I like to think I am blessed with some of the most lovely friends in the world.
In what I like to see as a nod towards my appreciation for order, two of them were considerate enough to be born on consecutive days, just at the end of the month of March. Last year, we inaugurated a tradition of celebration this, and (logically) nicknamed the day ‘Dual Birthday’.
Instead of packing the day with zany exploits this year, I decided to go with a more relaxed affair. So the day began with the instruction for my two lovely friends to meet for brunch at my house (an instruction they managed skillfully). I had spent the week cooking and baking (much to the consternation of the builders who have been amending our house this week… they were much saddened by the enticing aromas that they never got to taste!).
I made butternut squash soup, and potato and bacon salad, and apricot crumble cake, and chocolate tiffin. Then there was spinach and ricotta flamme, pigs in blankets, yoghurt & honey, pancakes & maple syrup, crisps and multitudinous other goodies.
My room was set up as Cafe Pterodactyl, with placemats which had a photo of each of our heads stuck onto a pterodactyl body. I liked that touch. There was also an ambient background of Take That playing, to drown out the intermittent African drumming from my neighbour!
I regaled my lovely friends with pressies, including teabags and star-shaped dangling decorations. We also had a mug each with some selected photos of us from the past year super-imposed on them, and a hoodie bearing the DB09 logo, and with each of our names on the back (you can see them in all their glory in the above photo). It was much fun wandering round London later, wearing these to boldly advertise the day.
After we had eaten, we spent some time engaging in some creative prayer excercises. I couldn’t have picked better people to share this with. Funniest moment of the afternoon had to be one of my lovely friends electrocuting herself on my slightly dodgy laptop wire – I know that it is near-fatal to touch to the two ends of the exposed wires together, unfortunately I didn’t manage to communicate this to said friend, and the resulting crackle, blue flash, and minor burn provided us all with merriment for the rest of the day. Second funniest moment had to be when she decided her life was more important than trying to extricate music from my lethal laptop, and ‘treated’ us to the music on her phone… I will be loyal and not share my opinion of said music!!
After we had set the world to rights some more, we headed out to the beauteous location of a local park, where Hugo ran wild, terrorising the residents, and we lay on the grass enjoying the sunshine. We ate chocolate birthday cake bedecked with raspberries, and yummy cupcakes too. Then we took a bundle of photos, my favourite being the one above, where we had to balance my camera on top of a precarious pile of bags and tupperware to create a tripod. (I may look like I’m smiling, but inside I’m like ‘Eeek, my camera is going to plumment to his death at any moment).
Posing done, we jumped aboard some of London’s finest public transport, and headed to a restaurant near my favourite station in the world. Bumbles, on Buckingham Palace Road, offered a fair selection for a bargainous price (Even if they did try to bump up said price with some intriguing supplements). I enjoyed Smoked chicken and pork salad, followed by fish and triple cooked chips, followed by lemon tart. Lovely friends enjoyed french onion soup, followed by Pork rib with caponata and chips (chips that initially didn’t appear and had to be wrangled for. I think our “It says it comes with chips on the menu” followed by their “It doesn’t come with chips tonight.” was another of those ‘quote of the day’ moments) followed by lemon tart and ice cream respectively.
After this grand fayre, we wandered lesuirely back to Victoria, where one lovely friend jumped on a train homewards. Then other lovely friend and I found a bus that took us back to my house, where we reminisced on the joys and celebrations of the day.
I love my friends, and I loved the chance to again be able to celebrate who they are and what they mean to me. I loved doing fun stuff, but I also loved it that this year we could mix that in with some more serious, meaningful stuff. I guess you know relationships are deep when there is no need to fill every minute with hilarity.
Roll on DB10 I say!!!
