So I’ll come clean: I had limited sympathy for friends who celebrated their birthdays during the first lockdown. Finally, those blessed springtime babies who might have once chosen a Netflix marathon over venturing outside in the ice and snow to come to my party would understand what it’s like to have a crappy birthday.

Evil? No. Petty and bitter? Oh absolutely.

You’ll understand my frustration, then, when it turned out they all had the best birthdays ever. People, including myself (I’m not a total cow), actually doubled their efforts: ordering fancy cakes to be delivered, spending three hours on a boozy Zoom call and sending much bigger and better presents than ever before. Oh, and the freakishly good weather we had also made each and every celebration positively glow in those Instagram photos.

Honestly, I was secretly raging, but it gave me hope that I might receive the same attention and effort if we were still under lockdown restrictions by the time my birthday came round in 2021.

January birthday in lockdown? Here’s why it might be a blessing in disguise