Happy birthday to me! ... ramblings

It's my birthday today and I think this must be the first one in many years that I remembered my birthday!! By this I mean I do remember its my birthday before my birthday but on the day itself, I forget ... and often only remember the day after :-)

I got up groggy (lack of sleep) but checking my e-mail in the morning brought reminders of my birthday - so facebook does have a few extra benefits :-)

Had a great time at baptism rehearsal this morning and when I got home I found 2 letters (among other not so thrilling stuff - namely junk mail and my electricity bill) that brought nice birthday gifts :-)

First was from my local council - letting me know that my application for a remission in my water bill was approved!! Woohooo! A savings of $120.74. Basically when I moved in there was a leak in my pipe and so my bill was sky high. When my latest bill arrived I submitted all the relevant bills etc to explain the situation and I got a nice reduction in my water bill.

The second letter was a letter from the NZ Department of Internal Affairs - the Births, Deaths and Marriages Department confirming my appointment as a Marriage Celebrant effective on 19 March 2009. Basically this means that I can officially conduct weddings in New Zealand. So cool!! :-)

Tonight I look forward to a huge pot luck gathering - great food, great company ... both church members and others yet to join the church family. Though I may have to leave a little earlier to help set up the baptism pool heating system. I have made an extra dish for tonight - been working on my ikan billis chilli recipe. Had some good "reviews" so I hope that with a bigger group sampling it and if it gets the "seal of approval" by some really great cooks, this can become my 3rd "signature dish" Do need a bit of variety in my pot luck contributions and and it would be nice to have a lamb dish, a pork dish and now a fish dish. Okay, I do know that ikan billis (anchovies for the non Malaysians) is not exactly considered a fishy dish by many but to me it is. Next I suppose is to figure out a nice chicken dish and a 2nd dessert. Ah ... life here in NZ is a lot of fun.

Comments

  1. Z,

    What was so funny? :-)

    Anyway had a fun night and the good times continues as I have 364 "Un-birthdays" to celebrate. Thank you Lewis Carroll :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. well, it's just to see that you enjoy so much of "regular" NZ life. :):) and i love hearing men talk about their cooking. my dad didn't learn how to cook until he was 50, i think. the world is changing, and for the better in some ways. :)

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