I was woken up at 7:30 am yesterday morning by a phone call (when one has the luxury of staying 15 min away from work by foot, one can indulge in one's beauty sleep until 8 :D !) and it was one of those rare occasions when I din't mind answering the phone in a sleepy groggy voice.... it was my dearest friend calling me to wish me on my b'day (thank you, thank you readers, for your belated wishes).
Then came the phone call of the day - Ashok saying he is at the airport and will be home in an hour. It is not convenient when one's b'day falls exactly in the middle of a working week but like Ashok says, something simple like this is not going to deter him :) ! At 4, I was ready to walk home in the snow and since the sun slightly came out, we decided to go for a run. We were about a km away from the house when it began snowing again. Since we were well dressed to combat it, we did continue and were back home after 1.5hrs, wet but not cold (running does help combat the weather :D)
After the regular what did you buy, what are you going to do questions, started the late-twenties girly discussion of how we are growing up, how we are facing more and more responsibilities (:D) and when the call was over, I was awake and ready for the day. I opened the curtains while sipping my coffee and was greeted with snow flakes !! This is the first time I was seeing snow on my b'day, couldn't believe my own eyes !! October is when you expect the leaves to change color and get chilly but not snow and temperatures below zero (if only we left Nature alone, she would leave us in peace too !)
I then switched on my laptop getting ready for the next rarity for the day - more personal emails than forwards and spam. When I clicked on some of the e-cards I was thinking about how I used to have atleast 20 e-cards and how many people would end up sending the same e-card (remember the times sifting through the animated cards in 123greetings or the extremely real lakeview cards ?).....we have evolved past that, atleast most of us have and seeing the couple of e-cards made me feel like I was in school :D
Appas and ammas had already called the previous day at midnight in India and obviously had showered upon me more blessings and wishes than I can handle (and since my wedding, this is inevitably always followed by a subtle hint of asking me to think about starting a family). Ashok Appa always insists on me following the age-old tradition of wearing a new dress on my b'day. Well...I mostly did, I wore my brand new winter jacket (that I had reserved for december) to work !
On my way to work, I was checking all the sms wishes and taking pity on my fingers, I decided to reply by email. There is a colleague of mine, who plays amma's role for me in Germany and she gave me a big hug and some flowers. We usually have a cake party at 3 pm when someone has a b'day and I usually make it a samosa and lassi party :D but this year the party has to wait as I have another huge reason for celebration coming up (Keep guessing!). The phone calls went on - wishes from cousins, friends....thanks to my patient colleague who shares the office with me (he would simply grin everytime I spoke in Tamil since he knows about me and my family)
Then came the phone call of the day - Ashok saying he is at the airport and will be home in an hour. It is not convenient when one's b'day falls exactly in the middle of a working week but like Ashok says, something simple like this is not going to deter him :) ! At 4, I was ready to walk home in the snow and since the sun slightly came out, we decided to go for a run. We were about a km away from the house when it began snowing again. Since we were well dressed to combat it, we did continue and were back home after 1.5hrs, wet but not cold (running does help combat the weather :D)
In less than an hour, Ashok took me out to dinner to a vegetarian restaurant, Prinz Myshkin - my first time in 6 years in an all-vegetarian restaurant in Europe. Although the name of the restaurant sounds Russian, the menu had Indian and Italian dishes and vegetarian sushi. The restaurant had excellent reviews online but I thought there was nothing exceptional about it except for the fact that they were purely vegetarian and cooked with no preservatives/chemical additives. The food was decent but was exhorbitantly priced (too late to worry about prices).
I had Potato-Zuchini-truffel au gratin (in simple english it refers to potatoes, zuchini, cheese, a bit of spice cooked in an oven slowly for a really long time) with honey and nuts sauce. Ashok opted for a Indian thali just to see how well they do it and that was a mistake. The thali was good but there was nothing Indian about it except for the names. It was nearly bland and I believe the Chef has a problem of understanding that spices in Indian dishes should be cooked and not just sprinkled upon vegetables like pepper.
I loved the desserts though. I had the Crème Brûlée (French dessert - custard with a caramel layer) and the sugar was caramelised at the table :D) while Ashok had the delicious Apfelstrudel (apple pie) with vanilla icecream.
We were so full and the night was so crisp (the snow had disappeared as fast as it had come down) that we decided to walk a good stretch by getting off the tram a couple of stops before our destination. By the time we got home, we knew we were still too energised to go to bed; so we stayed up and watched 'Newyork' - a brilliant must-watch movie (will write about it in my next post).
It was a good day although I realise that the excitement of a birthday is gradually waning (well, am growing up :D) and I thought it was taking a morbid (but practical) turn when I reviewed the life insurance I had and decided to get some more. I have a long due post about this topic too (too many drafts, too few posts!)
I had a fun-filled interesting day (even got a tamil b'day wish from a non-tamil friend - பிரண்ட நாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள் ...ROFL!) and I hope I have a year much like it too :)
