Gloriously Ordinary Sundays - 23rd March 2025
I appear to have a 30-year-old.
Ciaran Cameron turned 30 on the 19th of March, so we are at the end of a week of various celebrations, reminiscing and wondering what's next.
In true mundane and heart sing spirit we have, of course, been planning the birthday celebrations for the last few months. Well actually since Christmas. Ciaran likes to plan from one celebration to the next –
Birthday
Easter (then far too long a gap)
Halloween
Bonfire night
Christmas
Birthday.
I asked him how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, and he agreed he’d like a party. Excellent, we like a party.
Now what I’d like you to do is pause for a second and think about the best party you’ve ever been to….
Where was it?
Who was there?
Food?
Drink?
Was it a daytime or nighttime affair?
What were your highlights, or do you really not remember much and that’s what made it such a good party?
I’m hopefully about to illustrate the gloriousness of Test One as we planned with Ciaran what a great party looks like. In fact, I’ll let him talk you through the plan for the parties here:
So, what you’ll have heard is that his birthday is being celebrated at three different parties and three different locations. We started off with the idea of one big party, couldn’t work out whether to make it north or south (he has friends and family where he lives near London, and in West, North and East Yorkshire) and he didn’t really seem up for the idea. We couldn’t work out why and then a chat as part of his circle meeting helped us have that lightbulb moment where we realised that Ciaran doesn’t really like to mix his people! I’m smiling as I’m writing this as I think we can all probably relate to this as a concept – I love having my friends and family together but they’re a gloriously diverse bunch and there can be tears or worse. Very sensibly and pragmatically, Ciaran organised three parties for three different sets of people in three different parts of the country. Way to go. You’ll have also heard him clearly say that the parties run between 5:30 and 7:30 pm because frankly, two hours of people is enough, isn’t it?
On the night of his birthday, he made food for guests (well like most of us he bought in pizzas and snacks and heated them up). On Friday night he went out for pizza, which is by far his preferred option, then the plan for Saturday night was takeout pizza (note pizza theme).
There was loads of mundane stuff to do in the process of planning for the parties not all of which I think he’s completely enjoyed. I guess that’s okay. If money were no object, I’d probably opt for a fully catered event in my own home with washing up and tidying up thrown in, but sadly not a reality for the majority of us. We did buy paper plates, wooden cutlery and paper cups.
On Wednesday night the guests were dutifully all gone by 7.30 pm. Him and I finished the clearing up before eight and he shut the door firmly on me not long after that. He then retired to his room to start the important job of building some of the Lego sets he’d been given for his birthday - I believe at least the first two were accomplished before 11 pm as the relevant people were sent photos.
That’s mundane and heart sing for you, isn’t it? Not sure how close to your version of a fantastic party his was, but the point is it doesn’t matter, does it? My mundane is your heart sing. My heart sing is your 'not in a million years, thank you'.
What I want for me or someone I love doesn’t mean I want to make sure everyone should have a drunken all-nighter for their 30th …although I have to pause a moment and reflect (Claire) that 5th May 1996 in Newcastle was a particularly good one… Just a shame it coincided with Newcastle failing to win the Premier League.
Mundane and heart sing, and Test One are all about paying attention to the detail of what makes sense to people and working out the balance of their mundane and heart sing.
Here are a few photos from parties two and three that happened this weekend.
PS. Have you heard Gloriously Ordinary Language? It’s an exciting new eight-month programme for local councils and other social care organisations who want to rehumanise their language, reconnect practice with personal and organisational principles and reimagine care and support. The next course starts soon!
PPS. Did you see? The Gloriously Ordinary Sundays Podcast episode 10 is here. I chat with Sam Clark, Chief Executive of Learning Disability England. We talk about the importance of people opening their own front doors as we share the new campaign - I Open My Own Front Door, Do You? - by Gloriously Ordinary Lives in partnership with Learning Disability England.