Sushi, caeser salad and cake

The weather at the weekend was lovely, and even warm enough on Sunday afternoon to sit outside for a while, albeit with cups of tea and coffee and thick sweaters, but still, we managed to catch a bit of winter sun.

Winter sun in Wellington

The past two days have been windy though, but still not cold, or at least not cold if you come from northern Europe.

Today (Wednesday) is my birthday, and although I don’t count the years any more, I do still enjoy celebrating.  As a friend wrote to me this morning, don’t feel older, just more refined.  Anyway, I was woken up with some wonderful presents, the first two below were from Karl.

Get Fresh with Al Brown – stories and recipes from heartland New Zealand

A little bit of greenstone

Blue top (perfect colour) and book from old friends

Since it was my birthday, and Karl has to go to a work thing in the evening, we went out for lunch to Pravda

We started with some freshly baked focaccia with truffle mascarpone which was really good – fresh, warm bread and the spread was very morish.  I opted for the caeser salad, which was topped with a poached egg, as seems to be the norm here, or at least the three I have had here have all come like this.  I don’t care if this is not what the purists would do, but I love it like this, probably because I love eggs as much as anything else.  The dressing was tasty, and there was a good combination of flavours.  We both had a glass of sauvignon blanc.

I have, of course, just baked a cake, as a birthday is not a birthday without cake.  Nothing fancy – just another Victoria sponge to fill with strawberries.  It is sushi for Anton and me for dinner tonight.  At this rate, I will be rolling to Pilates tomorrow.

Some birthday cards

Un chat – bon anniversaire!