Hub's Birthday Party

Bday Cake from Althea in Spezzano

In my memory I have thrown a party to celebrate the Hub's Bday almost every year for quite a number of years now. Smart way to let the others worry about what to get him for the occasion, me I never do know what to buy him as a gift and have long since given up trying to worry about it.

A case in point : I actually thought for a moment this year that maybe I finally did have a good gift idea. He mentioned the iPhone in loving tones and I started activating my overseas network of friends who may be capable of helping me procure one (since it's not officially available in Italy yet). Luckily I had the good sense to just ask him outright if it would interest him and the reply being "I'll ask the company to get me one" I went back to the giftless Bday party. And he did manage to get the company to get him one, that lucky idiot man.

Kids jumping in the Trampoline

We invited 7 familes and 5 accepted the invitation. All were Ferrari colleagues and most had quite a number of children. I had to feed 12 adults and 11 children and I think I had enough to feed double that number finally.

Our BBQ Station (Gas is great!)

We were blessed with a lovely sunny day. Great for a BBQ. I spent 1.5 days preparing the food and on the menu we had :

• Mixed Salad with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
• Taboulé
• Hoummous (Chickpeas with Tahine)
• Tomatoes with Mozzarella di Bufala
• Raw Vegetable Platter
• Mini-Quiches
• Tandoori Prawns (BBQ)
• Honey and Soy Sauce Chicken Wings (BBQ)
• Beef Onglet with Herbes de Provence (BBQ)
• Chicken Satay (BBQ) with its spicy Peanut Sauce - a hit with everybody
• Rotewurst (BBQ)
• Nonya Chicken Curry served with White Rice
• Tuna Makis
• Fresh Fruit Salad
• Birthday Cake (delicious Cream and Strawberry Sponge from Althea)
• Almond and Pistacchio Cigars (a Middle Eastern sweatmeat made with Filo pastry)

Needless to say we also drank quite a bit on this day and had in fact magnum bottles of almost everything, one of which was the one won by the Hub and his colleague at his 1st Golf Tournament at the Garda Golf Club. Edged on by his adoring public, Hub gave a performance on his old clarinet. He also smoked a cigar and a few cigarettes which would have given me a heart attack on another day but I forced myself to close an eye (or both) on this occasion though finding cigarette butts in my garden the day after made me promise myself to buy another expensive pair of sunglasses soon to help lower my blood pressure.

He received lovely presents from our guests including a tie from R, a book on Style from D, CDs on Cello music (he used to play the instrument) from M...G offered us a cake that looked nondescript at 1st glance but when I tasted it the next day, I actually gobbled the whole cake up myself so good it was. It was known as the Torta Giuditta and is a specialty from Bazzano. Must say that I actually prefer it to the more famous Torta Barozzi from Vignola.

The Hoummous

I think the party was quite a success and allowed us to enjoy each other's company under such good weather conditions. It was also an occasion for me to get to know his colleagues and their families better and I discover that I really like these people. May be interesting to note that of the very nice Italians present, none were from Modena. LOL

So Happy 42nd once again dear Hub and many more good returns blah blah.