Thank you!

[altariel]

Thank you so much for birthday greetings, v-gifts, cards, and all round awesomeness! You are lovely people. Yay you! And I am thirty-seven. Eek!

I braved town this morning to get some pillows, and went past my favourite bookshop with my usual birthday intention of picking up a hardback Rosemary Sutcliff - but there in the window whispering my name was a beautiful first edition of Lucy M. Boston's "grown-up" novel, Persephone. Mine now!

There have been loads of huge parcels arriving throughout the morning, all for mraltariel! We are now equipped for sous-vide cooking. Sunday I got back in to find him spherificating. It's like living in space.

Now I'm going to finish reading Len Goodman's autobiography and then fix the shower.

Comments

Happy Bleedin' Birfday!

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

In honor of the occasion, a text clip of Monty Python:

ARTHUR:
Old woman!
DENNIS:
Man!
ARTHUR:
Man. Sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS:
I'm thirty-seven.
ARTHUR:
I-- what?
DENNIS:
I'm thirty-seven. I'm not old.
ARTHUR:
Well, I can't just call you 'Man'.
DENNIS:
Well, you could say 'Dennis'.
ARTHUR:
Well, I didn't know you were called 'Dennis'.
DENNIS:
Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?
ARTHUR:
I did say 'sorry' about the 'old woman', but from the behind you looked--
DENNIS:
What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!
ARTHUR:
Well, I am King!
DENNIS:
Oh, King, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.

Re: Happy Bleedin' Birfday!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, King, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.

Take that, Prince Harry!

:-D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see what he's going to do with it...

Thank you! I'm having a lovely day :-)

[mikekellner.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday. Sounds like you are having a good one.

37 isn't old. It's all relative.

There is a bunch of HA Bdays this time of year.

mk

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Isn't your birthday Any Day Now?

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

Oh, you looked so much younger on telly...

Hope you had a most excellent birthday. :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That was a long time ago...! ;-D

Thank you :-)

[valderys.livejournal.com]

Yes, Happy Birthday! 37 isn't old - or at least, not as old as 40! :) (Me)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! In my head I am still eleven. You'd think I'd have got the hang of it by now.

[bill-leisner.livejournal.com]

Happy happy!

Ah, to be 37 again. And wish I was still 29.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I quite like being in my thirties - I can't be bothered getting stressed any more.

[owlfish]

Happy birthday!

There's something wrong with a birthday on which none of the parcels arriving are for you.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I think I'll do nicely out of these particular parcels, to be honest! Molecular gastronomy is on its way.

[gair.livejournal.com]

I hope the sous-vide and spherification are connected to the birthday in ways rather more substantial than being mentioned in the same LJ post...

And OMG thirty-seven that is SO OLD ::falls over laughing::

[altariel.livejournal.com]

They are going to important apparatus in the assembly of my "birthday tea", as Mr A is calling it.

OMG thirty-seven that is SO OLD ::falls over laughing::

Oi! *pokes!*

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Sous-vide cooking is that amazing thing Mr A does with the beef, among other things, yes? The thing Midsummer House stopped doing because beef got too expensive?

And the spherification does, indeed, look too sci-fi for words.

Parcels arriving for one's spouse to cook with are *good* parcels for one's birthday. One day when you are a millionaire best-selling novelist and Mr A can therefore afford to become the next Ferran Adra/Heston B I shall be first in the queue for the degustation menu.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, that very slow cooking. MH still do it with other things. We were thinking of calling our dining outfit "The Scrawny Pullet" - like the Fat Duck, only crapper.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

What a splendid find in the Haunted Bookshop! It was clearly waiting there for you on your birthday. Have you read it before?

I love the sound of all that stuff, but Mr A is gonna need a bigger kitchen.

Fixing the shower, too! Is there no end to your birthday powers?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I haven't read it before, but the story looks wonderful - a girl's discovery of self (via running away, convent, and asylum). Just my kind of thing.

