Tuesday 13^th October 2020

Emilka planned to celebrate her 14th birthday on Bali, where she had dreams of mainly shopping for clothes!  Thanks to Covid it remained very much a dream, and knowing how much she loves horse riding, we came up with the alternative idea of a horse-riding party and 2 friends for sleepover.  A bit different!

Somehow, she is not that keen on cakes anymore and she wished for a pizza cake but “She still cannot be without a cake?”, I said to myself.  I decided to surprise her by baking a horse-shaped cupcake cake, so in the morning we baked carrot cupcakes and together with cream arranged and decorated them to look like a horse – she was surprised.

Well, it looked more like a donkey, but the cream with the addition of Nutella was so delicious. Two friends Sarang and Lorin arrived at 13.30 so that they could get ready to leave at 14.20. They were driven by Lorin’s lovely dad, and Steve went with them to enjoy the occasion and take some photographs.  A third friend, Amber, and her father Dave, arrived directly from Bentota where they were on a weekend staycation with some friends.

The photos are captivating – how she and everyone else enjoyed it. She loves horses and would spend hours with them.

They came back from horse riding around 6 pm to be joined by another friend Eva and her brother Theo (Misa plays with them quite often), just in time for pizza cake at 6.30 pm.  Lorin’s family joined in too, the adults enjoying home marinated grilled chicken and salad – a heathy option compared to the children’s pizza!

We had a good evening, but very noisy. I was worried that the neighbors living below us would came up and complain given the thumping on the floor, but thankfully they didn’t.  We played a chocolate game (see next post) that is great fun and everyone enjoyed it.

Sarang and Lorin ballet danced to Tchaikovsky’s Sugar Plum Fairy as choreographed by Emilka, and Eva performed a gymnastics routine; lovely – and I wish I was still as flexible as they!  Everyone left, the girls going to bed after 11 p.m. where they briefly talked, but there was silence within 10 minutes.

Would you believe me, but they woke up the next day at 9 o’clock! They let me sleep! Wonderful!  For breakfast they finished the pizza as a first course and when their friend Eva joined, I served Emilka’s favorite waffles with Nutella and strawberries.  Everyone was still in pajama (Misa too) when they sat by the TV watching Paddington the movie. Once again, the girls ballet danced to the Sugar Plum Fairy and all three then went home.

I think Emilka had a nice birthday party, which she really enjoyed, but I was on the go the whole time, mainly in the kitchen.

On the day of her birthday on Tuesday, October 13, she wished for a celebratory dinner at the Japanese restaurant Yumi or the Chinese restaurant Golden Dragon at the Taj hotel. We invited friends Pavel and the Turkish family, but unfortunately thanks to the man with a positive Covid from the same tower, we had to stay at home.

Emi was awake at 6 o’clock that day and couldn’t wait, but she fell asleep for a while when she joined us in bed. Online schooling started at 8 am so between each lesson she would unwrap one gift after another and thus extend her joy to the whole day. That day, for the first time in her life, Misa was sulking and locked himself in his bedroom, so she had us for herself and enjoyed it very much! I had to improvise and cooked Japanese food for dinner! Chicken karaage! They are marinated chicken pieces, coated in flour and fried in hot oil – I haven’t fried in oil for over 15 years! I’m not surprised I burned my hand as the oil accidentally squirted out. We had it with rice and vegetables. Interesting combination, but it was delicious.

A special birthday, in isolation stuck at home with online schooling.

2020 went down in history for many different reasons, she will definitely remember her 14th birthday.

Rennie