Wishing you a glorious birthday!

Have a great one! I look forward to your birthday report.

I wish you the best of birthdays!!! Have a wonderful day and yes, you must report back.

Nancy

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Colleen! Hope you have the best day ever!

Sally

Happy Birthday, Colleen!

I miss you here, come back and let us know what you are up too.

I have a bag of Meyer lemons and I'll be making your lemon curd soon.

Wishing you a wonderful year, Lee

Birthday greetings from Lars

Happy Birthday....is it still your birthday or was that yesterday....or perhaps tomorrow?
Linda C

Happy birthday, Colleen!

Eileen

Thank you everyone! I had a glorious birthday. Went down to the city with DH who noodled around in a hardware store for an hour while I had a massage :-) Then off for lunch at a funky cafe which is all decorated with old mismatched 40s-50s-60s laminex topped kitchen tables and odd similar era chairs; the lights hang from random lengths of electric cable and are made of an assortment of old jars in different sizes and shapes with different size/shaped light bulbs. The food was really good, I had a lentil burger with rocket, haloumi, pumpkin and chilli jam on a brioche; DH had a killer meatloaf with smoked bacon ground in with the meat and wrapped in bacon for a really smoky flavour. On the way back to the car we stopped at a bakery for pastries for breakfast and a rosemary and olive wholemeal loaf. Then off to the movies.
The movies were a hoot (MIB3, very funny) because the ticket seller told us, "We have assigned seats, do you want to sit in the front, middle or back?" Opting for middle we were handed our tickets with the admonition to sit in the correct ones, H15 and 16. Got into the theatre and we were the only ones there! Before the movie started two more people came in, one sitting down the front and the other just behind us. We all agreed the assigned seating idea was silly as we were all mature adults who could surely find suitable seats in a 400-seat cinema without knife fights in the aisles :-)
Tried visiting DH's elderly uncle who we had just found out was in hospital with pleurisy and some complications as a result, but he had just been taken off for some tests before we arrived, so on the way out we gave our paid for parking ticket to another elderly man who had just arrived (and was visiting the hospice as it turned out, so I hope that was a small lift for his day).
To kill a little time we dropped into a specialist chocolaterie for hot chocolate (made with steamed milk and Belgian chocolate, mmmmm) and shared a piece of tiramisu cake (the tiramisu flavours but made with layers of sponge cake instead of fingers).
Then a visit to BIL and SIL and nephew, who is now 19 months old and full of beans. He's a real sweetie.
Rounded up with dinner at a recommended Lebanese restaurants, which had some ups and downs but ended well. When we arrived about 20 minutes early, we were asked if we minded waiting outside as they were waiting for the table to be free (though there was an empty table for to up in the corner). Well, we did mind as it's turning winter here and was very cold outside and starting to rain, so instead we went to a nearby bookshop and spotted several new books for the wish lists :-) When we got back at the appointed time, we were shown to the same table in the corner that had been empty 20 minutes before. Hmm. After we ordered they brought out a basket of warm, really thin and yummy lebanese breads, with a dip which was hard to nail but I think it was a skordalia type dip that was whipped very light and fluffy, with some slivers of cornichons. Sounds like a weird combination but it worked really well. We ordered a dish to share for our starter, which was fried cauliflower with a lemon-tahini sauce, really tasty and a winner. So we were pretty happy despite the shaky start. Then the mains came out. What a let down. I had kibbeh with salad- the kibbeh was really bland and needed salt and pepper to taste of anything and was quite oily, and DH's chicken and rice tasted like plain boiled rice with plain boiled chicken, no seasoning. My "salad" was just some chopped cos leaves with three slices of cucumber and two tomato wedges, though the dressing was tasty. I didn't finish my kibbeh and DH barely touched his chicken before abandoning it. The owner came out and asked if there was a problem. DH explained that we hadn't cared for the mains, and thought they were pretty tasteless and disappointing. At first the owner tried to suggest we weren't experienced with Lebanese food and so had chosen "safe" options which were destined to be bland, but we explained that we were quite conversant with Lebanese and other ethnic foods (my Lebanese former boss made great kibbeh, which is why I ordered it). So he changed tack and said, I'll bring you something else. He came back a few minutes later with plates of some lamb and some chicken kebabs, and another plate with hoummous and baba ganoush. What a contrast! You wouldn't believe they were from the same kitchen. Delicious, we'll definitely be back for those. We weren't charged for the extra food, though we would have been happy to pay for it as it was so good, so all ended well. A good example of how to turn around a bad experience, from both perspectives. I think if DH had just launched into an attack we wouldn't have gotten anywhere, while if the owner hadn't replaced the food we would have written a fairly scathing review on our local online restaurant review site, so it was win-win.
Then home to our cat, who was so happy to see us she purred (this is a rare thing for her :-) ).
All in all a very good day!

Sounds like an awesome day! Sending my best wishes across the equater and international date line!

Glad you had a happy birthday!

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

What a wonderful way to celebrate. Hope the rest of your day is just as nice. Happy Birthday Colleen.

~Ann

What a nice & very full celebration, Colleen. Warm wishes for a great year!

Kathleen

You do have most interesting birthday celebrations, Colleen. Thanks for sharing your day with us. A very Happy Birthday to you!

jude

Oh, Happy, Happy Birthday, Colleen, it sounds like you had an absolutely lovely day.

Ashley says to say hello and wish a happy birthday to her "singing birthday twin", LOL.

Annie

All in all a very good day!

And hopefully many more to come. Happy Birthday!

Colleen, I'm so glad you had such a great birthday. Happy Birthday swap partner!!

Gosh Annie, how old is my birthday twin now-22? How time flies! This birthday kind of snuck up on me, I had no real plans and when anyone asked me "what do you want to do for your birthday I could only come up with, "Oh, I dunno.........."

Sounds like you enjoyed your day to the fullest, Colleen! Wishing you many, many more!

Linda