Birthday eve

I got home to a great surprise tonight - fairy bread, freshly baked biscuits, and balloons scattered around the room. This bodes well for good birthday tomorrow.

I spent last weekend in the Wairarapa. My little brother and I saw The Avengers (a film I had no desire to see, but I can't say no to Hunter, so off we went and it wasn't actually as bad as I thought, it was pretty funny and I especially loved The Incredible Hulk) and on Sunday it was my cousin Maggie's fifth birthday. I helped ice cupcakes, make a treasure hunt, and eat a lot of coconut ice. Maggie wore a Snow White outfit and was very cute. I'm not sure whether she was that impressed by my present of two Milly-Molly-Mandy books, but too bad. I used to like MMM when I was little. And MMM and Maggie basically have matching dark haired bob cuts. What's not to like?

On Tuesday night we had the second Baby Knitters Club at which, once again, I knitted and everyone else played boardgames. Until I was required to stop knitting to make an even number for Cranium. But at least bootie number two is started. I feel like I'm making the same mistake I made last time when I had to rip it out and start again, but I can't remember what that mistake was. Also Kate laid out a spread to rival all knitting spreads - bread, lamingtons, chippies, all these different teas. If anyone wants to go play shops with her, I think she'd be up for it.

Last night it was the V48 Hours Wellington finals. Our film made it into the finals and it was fun watching the other 11 films and seeing ours again after a few weeks. The Wellington winner definitely deserved to win. It was a horror about a zombie family during a human attack. It managed to be about zombies and be funny, clever, and touching all at the same time. The make-up was pretty impressive too.

I would also just like to note that in the past two years I have learned to use chopsticks pretty proficiently, learned to parallel park excellently, flown to the other side of the world and back all by myself, changed who I work for twice, moved house three times, brought another play into the world with two of the best comedy collaborators around, been to many, many excellent shows and gigs (and quite a few not as great ones), been to two music festivals and had the greatest time, finished knitting a pair of pretty great socks that I'm now too proud of to wear, and lots of other stuff I can't think of right now.

In some ways, two years has felt like a long time. But probably not as long as learning to read feels like. I will end with the words of Maggie, after her first school visit:

'Mum, when will I wake up and know how to read?'