Yesterday was my 29th birthday. I’m not the biggest fan of parties or celebrations, but my 29th has been a 3 day celebration and I have been reminded of how lucky I am to have such a fantastic family and so many amazing friends.

The birthday celebrations kicked off on Sunday, with most of the girls (unfortunately some weren’t able to make it) frocking up and heading out to Hadleys Hotel for High Tea. As my aunt Gerie shares the same birthday, this was a bit of a joint birthday event. It was lovely to sip cups of tea and nibble on a lovely selection of little cakes and other sweet things. It was really nice to sit down with so many friends and just relax and enjoy each others company. It was also really lovely to have an opportunity to wear a pretty frock. By the time I went home I was a very happy little duckie, with a belly full of sweets.

As it is tradition to bring something in to work on your birthday, I spent Sunday afternoon baking. I baked 36 cupcakes. With my late start on Monday morning, my friend Kat came over to help me ice all the cupcakes before heading to work. So my colleagues who work in the same area as I do, and my Computer Science students all got to enjoy vanilla cupcakes with pink icing, topped with a chocolate freckle.

Since the high tea was just for the ladies, I didn’t want to exclude my male friends, so a few people popped round on Monday night to wish me a happy day. We all sat around chatting, and enjoying a few nibbles. My friend Kat (who always sets out to spoil me rotten) made a chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache, so we all got a slice of rich, gooey chocolate cake & it was delicious!!!

Since I had 3/4 of a chocolate cake left over, I brought it in to work on Tuesday (my actual birthday) and again, the staff loved it!! A few of my colleagues had missed out on the cupcakes, so they got a chance to share in the birthday food. There wasn’t enough to go around to the class though. But out of guilt for giving one class of kids cupcakes, I had thought ahead and brought tim tams to share with my class on Tuesday.

Tuesdays are usually a very long workday for me, but we had Quality Assurance meetings with other teachers of our subject in the afternoon, so my evening class was cancelled and I got an early minute. Lucky for me, because I was exhausted and went home to have a nanna nap.

Another birthday tradition, is to go out for dinner with the family. So Mum, Pat, Anna and I headed out to Piccolo in North Hobart for an AMAZING meal!! We shared some entree’s: seared kingfish with fried octopus; and chilli crusted calamari with some salad. As a main I had ricotta gnocchi with Huon valley mushrooms and it was absolutely delicious! I also had a little taste of Pats suckling pig, Anna’s swimmer crab ravioli and Mums fish (can’t remember what type of fish it was). I was very impressed.

Once I finished up my meal, I said I could probably fit in dessert, but Anna quickly persuaded me that that was a bad idea. I had a sneaking suspicion that she had an ulterior motive.

So we thanked the staff for some lovely food and head back to Pat and Anna’s house for a cup of tea (the new tea that P+A got me for my birthday: Madagascan Vanilla). I sat down to drink my tea when Anna brought out the birthday hat and plopped it on my head. The next thing you know, Pat and Anna came out with a HUGE cake. It was a Ben Lomond cake, which had the ski tow Giblin running up it and a skier at the top about to zooof down the slope! This cake was also a chocolate cake, with a buttercream icing and a few extra lollies sprinkled about. Served with ice cream, it was a fantastic way to end my birthday!!!

And if you hadn’t already guessed it, there is plenty left over, so my colleagues will once again benefit from my birthday as we will have had pre-birthday cupcakes, birthday cake and post-birthday cake!!!!

A birthday observation…almost all of my birthday cards have butterflies on them, are butterflies ‘in’ at the moment?

So thanks to everyone for all the lovely facebook messages, text messages, visits, hugs, cakes and presents. I have had an AMAZING 3 day birthday!!! (thank goodness theres a few weeks before the next birthday, I don’t think I can possibly eat any more cake!)