perfect (birth)day

Yesterday was my 33rd birthday.

I know. I can't believe I'm that old either. (Thankyou to the wonderful Scottish patient who made my day [night actually, it being a night shift and all... he made my year in fact, it being about 2am on 1/1/08!] by asking if I still lived with my folks and guessing I might be 21. I'm sure he wasn't just being polite!)

What a lovely, lovely birthday it was too. Frank spoilt me from go to (almost) woah, breaking through my post-night shift haze with a happy birthday wish before indulging me with wonderful gifts (tagine dish and funky pendant necklace), breakfast... well, putting my weetbix in the bowl anyway, and an afternoon drive. In between was lunch with a good friend.

We decided to visit the Mole Creek Karst National Park, otherwise known as the Mole Creek Caves and check out a local geological attraction we mostly forget exists. At a pleasant 9 degrees Celsius all year (48 Fahrenheit) we enjoyed the reprieve from the summer heat too.

I'm not sure how you can forget such cool caves as these lie an hour's drive away, but somehow we do. It was good to reacquaint ourselves with the local tourist draws. We completed the tourist crawl by indulging in honey and apricot icecream at Chudleigh's famous honey farm before visiting friends in Deloraine.

Tea was Thai takeaway on the river's edge in the beautiful evening sun.

(We'll forget that we started watching 'Romulus, My father' on DVD when we returned home. Beautifully made, and well acted but singularly depressing in the tragic story it told. Not advised as romantic viewing for the end of a lovely day!)

So there you go. Another year older and it was such a nice day I almost forgot to feel the pain of the extra year.