A Perfect Birthday!

Let me start by saying a warm & heartfelt ‘Thank-You’ to all my friends and family for their warm wishes and love 🙂 I had a truly smashing B’Day! It’s Monday and I’m rather exhausted as is wont after a bout of prolonged euphoria!

I was overwhelmed by all the wishes I received through modern media…my FB wall was flooded with messages starting from the night before; my Gmail Inbox had more than a few e-greetings; and my phone rang pretty much non-stop the whole day!! Made me feel very important and special and happy 🙂 Somewhere in the little traditional corner of my heart though, I still miss the give and take of greeting cards by snail mail! With the advent of the Internet…letter writing and card-giving are fast becoming obsolete (well, in my life they are!), and I used to enjoy both. Now it’s just not practical. No, that’s actually untrue! It’s just that I’ve chosen what I perceive is the easier option, helped along by the fact that the cards I truly like are atrociously priced and so is postage! I don’t often feel overly guilty about my choice though, given the fact that most cards will end up as fodder for the recycle bins (unless they are really special), or lie forgotten in dusty storage boxes in basements and attics, or just get lost in the general clutter of homes. But every once in a while (generally during a clean-up), I’ll come across cards I saved and savor the unexpected trip down memory-lane 🙂 That’s rather hard to do with an e-greeting that will be deleted from the system after 3 months, whether or not you’ve viewed it! These days the only things I receive by snail mail are bills and wedding invites (this last only since I’ve come to Goa!). But I digress…wishes from all quarters are very welcome and I was duly thrilled 🙂

After 2 continuous hours of the phone glued to my ear, I finally escaped long enough to shower and go out to lunch with hubby. But not before a fabulous surprise in the form a much coveted B’day gift…the Nikon D 90!! While still on the phone…hubby guided me to the living room where reposing on the sofa was this large box with the picture of a camera, not just any camera…the camera that I had lusted after for a year…and there it was, sitting quietly on my sofa!! I just stared rather stupidly open-mouthed, until it finally sank in!! When I opened the box, there was another surprise…it was EMPTY!! Uh huh!! Hubby has a weirdly misplaced sense of humor don’t you think? I asked him where it was, the camera, and he just kept grinning like the Cheshire Cat, until I swear I was vacillating between a strong desire to hit him on his silly smiling head and apprehension about the very existence of the damn thing! Between phone calls, I couldn’t look for it, which made matters worse, until he finally revealed it, carefully concealed under a pile of smelly laundry!! That’s hubby 😉 Sweet, weird, and at the moment, very much in my good books 😛 Love you darling! (I know you’re blushing as you read this ;-)) More camera posts are now inevitable, coz it’s a seriously mean machine and I’m looking forward to getting friendly with it 🙂

Lunch was at Azur, the lounge in the Marriott. It has splendid views of the Arabian Sea and they serve snacks, sandwiches and crepes and have a good bar – the perfect combination for Birthday lunch! We had margaritas and crepes and some chicken kebabs and mushroom starters that were out of this world!! A languid lunch that I enjoyed more because of the private time it offered hubby and I, so we could catch up with everything that’s been going on, which is a lot. Then back home and a cozy Saturday Siesta, before a Karaoke evening with the family!

My Cointreau Cake...alcohol everywhere 😉

 

I was never a fan of Karaoke in the nineties when it became the rage all over, with Karaoke pubs and bars popping up all over the place. It always seemed to me to encourage any body who could read to stand up and sing!! Note I said ‘read’ not ‘sing’. Most dinner buffets were accompanied (or should I say interrupted), by tone-deaf people attempting their favorite songs way out of their league, unfortunately for us hapless listeners!! Many people seemed to find it funny, not me! Listening to out of tune singers is not high on my to-do list 😛 I was thankful when the initial craze vanished, only to reappear when I wasn’t looking! This time though it seems more subdued and having a cousin who is a kick-ass singer of Bollywood oldies, is an added incentive. I’m now a convert, an official FAN, much to the horror of said cousin’s sisters, who are not 😉 We spent the evening, being serenaded by K, drinking copious quantities of alcohol and gorging on great food 🙂 Ishaan for his part, stuffed himself with salted cashew nuts until we were all convinced he would puke!

The best part of the evening – most definitely dancing the waltz with my boy 🙂 One tiny hand clinging to my neck, the other nestled in my hand, cheek to cheek, while K crooned an old Bollywood favorite…Perfecto!

Happy Family!

Have A Good Week, People 🙂