We originally had thought to turn my 30th into a big event with loads of friends and a big party at home. Reality of life with a one month old and the realization that I don't really have many friends to begin with meant that we ended up dialing things down a bit, opting for a quiet day by ourselves. After a breakfast treat of pancakes with bacon cooked by my darling wife, we decided to drive out with mum and Uncle Wing to Cleveland for fish and chips by the water. The food there wasn't spectacular and the weather was a little windier than we had hoped but we had a great time anyway.
In lieu if a birthday cake, Alison picked up a selection of cupcakes from the cupcake parlour. Very tasty and colourful but I think we may have bought too many for the four of us. Eleanor passed on the sweets having drunk more than her share of milk beforehand.
For dinner we called Cam Ranh and booked a big table, to accommodate the baby capsule and an indulgent number of dishes, and gorged ourselves on seafood. There was the staple specialty tofu, grilled chicken, pork spare ribs, pipis in XO sauce and not one, but two plates of crab; one in chili sauce and another in ginger and shallot gravy. I think we all thought we would be packing quite a bit to take home but we somehow managed to consume all that food without too much effort, much to the surprise of the chef. The last time we had this much crab was with Tim and Christine and it was absolutely sublime, as were all the other dishes that night. Great eats.
I got some great swag for presents this year too. Nellie gave me a very thoughtful robe to keep me warm when I have to change her diaper at two in the morning. It's a stylish grey with monkeys on it so I'm all set when my invitation to the playboy mansion comes through. My darling wife bought me the perfect gift for a balding male teetering on the edge of a midlife crisis, 6 laps on a rally track learning to drift in a WRX. Hopefully I won't embarrass myself by crashing the car.
Got a bunch of other great presents too, but of course the best gift is having the family here together. It has been really nice to have Nellie's Ahkong and Amma here to spend time with her. It's hard for them to find the time to come over here so having them both with our little girl is really great.
In addition to spending time with the baby, showing Wing the features of Brisbane was another key part of his trip. He's been here before for business trips but would usually be whisked to the Gold Coast or stuck in stuffy hotels, so it's not surprising that his impression of our city has not been overly positive. Knowing what he likes we focussed on the food markets at Rocklea and shops at Sunnybank to prove that you can get great produce for the dishes he enjoys. He seems to be very impressed by the quality and range of Asian food available and is even appreciating the meals beyond Chinese cuisine which is a pleasant surprise. In saying that I think his highlight was when we bought two salmon fish heads and fish bones from the Rocklea markets to cook fish curry and grilled the salmon heads on the BBQ. Oh so yummy.
On Sunday we had another little gathering which included John, Sheena and Barbara. We cooked a heap of steaks, prawns, sausages, chicken thighs and (something a little different) a bag of marinated chicken necks that Wing spotted at the butchers. Food and company were once again fantastic and I got to blow out my candles on a birthday cake this time. Even after stuffing my face silly I still managed to wolf down almost half a tray of creme caramel that my beautiful mother in law had made for me. I'm actually feeling a little ill from overeating now.
The other important occasion that we celebrated was Eleanor's full moon, as she is now one month old. Mum brought over the powdered dye to make red eggs for everyone to eat and we had given Eleanor a nice bath and dress her in new clothes before the arrival of her visitors, except she proceeded to soil that half an hour later. Even looking back at the first few pictures we took of her at the hospital it almost seems like a different girl. Back before she was born, I naively thought it would take a week for us to get a handle on things and establish a routine. Hasn't quite happened yet and I'm no longer holding my breath, but if the last four weeks is anything to go by I'm looking forward to discovering all the things I don't know about our little girl in the months to come.
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