Birthday Bumps

1. Last Night's Dinner: I finally went with the "Make Your Own Pasta" option. My customized pasta had Conchiglie (the shell-shaped pasta), Mushrooms, Pesto Cream and Lamb. It would have been nicer without the lamb, but us Bongs feel cheated without some meat in our food. And if there's a choice between chicken and lamb, the latter it is.

As it turned out, the online menu was not identical to the offline one. Plus, many of the desserts were unavailable. What to do? Khush and I shared a Ferrero Rocher pastry. It was really dense and we ended up wasting a little. Sigh. Sometimes the body refuses to cooperate with the food on the plate.

(It did not help that we hogged on paani-poori just before dinner :|)

Desert 2: We then drove to Bachelor's (drive-in icecream place facing the sea) - I got greedy and had watermelon icecream :) Manu had Mausambi juice. Don't remember what Father and Alpana Auntie had. Khush had nothing. She may have been contemplating a snooze, but somehow the Sandman missed her last night and caught Manu instead.

2. Meeting ex-colleagues: The high point was a surprise birthday pastry by Usha and Nisha at the Mirodoro Hotel cafe. This was preceded by an hour of conversation at this beautiful oasis-like park in the middle of the Andheri desert. This was preceded by a Dominoes lunch with Usha. This was preceded by a meeting with ex-boss and his current wife at their not-yet-ex home.

3. How I know I'm older: Gone are the days when a cockroach in the bathroom would make me scream. Or shrink against the wall. Or shudder. Today, I coolly covered my hand with the handtowel, reached for the roach, caught it, then threw it out the bathroom window. There will soon come a time when I shall catch roaches with my bare hands. By then, I will be truly ancient.

4. Birthday gift to me: Well, not quite. But at least I managed to pick up two pincher clips. Llamas like pincher clips to keep their hair out of their food. Boyfriends of llamas hate clips. It is the whole gender divide. Maybe someday I'll tell you the real secret: why boys don't clip their hair back, and complain when girls do!

5. Miscellaneous negatives: There was the auto-wallah who took me on Mumbai darshan. There was the Patchi chocolate that totally ruined the taste in my mouth. There was the whole question of my boss asking if I am basically wasting time again. :|

But overall, it has been a good 24-hour period. Llama largely pleased with life.