The Big Day!

Yesterday was the ‘mrs’ 29th birthday, and I feel a good time was had by all. After all, all the right ingredients were there:

* balloons in various colours and sizes
* streamers
* party hats
* those noisy things you blow
* a homemade cake

Fortunately for me (and not for her) she had to go to work in the morning, which gave me ample opportunity to make a cake. Now I am a cake novice. I have many many skills in cake consumption; especially those of the walnut layered and carrot variety, but making is a no no. Earlier in the week I had consulted the Queen i.e. Delia online, for some spiritual guidance. According to many, making a sponge is a complicated affair, with bits to add here, then cream, then bits to add there, all beautifully timed using the wisdom of Tibetan monks. Being the impatient sort, and lucky for me, the owner of a £6.99 electric whisk, I decided to follow the gurus idea of the ‘all in one’ (http://www.deliaonline.com/cookery-school/how-to/how-to-make-all-in-one-sponge,13,AR.html). Now any recipe that advises you to bung all the ingredients in a bowl and just go ‘whzzzzzzzz’ with the electric whisk is the one for me.

After mixing the ingredients and getting 40% of the mixture up the walls, I carefully spooned this sweet smelling concoction into 2 recently purchased sandwich cake tins (lined using pre-historic GCSE cookery skills). Into the oven it went for 30 minutes while I paced nervously up and down the flat, like an expectant father. After this time had elapsed, I ran to the kitchen to view my creation. Oh the smell was amazing. I could have gobbled it up there and then and pretended I hadn’t got round to making a cake. But in my effort to be a good girlfriend, I left well alone.

After cooling, filling with posh black cherry jam and smothering with BLUE butter icing (again recipe from the BBC), I was ready for the sprinkles! Now some will tell you sprinkles are just sprinkles, but NO, there are many subtle varieties. Originally I was going to use hundreds and thousands; a ‘mrs’ favourite. But during recent scientific exploration it has been discovered that the slightly cylindrical ‘sugar strands’, are much more the order of the day. Not wanting to do things by a halves I gleefully dumped an entire pot over the waiting butter icing. These sprinkles will stick to anything; food, fingers, socks, work tops, walls, floors, clothes and anything else in a 5m radial vicinity. After crunching my way round the kitchen the creation was finally finished.

When she returned from the work, we conducted the traditional societal ceremony of lighting the candles, singing of the song and the applause at the end. In a bid to be amusing, I had used re-lighting candles, that always seemed so magical as a child. As an adult you are less concerned with the magic, and more worried about the massive clouds of smoke created each time you blow and whether the smoke alarm will be activated. Oh I am SO getting old!

After lunch and a quick unscheduled snooze on the sofa, we went down town (feel free to sing at this point), for the 4.30 appointment with a massage therapist which I had a bought as one of my gifts i.e. ‘the experience’ gift. During the procedure, I sat in the waiting area thumbing through copies of ‘hair and beauty’, wondering how ANYONE could expect to live up to the ideology that is being sold. By the time I had finished an article on ‘your acrylic nails and you’ (a nomination for the Pulitzer no doubt), she had finished and looked very relaxed and a bit oily.

Not wishing to go back to the flat quite yet, and fall into the trap of crap food and telly, we decided to take full advantage of living by the sea and have a wonder down for a sit on the beach. After 15 minutes or so of appreciating the view and thinking how lucky we were, we decided to brave the wind and laughter of the drunk homeless people behind us, and go for a paddle. We removed our shoes and socks, rolled up our jeans and proceeded with caution and Indiana Jones style bravery. After a good 40 minutes of running in, running out, laughing and the odd squeal, we made our way back to the car trying to ignore the wet jeans, wet tops and wet pants, but revelling in the weird looks we were receiving.

After squelching our way back to the flat, we showered to remove the ‘sea bugs’ (if you have ever looked at a drop of sea water under the microscope you’ll know what I mean), and settled down for a birthday dinner of fresh pizza and strawberry cheesecake, topped off with some crap Big Brother Telly.

The evening was rounded off by downloading the pictures from day, laughing at getting soaked and dozing off on the sofa. To bed we went after what was a really fun day! I shall make it a point not to wait for special occasions to do silly things. People of the world unite in their silliness!