Well! Another one of our friends has just turned the big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!!

I'm not entirely sure she wanted the whole world to know of this milestone, but hey, bad luck birthday girl :-)

Her actual birthday was on Thursday the 8th of February, and we celebrated together during the day by having a great lunch at the Brown Dog Cafe, a truly fantastic place, and by painting ceramics at Starglazers, a bit further down the road. We had a great time chatting and eating and, of course, painting the most beautiful ceramic tiles and trays known to mankind.

Mankind... Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.

Thank you Jack Handey.

But I digress.

Tody we went to Matt and Emily's for the "official party" it was a ... "Eat - Lebanese - Food - And - Make - Your - Own - Sundaes - While - Worshipping - Emily" party. All of which we did with reckless adandon, I'm pleased to say, celebrating in a style to which we are all well and truly accustomed (ie, laughing a lot, eating a lot, talking a lot, drinking a lot with a sprinkling of vulgarity thanks predominantly to my husband!) I hope Emily enjoyed herself because we all did!

Only a few of our friends have hit this landmark age, and I am next on the hit list. I am very excited about my birthday, I'm looking forward to turning 30. No, really, I am. I have already started thnking about how I'll celebrate, and I've been considering a champagne breakfast with some friends and maybe a family dinner that night.

Champagne breakfast? YES! That's so "30" :-)

Ryan, Emily and I all turn 30 within 5 or 6 weeks of each other and we had decided quite a while ago that we should have a combined party. Not that any of us have been particularly quick off the mark to organise it however... we've only just set the date and the venue will be booked this week. But it won't be until April so we figure this gives us some time. The cool thing about our party is that it's going to be a fancy dress party, since we all get far too excited about dressing up :-) We have quite a bit of organising to do so hopefully now we've set the date we'll pull our fingers out and actually get onto it :-)

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So, what else has been happening?? Well, tonight is my last shift at work before I start in my new position on Wednesday. I realised last night that it's only just hit me that I'm actually going, it's hard to believe that I'm really leaving. But instead of feeling down about the "leaving" side of things and how much I'll miss the residents, staff and the cat, I've been excited about the thought of coming back for parties and socialising, so I think I'll get the best of both worlds... with also having a life on day shifts! I am DEFINITELY excited about that prospect.

Here are some pics of Shielo and I, I took them at work over the last couple of nights. Shielo is just so beautiful and we love each other a lot. I used to joke that Ruby and Pandora would see me leave the house in the dark of night and then have me return in the morning only to smell like another cat- so they've thought for years I've just been having one long affair that I get paid an hourly rate for- I guess in a way that's true :-)

Now, it's not like I'll just miss the cat... but I'm legally now allowed to post any pics of the residents that I've taken over the years- but can I confirm that I'll definitely miss them too!!



Anyways, there's not much else to say right now. James is still not 100% despite being in the middle of his second course of antibiotics. I think he should go back to the doctor which maybe he will do sometime this week.

That's probably it for now... other than a couple more pics to follow... so bye for now

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Little James- isn't he so gorgeous?!?! He's getting so big now!




Big James... just as cheeky, just as gorgeous... but then I'm probably biased :-)