Red letter days and chicks in utes.

Do you have a particular day of the year where big things happen to you? A date that doesn't have any special significance except for events that tend to happen without prompting? A red letter day?

I have one of these - the 28th February.

Now this date really doesn't mean anything to me, ie. no-one special's birthday falls on this day or anything like that. And to be honest, up until I turned 18, it was just another day (occurring just after we'd started school for a new year).

And then my beautiful mum died. Yep, on 28th February. And suddenly that day became the most dreaded day of the year, followed closely by her birthday.

For the next million years, I would dread the arrival of 28th February to the point where I would tear up at the mention of it and quite often warn my boss in advance that I would likely be a mess that day.

Now one thing you know about my mum is she wasn't one for other people's theatrics (her own were a different story). She was from the school of 'walk it off' and get on with it. So I could only imagine that what followed was instigated by her saying 'OK enough already'...

In 2001, my sister was pregnant and due to some circumstances had to deliver via planned casearean. Only her doctor was only available on...you guessed it...28th February.

Not entirely comfortable with this, she rang everyone in the family to check our reactions. Unanimously though, we all agreed that it would be lovely to have celebrate on this bleak day.

Now I'm a bit funny about 'scheduling' a baby's birthdate as whilst I'm not an astrology nut, I do believe the date and time you're born does hold some special significance, so I understand my sister's concern about artificially deciding on her child's birthday.

Which makes what followed all the more special...

On the morning of the 'big day' we got a call in the early hours to announce that as my sister had spontaneously gone into labour, her baby was delivered on...28th February...just 12 hours earlier than planned!

It was meant to be.

So ever since then we've had something wonderful to celebrate on this once dreaded day - my gorgeous nephew's birthday. What was once a really sad day has become something beautiful and joyous instead.

And since then, other momentous things have tended to occur on this date.

And then last week, once again, 28th February rolled around. Now a couple of weeks ago my landlord rang me and said he was putting my beloved home up for sale. I was gutted. I love my home and wasn't in a position to buy it myself, so instead had to prepare myself for the invasiveness of open homes, inspections and ultimately that someone else would fall in love with my gorgeous little abode and I would be politely asked to vacate.

So this was stressing me out. However, on...you guessed it...28th February, the agent rang, after a single week on the sales market, telling me an offer was made and accepted by an investor and that they wanted me to stay for as long as I'd like.

Luck? Coincidence? I think not.

So there's my red letter day story, what is yours?

Oh, and on a totally unrelated matter, what is it about a blonde with big sunnies (despite being the wrong side of...ahem...35...) driving our work ute that suddenly attracts the attention of every male passerby???? Mysteries of the universe.

Bec xx