Life Begins at Forty.

I think M felt well feted on his 40th. He had the day off anyway, and the children pulled out the stops, even helping him open all his presents.

We had local croissants for breakfast (along with a few surprise pieces of ham which always seem to get in them, from other dough mixture I suppose) I don't mind, though it's a bit much when you find them in the Pain au Chocolat too. Then we both took our 2 yr old to nursery so M could see the place. She cried for the 1st time in 10 days! I guess it was a bit hard having Dad-dad (as she calls him now) home midweek and then missing out on his company.

We then went to a craft fair where some of the women and guys M's NGO had trained in skills/crafts etc were displaying their wares. M wanted me to see it, and had commisioned one of the guys to do a Batik for us. Managed a quick not very nice cappucino in SL's only dept store, (a very untypical shop and tourist trap) before rushing back to do nursery and school pick up. They start at 7.30 and end at 1.30 here. Well nursery is 12 actually.

In the afternoon, we put up the bunting the children had made, they wore their special crowns, also home made (our son loves doing craft so M's birthday was the perfect excuse as far as he was concerned.) Then he put on a puppet show for M (except M fell asleep in the middle of it, though A didnt seem to notice or mind.) And I was oohing and ahhing, clapping and interacting as loudly as possible to deflect attention from the recumbent husband next to me)

Our poor son is used to me falling asleep mid story when he reads to me in the afternoon. Obviously resigned to apnea-prone parents. I blame the heat, I'm sure it's nothing to do with age. He had also made, and then performed a few magic tricks, which was very sweet, and quite hilarious, during which M, I'm glad to say, was fully awake, and suitably impressed and astonished.

We had a lime birthday cake (no lemons) which the kids had helped me make, and into which my daughter had, whilst I wa supervising my son cracking eggs, poured all the lime juice I had squeezed for the icing, so it wasn't quite as light and fluffy as I wd have liked....

Then in the evening M & I went to the most expensive restauarant in Colombo and had cocktails, wine and 3 courses for £48. An ABSOLUTE fortune here and a month's salary for a garment factory worker. Seemed very decadent, and rather nice.