Birthday!

My 37th Birthday came and went. Never really did a lot on my birthday until relatively recently. Three years ago I spent a week in New York, two years ago I went to Berlin, and last year I’d just switched jobs so it was a bit tricky to step away to go travelling. The whole “Stay at Home” thing obviously meant that this year’s one was going to be a quiet one.

The family got together on a Group FaceTime call for gift opening, which was a nice way to start off the day. Ended up with some new boxes for the window garden, some rather nice gins and a burger press. My sister had also sent a day or two before a “Lockdown Kit” from my favourite burger restaurant (Patty & Bun), and had sneakily arranged for a delivery from Crosstown Doughnuts.

I learned a lot from adding dark chocolate to a banana bread mixture, not least of which is the importance of adding some salt to balance out the bitterness. I went a little over the top in the evening by making a double-stacked “Smokey Robinson” from the aforementioned Lockdown Kit.

All the interactions with family, the little projects and the messages from folks actually made it feel like a pretty good day. The days are kinda bleeding into each other right now, and everything that had happened made it feel like it was actually a different and distinct day. I remain grateful to everyone who got in touch.

Into the 37th Year…

Since then, I’ve been throwing myself into various little projects to keep busy. The attempt to sow some chilli seeds failed because I’d over-watered it and the thing turned into a claggy mess. I’ve since set up a new tray with fresh seeds and things might turn out okay this time (remains to be seen).

Some other chillis I got for the new sowing attempt are now in the process of being sun dried – with a view to try making some chilli powder down the line. I’m even working on some pickled red onions, but I guess all that deserves its own update…