Birthday Week
Earlier this year, they brought in a rule at work that you get to go home an hour early on your birthday - or the day before if you're not working on the actual day. Since my birthday this year was a Saturday, this meant that I'd be knocking off at 8pm on the Friday.
The week leading up to my birthday was pretty uneventful, as weeks tend to be when you're on the late shift, but it was certainly nice to know that my weekend would start early. Mum even volunteered to give me a lift home, so I got back around 8:30. Had I caught the train, it would've been more like 8:45 (or 9:45 on a normal finishing time), so a psychological victory there too.
My birthday itself was also a rather calm affair, which was exactly what I was hoping it would be. 12 months ago there'd been all the dramas at work, and the weekend after my birthday had been taken up with Danielle's wedding and a family gathering for Charlotte's first birthday. Two nice quiet days was largely what I was looking forward to.
The plan for Saturday was for a bunch of friends from work to meet at Dad's place in the city to watch "Clue" (otherwise known as my favourite movie ever, it also came out in 1985). In the event, only Dave and his son made it as everyone else had transport issues and the like. Krista and I then went to "Little Singapore" for dinner, and discovered that it was very good and remarkable value.
Sunday was taken up with finishing the black forest cake that Krista had decided to make - yes, this is a black forest cake made from scratch, which is rather an impressive feat - before going around to Mum's for dinner and presents. The cake, needless to say, went down very well indeed.
The swag of presents was a good one, too. Krista gave me the DVDs of "Tuulepealne maa", an Estonian drama series about two families in the inter-war years, and from Mum and Simon and Kit I got "The Culture of the Europeans" (a massive cultural history of Europe), a book about Dubai and also "The Floating Admiral" (a novel written by such detective-fiction luminaries as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and GK Chesterton with each contributing a chapter and a solution).
There was also some good money, which promises to be put to good use as I need to read the second installment of the "Millennium Trilogy" before seeing it at the movies.
This week, mercifully, is the last week of the late shift. I even have Thursday off into the bargain.
The week leading up to my birthday was pretty uneventful, as weeks tend to be when you're on the late shift, but it was certainly nice to know that my weekend would start early. Mum even volunteered to give me a lift home, so I got back around 8:30. Had I caught the train, it would've been more like 8:45 (or 9:45 on a normal finishing time), so a psychological victory there too.
My birthday itself was also a rather calm affair, which was exactly what I was hoping it would be. 12 months ago there'd been all the dramas at work, and the weekend after my birthday had been taken up with Danielle's wedding and a family gathering for Charlotte's first birthday. Two nice quiet days was largely what I was looking forward to.
The plan for Saturday was for a bunch of friends from work to meet at Dad's place in the city to watch "Clue" (otherwise known as my favourite movie ever, it also came out in 1985). In the event, only Dave and his son made it as everyone else had transport issues and the like. Krista and I then went to "Little Singapore" for dinner, and discovered that it was very good and remarkable value.
Sunday was taken up with finishing the black forest cake that Krista had decided to make - yes, this is a black forest cake made from scratch, which is rather an impressive feat - before going around to Mum's for dinner and presents. The cake, needless to say, went down very well indeed.
The swag of presents was a good one, too. Krista gave me the DVDs of "Tuulepealne maa", an Estonian drama series about two families in the inter-war years, and from Mum and Simon and Kit I got "The Culture of the Europeans" (a massive cultural history of Europe), a book about Dubai and also "The Floating Admiral" (a novel written by such detective-fiction luminaries as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and GK Chesterton with each contributing a chapter and a solution).
There was also some good money, which promises to be put to good use as I need to read the second installment of the "Millennium Trilogy" before seeing it at the movies.
This week, mercifully, is the last week of the late shift. I even have Thursday off into the bargain.