Birthday Fun

Many thanks to everyone who got me a card or present for my birthday. My favourite was a new compact panasonic camera with a zoom lens and 6MP of resolution. You may see an improvent in the pictures on the blog from now on! I worked until 6pm on Friday, my birthday, then Leila came round to babysit Emma. We headed off at 7.15pm and Helen treated me to a meal at Fishers Restaurant in Clifton. The menu is 90% seafood which isn't Helen's cup of tea at all, so it was an act of self sacrifice, although she found some good options that she enjoyed. I felt a little silly photographing the food as it arrived, but it did look SO good and I had my new camera to play with too! Oysters with tabasco and paprika are highly recommended by the way!



Helen was a little anxious to hear that the babysitting was going OK. She rang home to find that Emma hadn't woken once! We got back after 10pm just as Emma was waking up. Such a relief as it was the first time we'd left her since August.

My other gifts included lots of books which I shall enjoy reading in Ireland next week. We fly on Monday from Stanstead to Kerry to spend a week with Helen, baby Alexander and Steve in his family's holiday cottage. We can't wait - we feel due a break! Mum gave me a gorgeous Kate Good pottery clock which I shall have to photo and include in the blog. She's a Tisbury potter with a very distinct attractive style.

On Saturday after finishing at work for my week's holiday I was invited to Rob and Leila's who had got some lovely quiche from the Continental Market that was in Clevedon. Helen had roasted some vegetables that we needed to use up, then made them into a delicious soup. Rob tried out some different settings on the new camera, including a rapid setting that takes a series of photos.




On Saturday evening Helen and I were treated to an evening at a Divine Comedy concert in Bristol University. We miraculously found parking quite close on the street. Neil Hannon and his band were fantastic. They alternated their classics with newer material and were on really good form. It was the first performance of a new tour.
I'll put a link here to some video I shot of a cover they did of a Prince song.

Today's been a lazier day of lying in, reading the paper, doing some bottling of elderberry wine and giving Emma a bath after she smeared apple and rice all over herself. She's been really taking to solids this week and it's been helping her sleeping. On Thursday and Friday she went down at 7pm, woke at 11pm for a feed as we went to bed, then woke up again just before 6am giving us a pretty good night's sleep. Happy Birthday indeed!