A Birthday in Three Stages

First of all, a heartfelt thankyou to everyone who so kindly thought of me on my birthday! All your messages were very welcome and appreciated. If it had been possible, I would have asked everyone over to my place to join in the celebration(s) :-)

My birthday started with plenty of sun and a text message from a friend in Singapur at 6.38 in the morning - she was the first to wish me well.
From then on, the day was a never-ending stream of emails and text messages, with a few phone calls in between, and I felt immensely popular, enjoying all the attention :-D

Since I am between jobs (starting the new one on the 2nd of May), I had time to have my parents and my sister over for coffee and cake in the afternoon.
My mum made an apple cake and something that, strictly speaking, is not a cake, as it does not need baking, but a dessert: it is called "Kalter Hund" (cold dog) and consists of many layers of chocolate and bisquits. If anyone wants the recipe, I am happy to post it in a seperate entry. My parents also brought flowers, gifts and the 43 candles you can see in the picture!

Of course I did not manage to blow them all out at once, but I am not worried about that - one of my biggest wishes for this year, to find a better job, has already come true anyway :-)
We shared a bottle of Freixenet and the mood was, as you can see, very good!
In the evening, the second stage of my birthday celebration was held at the Irish Pub where I met with some friends. We took part in the pub quiz and it did not matter that this time, we did not win; it was still a fun night out.

Stage Three is planned for tomorrow night, when most of my (working!) friends have time... I will make pizza, and it will be very similar to the non-birthday do I had last year. I am already looking forward to it, and will be doing some shopping today and tomorrow to get everything ready.