anniversaire
Another year older, but not necessarily another year wiser. I just keep chugging along...
For what it's worth, for the first time in nearly five years I was in a pretty good mood about my birthday, looking forward to it, even. The Hill of Middle Age is definitely looming over me but I'm no longer feeling as panic-stricken as I was, sort of, about a couple of years ago. (Ask me again when I hit the big four-oh.)
As usual we didn't do anything fancy or extravagant, but happily, the treats have been nicely spaced out, stretching that sense of contentment for as long as it will hold. The Bun was counting down the hours (literally!) and that created an unexpected air of excitement. Alas, the children have no understanding of the concept of sleeping in, so on Sunday morning everyone piled into our bed at 7.30am (I guess I should be grateful it wasn't 6am) with birthday shouts and then quivered in so much gift-opening anticipation that there was no choice but to get up.
The Bun insisted that I did not lift a finger so J made breakfast and did the washing-up. Good boy. (The Bun, more than J.) I had contemplated going to the nice cafe in our neighbourhood for breakfast but figured it would make me yell at the kids, as I inevitably do whenever we dine out, and so elected to stay at home eating toast in my pyjamas and reading peacefully at the breakfast table.
The peace didn't last long as the children then insisted I open my gifts. They were: a pair of rose gold earring studs, a bar of posh chocolate, and a lovely bag of tea leaves from Whittard. Nicely done, and I'm patting myself on the back for dropping (not so subtle) hints at The Bun during our nightly bedtime snuggle. The kid also remembered that I prefer dark chocolate and picked the right percentage. There's hardly any left because we all have been nibbling at it after dinner! Also, J actually baked my cake (full disclosure: premix was used) which turned out pretty good, but perhaps that was because I stuck my nose in and insisted that the cake was done even though the instructions had said to bake it for a further ten minutes.
We had dimsum for lunch and to my delight the endless drizzle that had been going on for the past few days turned into snow. None of it stuck but it is so much more fun walking through snow, compared to rain. We came home and I attempted to nap, but these plans were foiled by the kids, who wanted me to do a treasure hunt (looking for coins hidden around the apartment, complete with map drawn by The Bun), and then performed what seemed like an endless song-and-dance routine that (sorry kids) got old around the three minute mark. I was in a food coma and I just wanted to sleep, so eventually J and I threw them out of our room, shut the door, and left them to their own devices.
We had planned to go out for fondue for dinner, but I was too full and also too lazy to do any cooking, so J picked up a couple of pizzas and that rounded off our day. It doesn't sound like much, but I had a good day!
_________________
Other nice things:
The day before was Saturday, so we went out for burgers at The Hamburger Foundation, which is now my go-to place for good burgers. (I also like Inglewood but THF is much closer to where we live.) The weather was awful, completely frigid with ceaseless rain, so after lunch we went to a shopping centre to see if I could scratch my retail itch. As I expected, there was no shopping to be done, but it was nice to be out and about anyway. For dinner we went to J's boss's house, where I unapologetically shoved the kids and an iPad into a corner of the living room so that I could be free to feast on yummy food and babble madly to everyone. All of us, kids included (they got cake and ice-cream and too much screen time), had a blast.
On Monday J and I had to run some errands together, but managed to wrangle a quick coffee date at a hipster barista bar near the train station. The sun was out and it was so nice to sit outdoors drinking good coffee and having adult conversation without having small sticky hands pulling at my arms. Later on we did some shopping and splurged a bit on champagne (got a nice birthday discount deal) and fancy skincare.
J also managed to snare two invites to the Geneva Auto Salon (the biggest car show in the world) so tomorrow we'll go to that, sans enfants again. I managed to get Bao's nursery to keep her for longer so that we don't have to rush back to pick her up. I must say I'm looking forward to just being with J without the kids more than the car show itself, but I've never been to a car show ever so it will be an experience.
Adding to that, there're some celebratory dinners and coffee dates with friends planned for the next couple of weeks, and also a quick trip to London with D when she arrives next week.
It's quite unlike me to be feeling so chipper but I'm milking this birthday lark all I can for now!
