Friday

Happy Birthday S! It was a bit odd this morning waking up in bed next to S and not feeling like screaming - because she had suggested I would - for no other reason except that she was a year older than she was yesterday. I was (despite what she spent the day telling people - for effect) able to contain myself and, instead, wish her a Happy Birthday - hoping her ears were still young enough to hear what I was saying, or failing that, that her eyes were still young enough to lip read! But I'm being unnecessarily naughty now.

I think S had a good birthday. She had calls and messages from lots of folks and she said it was very nice to be remembered - especially as it was a BIG birthday. (Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne for as long as S has been alive. Quite an amazing thought!)

M surprised S when she Skyped for her birthday - and with instructions on how to find her birthday present. S was so stoked, and very touched - I don't know if she'd even considered that M might prepare something in advance especially as she had been so busy in the weeks in the lead-up to their departure to Russia. As they say in that song: That's what friends are for.

Pearl and S went for another walk today. As S said in correspondence, at least one of them is enjoying it. Pearl gets so excited when she knows she is going for a walk - even if it is just up to B's shed. And we get excited too because it's one less piece of dog business we have to attend to in the yard!

Pearl surprised me this afternoon though, because as we were walking back towards Latimers, I could see Ebony was out and I called out to Pearl "here ... here". I'm not sure if she knows/understands that instruction - but she came running back, and took up a position just near my left leg, but slightly behind, walking with me and I couldn't work out why she was doing this exactly - until it twigged that she may have heard "heel ... heel" - and that's what she was doing. Good Pearl.

I have been on the alert of late. I have seen several sticks shaped like snakes over the last couple of days and am concerned that it may be the universe preparing me for a sighting ... because we know from M's close encounter the other week when she was over near the mechanic ... it may be too cold for our reptilian friends, but not all if them have been told that!

L mowed today - I was quite envious and would have bolted out to do our yard except S and I are going out for dinner and I didn't want us to be late!

The venue was a surprise. S was thinking it would be Zen at The Big House since we were going in there to do an errand anyway - well, she was thinking it because that was what I had told her, but it actually wasn't. Then I told her we were going to the new Vietnamese restaurant in Broadbeach (called "That Vietnamese Place") that I had read about in Wednesday's food section in the Gold Coast Bulletin - and she was very excited - even telling Sy about it when she rang to wish S for her birthday! I almost felt guilty then when we walked up to Champagne - a French restaurant she had mentioned some time ago and said "Look here's that French restaurant ... and this is where we're going" (because I made up the whole Vietnamese Restaurant thing). On the drive in from Latimers she had asked me what I felt like eating - what was my favourite Vietnamese food - and I couldn't answer because I was too busy thinking about escargot, herb-encrusted lamb and flambed banana tarte tatin - because I had already looked up the Champagne's menu and decided on my dinner so I could stun her by being able to order within a minute of seeing the menu - rather than my usual having to send the wait staff away several times before I was even half way to being ready for ordering. I'm not sure if she was more stunned by that or that I had decided to have the snails - my very first time. I was resolute in that decision until after we had ordered and the waiter brought out a small fork and spoon for me - and, said S, they'll also bring out another tool a bit like a sewing unpicker so you can prise it out of the shell! What!?! I'm not that good with food where you can see what it was when it was not food yet! But, as it turns out, as we found out from our waiter afterwards, they had discontinued the snails in shells and now did snails sans shells - Australians, it turns out, are not that skilled in snail removal and there used to be snails/shells flying all over the restaurant, and even people who hadn't ordered snails would find them coming to their tables. "Incoming!" was how he put it!

Everything was magnificent - the company, the food, the service, the atmosphere (we could chat quite comfortably and hear each other) - all in all, a wonderful, special evening for S's (marking the day) birthday celebrations. It may be a hard act to follow come the actual celebrations in July!