Cass taxied downtown on Friday night to be joined by just three of her trusty book-club gang: Tracey has already moved to Switzerland and Darby got a last minute call-up to take care of her kids as husband was commandeered for a late meeting. They met at a rather strange place for dinner as it seemed to be more of a breakfast/brunch spot and also heavily orientated to tastes not particularly well suited to Cassy's palate, as the name, Pig and Pepper, probably suggests! Nevertheless, everything went well, they had a great time as usual and the desserts were particularly moreish!
I started the Friday, the day of my LV birthday, by taking on my pushup challenge for the sixth year in a row now. I'm always mildly trepidatious, as, although I've done my training assiduously all year, every time I do them, I'm actually setting a new personal record. Anyway, technical difficulties meant the camera failed to record, so I asked Cassy to step in and film on the phone. It's a slightly different angle and goes a little fuzzy, but I'm stoked to report that I did indeed complete the 20 pushups more than my birthday, 75 in total. Now to start training for next year!
In the evening, it was great to have a few beers with Wal down at the re-vamped Uli's along with special guests Trevor, all the way from New Zealand and Annie, who managed an hour away from the kids. I also received a long, chatty phone call from Gurecki while we were at the table, so he managed to catch up with all and sundry as well. We had a great time, and even managed to have a couple of sneaky 7/11 beers at the table before moving on later in the evening.
Cass and I strolled down to the local Din Tai Feng on Saturday to have our peculiar lunch/ dinner date! We've discovered the only way to beat the crowd and therefore the queue and wait on the weekend is to split the difference between lunch and dinner times. As we invariably have a late breakfast, this suits us fine. The fare was exquisite as it always is. The hand sculpted xiao long bao are something of beauty and somehow, the chefs have managed to emulate a fried rice recipe from the 1970s Australian Women's Weekly that my mum used to make. It was my favourite meal then, and I swear this version is exactly the same....spooky!
We did the usual shopping and bread buying trips, but I managed to succumb to a very rare bout of sickness on Sunday. The "Man-Cold" I've got forced me to loll around on the couch watching sport on Sunday and has influenced my day at school today as well. It's amazing how virulent it is: lucky women don't get it, eh?(!!)
Photos: A succession of cherry blossom shots and Din Tai Feng. No birthday shots....I forgot in all the excitement!