Birthday Week

Tuesday was my birthday, and as it turned out, I had a week of social outings.

Monday was a Spring Morning Tea at Jacqui's, quite a tradition now.

On Tuesday I was awake early for a presents in bed - DVDs, earrings, bowls, all sorts of nice things -

and then later headed out to see The Hundred Foot Journey with Tanya, followed by lunch. Loved the movie, just perfect.  (And I would love to be Marguerite, cycling to work by the river, wearing a fresh cotton dress for each day of the week.)

After the movie and lunch I dropped home for five minutes or so and a friend arrived just then with a happy bunch of gerberas. Catherine is so good, she never forgets a birthday.

Laura and I had chiropractor appointments, 45mins from home. But we arrived early and actually had a moment to drop in at the beach.  All these appointments and the beach has been just over the hill, out of reach.  As we pulled up, we saw a rainbow out to sea. We jumped out and had a few photos, in the freezing cold wind.  An unplanned birthday portrait:

 All through the day I had texts, facebook messages and phonecalls. It's so nice to be remembered on your birthday (I really must be more organised with other people's birthdays!).

Emily made me this sweet card, hand-drawn.

Steve arrived home from work with a bunch of beautiful pink roses.

We went out for dinner, to a local bistro where I could eat a steak and salad, and we managed to find food for each of our varied diets.  We laughed a lot, and made up stories about other people in the bistro, good fun.

On Wednesday I celebrated my birthday with Mum and Dad - more presents, another movie and another lunch! (How spoilt am I?) This time we saw Magic in the Moonlight, which was enjoyable, but not brilliant. Very pretty to look at, but lacking subtlety or sub-plot, I thought. And the heating wasn't working in the cinema - eek! (But once again I would have been happy to be the heroine and wear pretty dresses in picturesque locations). We had a delicious lunch afterwards of lamb salad at one of my favourite restaurants. By now I was completely exhausted already from a few days of outings, and socialising, plus not feeling so well.  I went home and crashed on the sofa for a bit.

That afternoon Emily and I saw the most amazing sunset on the way home from her saxophone lesson.

On Thursday I taught recorder and went to bible study as usual, my friend Deb treated me with a delicious morning tea spread that I could actually eat - a rosewater, lemon and almond cake, sunflower & sesame crackers, maple rosemary nuts, and roast vegetable chips. I could barely lead bible study between stuffing my face with such yummies. (Just joking).

On Friday I went to a local open garden day, I'll save that for another post.

Saturday was getting ready for Fathers Day, and, since I enjoyed The Hundred Foot Journey so much, I dragged the family out to see it so we could all enjoy it at the theatre (which we did).

We arrived early (my mistake) and were amused by the antics of the cinema cat. You might be able to see her walking along the candy bar (!). This time the heating was working (phew). And did I mention that I saw Begin Again the previous Friday night? Four movies in 8 days for me, so out of the ordinary!

Sunday was Fathers Day, presents for Steve in the morning, then after church, a wet-weather picnic in my parents' rumpus room with some of the family, followed by games. So all in all, it's been a good week, but a busy week. Lots of love, and friendship, and good times.

This week, it's back to normal life for me. Emily is half-way through her Yr 11 exams,

and Laura is home with an injured ankle. On Saturday I'm accompanying Emily's saxophone exam,

so we both have plenty of practising to do.