For what it's worth, for the first time in nearly five years I was in a pretty good mood about my birthday, looking forward to it, even. The Hill of Middle Age is definitely looming over me but I'm no longer feeling as panic-stricken as I was, sort of, about a couple of years ago. (Ask me again when I hit the big four-oh.)
As usual we didn't do anything fancy or extravagant, but happily, the treats have been nicely spaced out, stretching that sense of contentment for as long as it will hold. The Bun was counting down the hours (literally!) and that created an unexpected air of excitement. Alas, the children have no understanding of the concept of sleeping in, so on Sunday morning everyone piled into our bed at 7.30am (I guess I should be grateful it wasn't 6am) with birthday shouts and then quivered in so much gift-opening anticipation that there was no choice but to get up.
The Bun insisted that I did not lift a finger so J made breakfast and did the washing-up. Good boy. (The Bun, more than J.) I had contemplated going to the nice cafe in our neighbourhood for breakfast but figured it would make me yell at the kids, as I inevitably do whenever we dine out, and so elected to stay at home eating toast in my pyjamas and reading peacefully at the breakfast table.
The peace didn't last long as the children then insisted I open my gifts. They were: a pair of rose gold earring studs, a bar of posh chocolate, and a lovely bag of tea leaves from Whittard. Nicely done, and I'm patting myself on the back for dropping (not so subtle) hints at The Bun during our nightly bedtime snuggle. The kid also remembered that I prefer dark chocolate and picked the right percentage. There's hardly any left because we all have been nibbling at it after dinner! Also, J actually baked my cake (full disclosure: premix was used) which turned out pretty good, but perhaps that was because I stuck my nose in and insisted that the cake was done even though the instructions had said to bake it for a further ten minutes.
We had dimsum for lunch and to my delight the endless drizzle that had been going on for the past few days turned into snow. None of it stuck but it is so much more fun walking through snow, compared to rain. We came home and I attempted to nap, but these plans were foiled by the kids, who wanted me to do a treasure hunt (looking for coins hidden around the apartment, complete with map drawn by The Bun), and then performed what seemed like an endless song-and-dance routine that (sorry kids) got old around the three minute mark. I was in a food coma and I just wanted to sleep, so eventually J and I threw them out of our room, shut the door, and left them to their own devices.
We had planned to go out for fondue for dinner, but I was too full and also too lazy to do any cooking, so J picked up a couple of pizzas and that rounded off our day. It doesn't sound like much, but I had a good day!
_________________
Other nice things:
The day before was Saturday, so we went out for burgers at The Hamburger Foundation, which is now my go-to place for good burgers. (I also like Inglewood but THF is much closer to where we live.) The weather was awful, completely frigid with ceaseless rain, so after lunch we went to a shopping centre to see if I could scratch my retail itch. As I expected, there was no shopping to be done, but it was nice to be out and about anyway. For dinner we went to J's boss's house, where I unapologetically shoved the kids and an iPad into a corner of the living room so that I could be free to feast on yummy food and babble madly to everyone. All of us, kids included (they got cake and ice-cream and too much screen time), had a blast.
On Monday J and I had to run some errands together, but managed to wrangle a quick coffee date at a hipster barista bar near the train station. The sun was out and it was so nice to sit outdoors drinking good coffee and having adult conversation without having small sticky hands pulling at my arms. Later on we did some shopping and splurged a bit on champagne (got a nice birthday discount deal) and fancy skincare.
J also managed to snare two invites to the Geneva Auto Salon (the biggest car show in the world) so tomorrow we'll go to that, sans enfants again. I managed to get Bao's nursery to keep her for longer so that we don't have to rush back to pick her up. I must say I'm looking forward to just being with J without the kids more than the car show itself, but I've never been to a car show ever so it will be an experience.
Adding to that, there're some celebratory dinners and coffee dates with friends planned for the next couple of weeks, and also a quick trip to London with D when she arrives next week.
It's quite unlike me to be feeling so chipper but I'm milking this birthday lark all I can for now!