Well I’m officially a year older and wiser since last writing. I’m not going to lie, a British birthday was something I dreaded. To me birthdays are spent with family, sitting on Mum and Dad’s bed opening presents, demanding and never receiving the pointe shoe cake from the AWW cake cookbook (edition 2) and getting my 17 or so relatives over for an afternoon tea to celebrate. I knew that wasn’t going to happen this year. But you know what? It was actually a lovely, lovely day – I felt surrounded by love and well wishes from both sides of the world. In fact, it was the nicest birthday I’ve had in a while!
My team at work is (are? man I can never get that right!) genuinely delightful – they “love” my Aussie accent, the way I say en-hatch-ess (NHS), my “how are you going” and my “under the pump”. Many of them have travelled around Australia so we reminisce about Lucas’ Paw Paw Ointment, Tim Tams and Caramello Koalas, oh and the sun.
After an early morning FaceTime with my parents and grandparents, and a truckload of Facebook birthday wishes (aww shucks guys!) I had a dream commute to the office. Once at my desk, I was greeted by a bunch of tulips and wishes of a “bonza” and ‘ripper’ day. Things were off to a good start!
A little later I received an email from reception that I had a delivery to collect – some stunning flowers from my family! I’m both shocked and impressed with my parents’ sleuthing efforts. I had a long lunch in the park with FaceTime company from my aunt and uncle, and sister.
Later on that afternoon, my team disappeared and my boss invited me (the non-tea drinker … oh my god, they’re obsessed with tea here … it could be a whole blog post in itself!!!!) into the kitchen for a cup of tea. In the kitchen I was greeted by the team for what we call “cake and stare” which is quite possibly the most brilliant description of an office celebration. They had signed a card for me and even got me a gift voucher from MAC. Suffice to say I was feeling a little special!
The commute home was not as dreamy as my commute to work. The Picadilly line had been closed for part of the day due to a lack of trains (another poor, poor excuse from TfL) so peak hour tubes were running every 15 minutes or so. Two bunches of flowers in tow, I was getting on a tube – I had a birthday dinner to get to!
My dear friend, Britt, had organised a special dinner for me with the instructions “meet me at High St Kensington at 6:15”. It may have been 6:30, but I got there. A few minutes’ walk and we had reached our surprise destination – Richard Branson’s rooftop restaurant – Babylon. What a treat! I had pomegranate lamb, served on a bed of barley and roast cauliflower, while Britt had a seafood platter. A little while later Britt ducked to the “bathroom” (on a side note, the bathroom had an aquarium in it), and about 20 minutes later a candled cake appeared. This was in addition to the cake and candles Britt stealthy brought in her handbag in case they couldn’t assist with her wishes… what a friend!
As our wonderful dinner drew to a close, I was in a hurry to get home – I had a 7:40am flight to Florence the next day. We prematurely ordered an uber (so premature that we hadn’t even requested the bill). He was the loveliest uber ever, waiting 10 minutes for us to make our way to the car, wishing me a happy birthday and insisting that we have a “party in the car”. My present was a 5 star rating … on Britt’s account haha.
Upon my arrival home, one of my housemates, Fergus greeted me with a bright bunch of flowers. Fleur (my other housemate) is actually in Brisbane for work at the moment. She gets back on Wednesday, and is playing Birthday Santa Claus (and best housemate ever!), saving my parents about $250 in present postage. I subtly suggested they spend that extra money on an extra present 😉
Before packing my suitcase and heading to bed, I challenged Fergus to keep my three bunches of flowers alive (I’ve seen his plant though, so wasn’t hopeful…). I’ve just arrived home from Italy and am happy to report all three bunches are alive and kicking. Thanks Fergus – tied best housemate ever!
Happy Birthday to me… I think 26 is going to be a good one, thank you to everyone who made a special effort to make sure it started that way!
Bridgette Aboard 