Birthday Celebrations

I had a great birthday on Thursday! A leisurely morning, with Pilates at the Sports Centre, and a large carmel latte coffee from Costa Coffee afterwards. Then a relaxing bath and some email time. Headed out the door about 2:45 with neighbors Elin and Rebecka to walk down to the posh (means "fancy") Randolph Hotel in the city centre. I invited some of my new friends from the Newcomer's Club to meet for afternoon cream tea. In the group photo here is a short list of the ladies attending starting from front left: Elin & Rebecka from Sweden, Bettina from Germany, Lyndsay from Canada, Joan from the US/California, Frieda from US/California, Judith from Australia and me of course! They were all sweet too because I got some flowers, cards and a book for birthday gifts. Was so nice to have some people to share my day with.

Then my wonderful husband took me out for a great birthday dinner. I was having a hard time deciding where I wanted to go out, since getting a steak here is a bit different than back home. :) So I wanted to try something more ethnic, since I'm still not used to their interesting concoctions of fancy British food. So we were thinking of Indian or Thai, since there are great restaurants in the UK specializing in this type of food. But we also knew of a small, tucked away Greek restaurant, just in Summertown where we live. So we went for the Greek food, and had a great time. We had some spinach and feta wraps for appetizers, and shared a big greek salad. We each order kabobs, mine with lamb and chicken and Brian's with prawns (shrimp). They also had grilled veggies on the kebobs and rice on the side. Then since it was my Bday, I ordered dessert and coffee. We think the owner also noticed we were first-timers there, and were enjoying ourselves so he also gave us an apertif of some orange liquer, on the house. Yum!!

Thanks everyone for your emails and well wishes for my birthday - was so great to hear from friends and family back home!