The "I" Birthday Cake
Crepe Making is a very precise activity - not to be easily messed with.
First of all, thank you to all of you for the warm birthday wishes that you sent my way. My day started off before it even started with a late night phone call from Sean wishing me a happy birthday. It took off from there with phone calls from Norway and home, and emails from around the world. The world feels incredibly small these days, and it is so strange to think even when I am half-way around the world, I can still video chat with my parents, or get birthday messages from people currently in various corners of the world. I feel so lucky to have such incredible friends and friendships!
When away from home, special days (such as one's birthday) in theory can be difficult as there tends to be tradition, memories and certain people that you regularly spend the day with. Fortunately, (as demonstrated this past week when I was not..so..well), I have been lucky enough to make some new and phenomenal friends here in Cambridge as well who were more than eager to celebrate my birthday in ways that were about 99% focused on food consumption.
My first surprise was when I went to my security seminar. A dear friend presented me with a pink and white cupcake from what is considered the best bakery (or at least cupcake shop) in town. Not sure it holds a candle to Georgetown Cupcake (let's be honest, nothing does), but it was such a surprise, especially considering cupcakes are really not much of a British thing.
He simply said to me, "Its a cupcake! Americans like cupcakes, right?! Happy Birthday!"
Pink Cupcake!
About an hour and a half later a friend from church found me in the Graduate Union and demanded I accompany him for half an hour. He led me to Fitzbillies (the other best bakery in town), and bought me a Chelsea Bun. You can imagine at this point I was already feeling pretty overwhelmed with sugar (But how does one say no?!)
Immediately following the chelsea bun excursion, I met up with some of the housemates for the evening celebration. Iain made phenomenal risotto with smoked salmon and Emily and Rich worked hard during the day to make a double chocolate cake! We all had a nice time just sitting around and enjoying our meal and then we had some additional people over for cake.
It was a low-key day, yet still full of surprises... and some good laughs.
Iain 1 and Ian 2 (who planned my birthday celebration)
Rich and Emily - Epic Cake Bakers!!
The point at which I was required to give a speech.. standing on the chair.
The calorie count did not end there however! Yesterday, Chloe and I partook in part two of the "cookie/crepe echange" and I learned how to make real french crepes, including flipping them in professional french chef style. (Ok, admitted, they are about the same as Norwegian pancakes). We had them with chestnut preserve jam (Delicious), bananas, chocolate and yes.. let's just say the fasting has commenced today.
The Crepes!
Chloe got the flipping technique down!
All in all, credit goes to all of my friends who helped me celebrate the fact that I am now.. a little bit older.
No comments:
Post a Comment