Is there no end to your birthday powers?

At midnight I turn back into a pumpkin.

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

I think mraltariel should set up a webcam in the kitchen so we could all watch his gastronomic wizardry in action.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

mraltariel sez: "Don't forget, sausages are tasty, sausage factory - not so great!"

Re: Happy Birthday!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gaspode.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday from us too .... You have a few years before you hit our age ..

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll get there in the end! Thank you!

[kathyh]

Happy Birthday! Believe me when I tell you that 37 isn't old :)

I've never heard of sous-vide cooking or indeed spherificating. I'm edjumacated now :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Living in this house is an edjumacation!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hi there! Good to meet and thanks for saying nice things about the DS9 books :-) Love your icon - I saw her at a convention once, and she blew me away - she's clever, witty, beautiful, and damned talented.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! *celebrates you*

What a wonderful book to have found! I hope it is as wonderful as it promises to be.

37 - what a splendid age, an age at which almost anything is possible.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *celebrates my lovely friends*

I am pleased as punch at finding this one. It is in gorgeous condition and it is long - lots of pages and tiny print. I feel like I have done well.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, and may your coming year be excellent! Is the music of the spheres all it's cracked up to be?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! (The music of the spheres sounds very much like La Vie en Rose, which is the soundtrack to some fascinating cookery videos, being watched on a PC along the sofa from me).

I just read your Apollo and Artemis story, and it is bloody magnificent. You must be chuffed to bits.

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

37! Pah, wait until you get to my age. :-) Happy birthday.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

;-D Thank you!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I bet you have an amazing birthday dinner.

Of course, you could try a zero-G environment for spherification. The food's just a bit hard to serve.

I'd like to try sous-vide with steak, but I'm a bit nervous of not doing it right. I do love slow-cooked meals though, done over several hours in a low oven (my favourites are cholent and Argentine Steak casserole) so maybe I'll stick to that.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The birthday dinner is being cooked as I type. I have no idea what's in it, but the smell is amazing. I'll report later, or else get Mr A. to do it. He seems to have been cooking all day.

[fawatson]

Belated Happy Birthday! Sorry I just realised the clock's ticked over to a new day so I'm late (blame the fact I was travelling earlier today and my schedule s all out-of-whack... (no excuse I know)! But many happy returns anyway!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Historically we stretch my birthday celebrations over the Official Birthday Week - or, at least, I try my best to do that!

[(Anonymous)]

Happy birthday!

I'm going to finish reading Len Goodman's autobiography and then fix the shower.

Isn't there some law against doing actual work on your birthday...?

Dwim

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Mending the shower was a demonstration of competence interacting with the physical world, so it felt good (honestly, that's true!). I'm not sure I can stretch Len Goodman's autobiog to count as work. I did do a little bit of work, but it fell under the category 'tidying my desk', which I also like doing (sick sick person that I am).

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Bonne fête! What a serendipitous book discovery.

And now we're the same age (at least for two months...)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could have sourced it online, but it's so much better finding them as you forage in the bookshops.

This is the four week period in the year when I'm two years older than mraltariel.

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

Coming in late, but the happiest of birthdays to you! I've spent so much time over the last month re-reading and adoring your LotR fic, I do wish I'd been able to write something for you this year. Hugs and love, and the very best of thirty-seven to you. *beam*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love the idea that you've been pottering around my imagination, and I am thrilled to think that you would go back and reread the LotR stories *hugs you*

[rakshathedemon.livejournal.com]

A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY - imagine Faramir leaping out of a giant Minas-Tirith shaped cake. Or Dr. Bashir or Garak.

You're only 37? And writing as well as you do?

Jealous now.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Faramir leaping out of a Minas Tirith cake and Garak and Bashir leaping out of a DS9 shaped cake! Perfection! :-D

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good day and hope you enjoyed the benefits of Mr A's new purchases!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

He is cooking the most magnificent meal as I type. When I walked into the kitchen earlier the smells were amazing...