Another birthday...

I was reading some of my older posts that I wrote last year this time, and realised that I have been a bit of a slacker in terms of updating my blog entries this month (or the last, and the one before that). I have therefore 'forced' myself to write something... actually I have got lots to share of my activities of late but have not found time and motivation to do so...

I recently celebrated another birthday (I know, where did the time go?!) and it was a lovely, lovely birthday with me being spoilt rotten the entire day, and I had a wonderful birthday, despite the fact that I was so full of cold and most of the things I ate tasted of nothing.

The day started with a lovely cake made by Steve -- a Red Velvet Chocolate Cake decorated with Milky Buttons which I lovee.... ignore the 'smudges' on the cake because I had to digitally blank out the pet name that he calls me by, which he had put on the cake ...

My lovely, lovely bf also made me my favourite breakfast, with an added 'kick' to it -- French Toast made with Thick Farm House Bread, sprinkled with icing sugar and garnished with Caramelised Banana on the side... did I hear you go, ummmmmmm..... it was YUMMY indeed.

While I was having breakfast I got to open some presents and this year, Steve made me a very special birthday present that nearly, very nearly brought tears to my eyes...

He had compiled all the various pictures we took during our holidays in the 5 years we've been together (6 according to me and 5 according to him, DON'T ASK !) and made it into an album with funny captions and it was so beautiful.

Apart from that he also got me bits and pieces for my sewing hobby and this I found particularly cute and interesting...

What do you think it is? It's actually a tape measure !! Haha and I had to be shown how to use it. You pull the bee's tail and the tape comes out from there and press the bee's stomach and the tape retracts itself... I had a real good laugh playing with it. What you see in the background also Season 1 and 2 of 'Arrested Development', which I've been telling him about. I used to enjoy watching them when I was back in Miri. So now that he's got me the DVD box sets we can watch them together. There were also other bits and pieces that he'd got me and a nice, warm winter jacket from his dad.

Now what's interesting this year, is that I've also received some lovely presents from my non-blood-related 'sisters' in the UK -- Bea and Fely, which made my birthday this year extra, extra special :)

 A pair of lovely earrings lovingly handmade by Bea...

 

A musical pendant with a velvety ribbon that makes a lovely necklace..

This is my favourite !! A beautifully made bracelet in my favourite colours and the picture really doesn't do it much justice because it is simply gorgeous. Bea has set up her own online shop on Coriandr and check out her other stuff too !!

From Fely in Eastbourne, I received a beautiful selection of fat-quarters in pastel colours, and I have already thought of so many things I can make out of them !!

Don't you just love the colours? It's great to have a sewing buddy!!

When I got into the work the next day, there were more presents waiting for me !! Some of my lovely colleagues have got me a goodie bag of birthday presents, and there was a lovely  mirror, and a set of body butter and shower gel and a really nice tin for teabags and the best thing of all, there were milky bar chocolates in the tin !! How cool is that?!

This is the mirror that my DSC has got me from the Russell Cotes Musuem in Bournemouth.

And up till last night, I was still opening late presents from friends --  more milky bar chocolate and the millennium trilogy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I shall enjoy this long weekend when I'm away in Cornwall (another birthday treat from the bf)!!!

All in all, another fabulous birthday to remember ...

And it was a success...

If you know me at all, I don't cook, bake or vacuum.

Yesterday, I did two of the above mentioned, because I wanted to make Steve's birthday special. I took half a day off work (and Steve didn't have a clue I was planning all this) and decided to bake a surprise birthday cake, and to cook a special birthday dinner. So, with the help and moral support from dearest Fely, I embarked on this challenge (I don't care what you think, it is a challenge to me)

After rushing around Sainsbury's grabbing all the ingredients I needed, I came home and happily laid out all the ingredients ready to start because I knew I needed all the time in the world for everything to go according to plan. ALAMAK, then I realised the Vanilla Extract that I had put in the shopping trolley must have fallen out before I got to the check out so I was missing the single most important ingredient !! So, I jumped in the car again, raced to Tesco, got my missing ingredient, and raced back. So now the picture is complete.

So I printed out the recipe from here and got started.

A good start?

It is surprising the number of oranges and lemons you need in order to generate a substantial amount of rind from them.

Kenwood chef working hard...

So far so good?

Cake finally in the oven. Unfortunately I was too eager to stick the cake batter in the oven so I forgot to take a picture of it before it went into the oven. I am not in the habit of licking cake batter, as you can see...

Fresh from the oven...

Cooling down...

After a layer of chocolate icing... Fely's expert recipe and opinion was a GREAT help... thanks hun...

At this stage, I started to panic a bit about running out of time and I started doing EVERYTHING all at once -- decorating the dining room, wrapping the presents, writing the card, dashing back into the kitchen to check on the icing to see if I could start writing on it...

And the finished product....I was told later on that decorating it with fresh orange segments, not a very good idea... but I thought they looked nice anyway....Notice the word 'Birthday' being shortened? By the time I had finished writing 'B' I knew I wouldn't have enough space to fit in 'irthday' in that tiny space... :P

 After the cake, I quickly cleared all the dishes away, getting rid of all the evidence of a cake being made, and got started with preparing dinner -- Shoulder of pork steaks marinated in black pepper and char siu sauce, and stir fried kai lan with mushrooms...

The birthday boy blowing his candles after dinner.... he was still wearing his chef trousers after a hard day's work...poor thing had to work on his birthday...

 As you can see the cake went down quite well so I took it as a sign that it must have been quite a success...

A special thanks to my dear, dear friend Fely who was there for me the whole time...