My 32nd birthday

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to myself, happy birthday to me...

Well, sounds like some totally lonesome person without any friends or relatives singing for the own birthday. But no, I wasn't lonely at all. I had a very nice birthday instead :-)

It started in the morning with a nice walk in the green surroundings of Oslo, from Frognerseteren to the lake Sognsvann. At 10:30 a.m. we met up with my colleague Caroline and our trainee Vincent at Majorstua station from where we took the metro up to the mountain and started our walk through the forest to the lake.

Arrived at Sognsvann lake: time for a little birthday picnic. Everyone had brought something along to eat.

Caroline had brought some cakes for the special occasion - even with a candle (which unfortunately couldn't be lit due to the wind). Quite birthday-like, though :-)

Unfortunately the sun left us pretty quickly then, so we left the lake and headed back home.

In the afternoon then, I received a very nice surprise: I got a very beautiful flower bouquet delivered - with sweet greetings from my dear friend Jana from Tromsø :-) Never before did I get flowers sent! So nice! Daaaaaaaaaanke liebe Jana :-)

For 7.30 p.m. then I had reserved a table at the restaurant "Den Glade Gris" (literally translating to "The happy pig"). It is a restaurant that our group department at work uses for our lunch groups in summer. I had never been there until recently when I accompanied some clients for lunch at that place and thought that it looked pretty nice.

And now from end of September until beginning of October they had a two weeks "Oktoberfest" special on the menu, i.e. a German inspired 3 courses menu including a typical big, roasted porc knuckle and German beer - the perfect menu for my birthday, I thought :-)
So on my birthday I went with Marco and a bunch of friends (Vanesa - which I hadn't met in ages, Sona and Hugo as well as Ricardo and Ines - the first three of them being Marco's colleagues) to get a little taste of Germany. What a feast!!!

 

We rounded off the evening with a drink at a nearby bar with Sona and Hugo.

What a pity, though, that many other dear friends and also colleagues weren't in Oslo or had already plans that day and thus couldn't join the celebrations.

Nevertheless, I passed a great birthday. The refreshing walk in the sun, the picnic besides the lake, an evening with good food, likeable people, nice presents, many greetings on facebook, per (e)mail and via phone made it a special day for me. Thanks to all those involved and that thought of me!!!

And by the end of the day I even had one more beautiful bunch of flowers :-)