birthday – Page 3 – Postcards from Tasma

For an indulgent two weeks, in July/August, I travelled to London, Boston, New York and San Francisco, visiting wonderful friends and family…without the kids. Even a 24 hour plane trip to London is luxury when the time is 100% your own.

Dave & Fi early one London morning.

Dave is as generous and delightful as always. Wonderful food, wine, company, accommodation, opera and conversation. I was totally spoilt.

As good fortune had it, Dad and Miriam were in London at the same time, visiting my sister Laura. So of course we had to eat more fabulous food, shop and hang out together.

Left the metropolis of London for the hamlet of Benson near Wallingford (near Oxford) to visit Jane and Simon and Jules and their new born Dominic. It felt as though they still live around the corner. Though lunching by the Thames has a different ambience compared to lunching by the Merri.

Arrived in Boston via Washington (Dulles) Airport. For the capital airport of the self-proclaimed capital of the freeworld, Dulles was most reminiscent of a Bombay bus station. Confusion, crowds and chaos. The gates kept changing, most of the flights were delayed. A huge number of passengers were on standby tickets and constantly swarmed the ground staff seeking updates on their status and to argue their place in the queue. The highlight was when they called a flight to Austin Texas from the same gate as the delayed flight to Boston. Passengers to Boston insisted they get on this plane, the standby passengers to Boston were irate at not getting a seat to Austin. Mayhem.

The whole raison d’etre for this holiday was Linda and Di’s wedding. What a celebration 🙂

Cape Anne is so pretty; fishing villages, old wooden houses and lush gardens. Plus a touch of the Great Gatsby. Once again was treated, in the midst of wedding celebrations, to lots of marvellous people and local food.

Did you know that if you stroke a lobster’s belly before putting it in the pot, it relaxes?

Making the wedding canopy in the back garden.

The gorgeous brides at the ceremony.

From Lanesville to New York. In a little over 24 hours I visited Guggenheim and MOMA, walked 5th Avenue, Central Park, Greenwich Village and Soho. Ate at some fabulous restaurants and cafes, shopped and saw a show off Broadway. it was too hot to sleep.

Arrived San Francisco, for the last night of my holiday. Picked up by Jane and Talia and then dinner with Pete and Amy and Oscar. More great food and company. Visited the wonderful de Young Museum. Inspiring building with a great observation tower. Their collection of glass and sculpture were equally inspiring. Shopped for Nick on Haight Ashbury, visited the wharves and caught trams.

Arrived home on the eve of my 40th birthday. It will be a long time before I can enjoy a holiday like this one again. I hope that it wont be so long before I get to enjoy the company of these wonderful people again. A heartfelt thanks to each one of you for making this such a special holiday…. and to Nick who literally talked me into buying the ticket and then looked after the kids for the two weeks.

Ethan loved his party. Let me tell you something about the cake. Fiona made a Chocolate Pinåta cake. I need you to understand that this is a cake above all cakes. It doesn’t just have nice tastes, it has features and benefits. For a start, get your head around this: this is a cake you are supposed to hit with a hammer!

It’s a chocolate shell (ie real chocolate), covered in chocolate smarties, ladybirds and so on. You smash this with a (real) hammer, and it reveals, under its thick chocolate shell the size of a GI helmet, a chocolate cake, with chocolate icing, and chocolate filling. And it’s covered in more yet smarties, chocolate ladybirds and other chocolate-based objects.

I don’t know where we are going to go from here. Last year, the space shuttle cake, this year the chocolate pinåta.

What next?