Another year older!

On Sunday I celebrated my birthday with some of my friends.It was an adventure getting there. Friends running late, friends' car overheating. Quick dash to collect all friends, bar one, fixed the problem. Arrive at favourite restaurant 1 hour later than original booking! The meal was fantastic, the company was excellent and the kids were mostly well behaved.
The restaurant has a lovely garden out back which the kids enjoyed running around in. The consensus was that Will looked like a Pommy raver with his clothes, sunnies, hat and dummy. It's definitely a look!

Here's a picture of Ed helping Will walk through the garden. So cute!!!!
I barely had the camera out as I was enjoying the day. I should have taken photos of all the beautiful food that I ate. I had delicious TIbetean momos. They were so perfectly crisp on the bottom and were served with a very yummy eggplant salad. I loved the contrast of texture between the crispy momo and the soft eggplant. I had Red Braised Mt Tomah Chicken with Soy Beans, Deep Fried Salt & Pepper Tofu for my main. Lovely balance of flavours. Mollie loved the the salt and pepper tofu!
And for dessert I had a divine chocolate dessert of chocolate gel, chocolate pate' and chocolate crumbs. Yet again it was an enjoyable mix of textures. The gel was fantastic, not at all rubbery or slimy. In the centre of the gel was a syrup. It was amazingly citrusy. My friend Pam asked the chef about it and found out it was lemon verbena syrup. Then Pam was given two jars of the syrup from the chef and some lemon verbena leaves, so she could make her own! On the way home, Pam said to me I get why you dragged us all the way up here for lunch!

Ok, for a bit of craftiness for this entry. Today I bought a sewing cabinet! I am glad I'd been dithering about it. It was on sale for Mothers Day. Now I have to wait a couple of weeks to get it.