Jan's Birthday Blog

The last post contained a lot of waffle about me and my new job, but not so much about the other half of this lovely equation - Mr Jan.  Or should I say, Mr OLD Jan now.  He has just celebrated his cake day here in Aus and suffice to say it was rather ... uneventful.  Usually we make a bit of a fuss of birthdays - we set up a "birthday table" in the morning, which involves decorating the dining table with flowers, chocolates, pressies, cards, candles and anything else inventive we can think of.  Also a cake.  A cake is very important.  Coffee and birthday cake for breakfast is a bit of a birthday tradition.  Yes, of course it means you head off to work with your insides churning, wondering whether you will make it to the next loo before your stomach gives up trying to hold in chocolate and caffeine instead of the usual cornflakes and juice.  But you know, that's part of the charm.

Anyway, this year, I have been awful and got Jan no cake and no pressies - trying to convince him that a whole new life in another country is the best present ever.  He maintains it's no iPad mini or Hero3 Black Edition, but heck, you can't please all the people all the time...  The furthest the birthday table got was a small disco ball I stole from a cocktail we drank at the weekend and my laptop with an open document saying "Happy birthday Jan" on it.  In colours he dislikes.

No, seriously he has been very lovely about the fact his birthday has been a bit of a non-event.  We did go for a delicious meal in the evening at a Japanese restaurant where we ate all manner of dead fish and mammals (raw and cooked) and drank Sake.  I was brave with all the food except the oysters, which I just can't get past the mental YAK barrier with, so Jan had to eat all of them.  His telling me "they taste like the sea" didn't inspire me to try them.

But the nicest thing that happened to mark the occasion came in the form of these:

Beautiful flowers from Jan's parents and a lovely note (clearly painstakingly written out in German by an Australian florist).  They have made us both smile a lot, and have brightened up our rather impersonal temporary flat no end.

So for Jan this is a new year in a new country, all options open, anything possible.  I'm wishing him all the happiness and success he deserves and hoping all his dreams for his new life here come true.

<3  <3  HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE  <3  <3