A Week of Celebrating

Not the whole week, but almost!

I turned 49 last Wednesday, and started off celebrating by meeting a group of friends - my pub quiz team - at the pub on Tuesday night. We had not been there in way too many months, and apart from having a lot of fun with the quiz, it was simply great to see them all and catch up in between answering questions.
And guess what - we and another team had the most points! It was a draw, so an extra question was asked, and we came second. Actually, we preferred that, as the first prize is a bottle of whiskey and the second a bottle of vodka. Whiskey is something I honestly can't drink; I suppose I am too weak. Vodka I can not drink on its own, either, but I do like vodka-based cocktails, and so my team mates made me take the bottle home. 

As it was only an hour or so until the start of my birthday, the landlord had a glass of champagne brought to me - it was a pleasant surprise and very kind of him!

On Wednesday, my sister and I both had taken the day off. We travelled to Karlsruhe, about 1 hour by train. We went to see an exhibition about pharaoh Ramses II. He was the longest-reigning of all the pharaohs (more than 60 years!), and the exhibition covered many aspects of his life and times. It was well presented, with just the right amount of text - not too much as to become boring or overwhelming, but still enough to give all relevant information. 

At the museum café, we stopped for coffee and cake before walking back to the train station.

Our ride in was around lunch time, so we snacked on sandwiches we had bought. It was nice and quiet on the train, just as I like it. Then the train stopped, and a group of young children with several teachers got on. You can see how the noise affected poor little me in the pictures my sister took with her phone :-D

I was back at the office on Thursday, where one of my customers gave me a box of rather luxurious chocolates and some other people came to my table in the canteen to shake hands and give me their best wishes - I felt like a VIP!
My boss (RJ) and I went for a quick after-work drink at the hotel bar next door before he gave me a lift home.

On Friday, I was in Ulm for a meeting with other data protection officers. It was a lot less boring than it sounds, and I always jump at the chance to go back to Ulm, where I spent such a good time in 2014 for my course for data protection officer.

Saturday was here with plenty of sunshine, and as soon as O.K. arrived at my place, we went out to have the first proper ice cream of this season:

Mine was with peanuts and bits of snickers, O.K.'s was decorated with hazelnuts and topped with Bailey's.
We had a very quick stroll in the palace grounds, where spring is in full swing - look at the wonderful tulips:

Back home, we did the last bits of party preparations, and shortly after 6:00, my first guests arrived. I had a wonderful party, lasting until around 3:00 am (actually, it would have been 2:00 am, but we had the change to summer time that night), with good drinks, excellent food (mostly prepared by my Mum), great presents and surrounded by the people that mean the most to me.

I have many more pictures to show and things to tell you, but right now, I don't have the time.