always look on the bright side*

Leunig cartoon, from SMH Leunig 2006 calendar for July
yesterday we celebrated mum's 64th birthday, it is not her birthday till later in the week, but nan is going to hospital on Wednesday to have her gall bladder out and she didn't want to miss out, so this weekend it was to be. B and I were the hosts for the celebrations, and commenced preparations Friday night, with shopping, cleaning, and preping of the food. The main course was African Chicken, I haven't made this for a few years and it took me a few hours on Thursday night to find the recipe, I am going to scan the scrap of paper with the recipe on it into the computer, this might also prompt B to resurrect the recipe page that was linked to the now no longer website. Although, you are meant to marinade for an hour, I marinaded over night, it has about a dozen spices which takes ages to chop, measure out and mix.

cake
I also made the birthday cake, which was almost a burntoffering although once decorated (after scraping off the black bits) you couldn't tell, that is until it came time to cut (it was a bit dry). Thank goodness nan had made jelly (with cherries in it) and pineapple delight (a marshmellow, pineapple and cream concoction that is just delicious), along with the lemon butter I had made to join the cakes together they provided enough moisture to assist with swallowing.

It was a great day, the weather was perfect, the only dampner being that dad had received news that his irregular heartbeat had returned, Tuesday's procedure hadn't worked. Mum was a bit fragile as a result, it was a good job the family could be together to support one another.

mum opening her pressies
Thank you Leunig for your advice.

It has also helped that the gas heater got connected today, thank you to the plumber who was here from 8am to 4pm, it was a big job.

*heading care of Leunig