Bond’s Birthday week!

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When Bond and I met I was a major birthday diva and he found this a comical thing that he didn’t really understand.  My family go HUGE for birthdays, they love to celebrate and make a big fuss.  His family are more laid back about the whole thing.  6 years on and I have been usurped, the birthday diva of the family now is most certainly BOND!

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This year he announced he would have a birthday week, this was so important we had to stay up till midnight to say ‘Happy Birthday week’. The morning of his big day he had a croissant in bed with candles and icing, in the afternoon he had another cake and then in the evening I cooked lamb chops at his request.  Then he made the foolish mistake of travelling which robbed him of two days of his birthday ‘week’.  On his return we had more cake and candles and yet more of my culinary prowess – again at his request…since he discovered that I can cook even though I hate it he has been finding ways to get me back at the oven!!

For the real celebration I booked dinner out at a great restaurant with a fab view so we could enjoy sunset while we ate.  KWINT has a fabulous view over Mont des Arts which is meant to be the site of the best sunsets in Brussels. On arriving at the restaurant they told us they had no gas and thus no food!!  Anyway we rallied, had a cocktail and watched sunset and then headed to another spot for dinner which worked out really well in the end. I am lucky that Bond is a good sport and didn’t get upset that the original plan didn’t work!

Au Vieux Saint Martin was fantastic, great and well made proper Belgian food with fabulous service and in a great location.  We had a lovely time and enjoyed eating good hearty food before walking home.  I would thoroughly recommend it, their Flamant stew was especially good!

For the rest of the weekend every meal had candles and then on Sunday negotiations were attempted for an extra two days to make up for the one he missed out on!  These failed I am sorry to say…we were out of cake and candles!

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Brilliant Birthday Bonanza!

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Last week I celebrated my 32nd Birthday in quite some style!  I felt completely spoiled rotten by everyone and had the best time!

The first day of the week my colleagues and I had a lunch together to celebrate both mine and my bosses birthday.  It was lovely to spend time all together as we are still all quite new and getting to know each other more and more.  They spoiled me with a lovely box of goodies from Yves Rocher which was a wonderful surprise as I didn’t expect anything, least of all something so generous!  A great kick off to my birthday week for sure!

My dad flew in from Berlin as he had some meetings here in Brussels and so he planned a dinner the first night of his visit (my birthday eve) which was FAB.  We went to a brilliant place called JB’s which serves Belgian Food but with great style.  Haute Belgian Cuisine is fantastic and I heartily recommend it.  The restaurant is also beautiful and the people who own it are fanatical about what they do so the food is to die for!  To mark my birthday they had a firework sparkler thing which was great fun and made me really happy.  I love a firework!

The next morning I woke up and got ready for work and Bond and Dad had cake and tea and presents waiting for me.  I was thoroughly spoiled by them!  I got a fabulous jumper from my favourite store and a great new book from Bond – one to add to my ever expanding reading list!  He had also iced my cake which was most impressive!  He got it from the same place that we had our wedding cake made so that was really special.  Mummy and Daddy got me a load of make up, face masks, bath salts, a new frock and a cardigan as well as an expandable handbag which is very clever indeed.  All in all a perfect birthday morning!

I had a nice day at work and lunch with some colleagues which was a nice way to spend some time before a hectic afternoon trying to get things done.  In the evening Bond had booked dinner at La Quincaillerie which was awesome.  It’s a converted ironmongers store and it has a lot of the original fittings and fixtures which for a design nut like me is great.  I also loved the giant clock that they have on their stair way.  The whole look of the place is very well done.   The food also proved to be fantastic, Brussels is really spoiled with wonderful restaurants!

All in all it was a completely perfect Birthday and I felt very lucky!

Random reunion

One of my oldest friends recently had business in Abu Dhabi, and like the legend he is he hired a car and came to Dubai to take me out for dinner.  It really was a lovely thing to do because he is busy and working and has recently had a family tragedy.  Seeing him was so special and nicely nostalgic.

See said friend lives in NYC so I haven’t seen  him in far too long and time always seemed to work around us. The day he announced his engagement party…twenty minutes after I booked a trip abroad for example.  The fact that he was in the UK for two months recently…but I had already moved to DXB.  The list goes on of how many near misses there have been.  Despite that we have maintained a good friendship through email and text and when we saw each other it was like no time had passed.

We talked about all and sundry and just had a nice time reminsicing and telling each other about what life is like for us now.  It was so great to see how excited he is for me and how happy he is that this move has been positive for me.  It was also good to hear all his news, the bad and the good.  Here is hoping his wedding does happen soon!

Oh and fantastically he still knows how to give a great compliment and ensure you get the first taxi – once a gentleman always a gentleman.  I can’t wait for him to meet my partner, that will be a fun night for sure!