A birthday...

[fajrdrako]

I love birthdays - mine or other people's. This one was fun. I woke to loud storm sounds and thought we must be having a terrific downpour; but it turned out there was no rain at all, just sunshine and a lot of wind, which had torn the huge plastic sheeting off the construction area of my apartment building and was flapping it around noisily on the other side of my window. It was huge - just as well it didn't tear free. It almost did, but got wrapped firmly around the wires of the construction equipment, and tamed itself.

At another point the tall aluminum ladder (reaching to the second floor) blew off the wall horizontally and I thought for a moment it was going to come through my window. But no, it landed tamely on the ground. Later in the day I saw many parts of the city where power was out because of the windstorm, street lights randomly non-functional, and bits of balcony decor that had blown into the streets.

Donna made me a birthday card that looks sort of like my "interests collage" - on the front, she put a picture of Maria from The Sound of Music, and the words, "On your birthday, I thought I would give you a few of your favourite things." On the inside, pictures of Veronica Mars, the Tenth Doctor, a copy of the Game of Kings, a Latin book, Clark and Lex, Malta, Shakespeare, an X-Men comic, chocolates, and Captain Jack Sparrow. I think Donna knows me too well. Either that, or I am just too transparent. (What, no twelfth century knights added on?) And for a gift, as if that wasn't enough, she gave me the DVD of the Operhaus Zurich production of Verdi's opera Macbeth - yes, a version of Macbeth I've never seen. Or heard. Opera is good enough, but the combination of opera and Shakespeare is irresistible!

Then I opened my present from silverwhistle and discovered a wonderful picture of Conrad of Montferrat - now framed on my living room wall; and songs of the trobadors, including Richard I's Ja nuls om pres and some songs of Peire Vidal, whom I have always liked - though a few of the other inclusions, like Guiraut Riquier, I don't recall ever having heard of before.

And then, in the same box - my very own sonic screwdriver. I am thrilled. It lights up just as it should, with blue light. Oh so very sonic. Locks will never trouble me again! And it writes well, though I haven't tried the invisible ink option yet.

I went to brunch at The Corner restaurant with maaseru and Catherine - I meant to order the smoked salmon eggs benedict, but the waitress brought a smoked salmon omelette with toast, which was just fine and so delicious I almost swooned at the table. I hope I controlled myself adequately in public. It's actually a sports bar (a fact I usually manage to forget) but I was happy - the game on the televisions was soccer (European football), the only team sport I actually like. Newcastle vs. Everton. The game was tied when we left, so I don't know who won. I think it must have been that brief moment in the Canadian year when it is not hockey season.

Then I went to the Ottawa Science Fiction Society meeting, where we did a programme called "Captains Courageous" - several of us did presentations on their favourite captain. Except me. As usual, unable to make up my mind, I did presentations on both Captain Jack Harkness (from Doctor Who and Torchwood, and Captain Cairo Azarcon from the Karin Lowachee novels. Other club members spoke on Captain Pyanfar Chanur, Captain Katherine Janeway, Captain James T. Kirk, Captain Canuck and Hlva, The Ship Who Sang. John gave a brief talk on why he didn't like any SF Captains, which led to an interesting discussion.

Tasia gave me a Greek cookbook for my birthday. I said I'd hesitate to cook Greek food for her because she knows how it really should be - her Greek mother is a beautiful cook. She said nonsense, she accepts my invitation for dinner unreservedly. Which will probably be fun. I'll have to pick a few good recipes and try them out on it. My pride aside, it would probably be good to cook for a person who knows about Greek food, so she advise me on what I get right and what I get wrong.

After the meeting, I joined maaseru and Catherine for supper, so I got to see Catherine again before she leaves to go back to England. We watched an episode of House, and the movie Popeye, and we played a game of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit, which I won. I don't think it was because they let me win, either... Truthfully, the reason I won was that maaboroshi wasn't playing with us.

Popeye is a strange movie that most people didn't like. Though I usually hate Robin Williams, I liked him in this, and I loved the songs, and I have now seen the place where it was filmed in Malta - all reasons to enjoy seeing it again. I'd forgotten Ray Walston was in it.