandiose but at least a party for me during my birthday. I remember one time, it was for sure January 9 falling on a weekend since all of us were at home and I was 9 years old then turning 10 that day, that I remember leaping off our bed made of plywood crying so loud that that day was my birthday. How can every family member forget that? My parents remembered that incident vividly that they even retell it to my sister and friends saying that they immediately ran to the nearest sarisari store, bought bread and coke to at least celebrate that day for me. They further claimed that they were ashamed then to have forgotten my birthday and have nothing else to offer than the bread and the soda.

Imagine how poor we were! Nonetheless, that experience had challenged me to want more that bread and soda on the table during my birthday. Since I got my paycheck, I see to it that I have a bash of my own version, formal or informal. The first party I blew, kinda formal with full table, and with friends and relatives surrounding the foods, was in 1998 during which time I was employed as a college instructor. I can not remember if I already have roasted pig ("lechon") served then, but the most vivid recollection I have to have served a lechon on the table was when I got the appointment as a Municipal Accountant in LGU Anao-aon, Surigao del Norte, my hometown. That was a weekday in year 2001, thus most of my guests were from the local government offices.

When I transferred to Manila, most of my birthday celebrations in Surigao were belated. I experienced spending my day on a boat once on January 9, 2003 on my way to Manila. I was never alone though; I danced at the disco with anybody, I got drunk with somebody and get laid as the concluding activity! In year 2004, I celebrated for the first time a weeklong birthday parties, each day or night my friends and I were drunk.

This year, for the very first time, I have celebrated my day at that very day (January 9, 2011) in my hometown with my immediate family and close friends and relatives. It was even being graced by the presence of my most honored guest and mother in Manila, Madam Nanette Durante.

Here are some shots during my 35th birthday: