Forty not out

[altariel]

So on Monday night I went out for what was billed as a quiet dinner with some friends who happened to be in town. When I got to the restaurant ALMOST EVERYONE I KNEW was there.

I may have said something a bit sweary at the sight of all these wonderful people, but it was as ever meant in a loving way.

Yes, I am FORTY soon (on Friday). However did you KNOW? And mraltariel somehow persuaded lots of my friends to come and celebrate this arcane and hardly-mentioned fact at Restaurant Alimentum here in the Unreal City. Here are some of the things wot we ate.

• Smoked haddock, fried egg, potato and mustard


• Duck terrine, fig and pear


• Baked cod, herb crust, cockles and parsley


• Sirloin beef and cheek, onion ash, red onion and carrot


• Vacherin, white beer, truffle and onion


• Pineapple and pernod foam and fennel


• Black Forest Gateau: chocolate cherry and vanilla

Also there was a LOT OF WINE, and I may have got slightly tipsy. Or possibly sloshed.

And ALMOST EVERYONE I KNEW was there. And those who couldn't be there and were missed TEXTED ME and SKYPED ME mid-meal, and I was made even more incredibly happy.

And we all talked and laughed and were very happy.

And then - My cake, o my sisters, my cake! It is a cake in MINAS TIRITH shape. It is unbelievably beautiful. See, here are some photographs of an incredibly beautiful cake that is shaped like MINAS TIRITH. LOOK YOU CAN SEE THE WHITE TREE. AND THE HOUSES OF HEALING. It is a CAKE SHAPED LIKE MINAS TIRITH. I haven't cut into it yet. I want to look at it for a bit longer first.

Thank you my friends who came to my big happy party and texted me and skyped me: you are lovely, lovely people and I am a lucky, lucky forty-year-old!

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Oh my word, that is certainly some cake! I love that you have given it its own special LJ tag, too. :-)

Happy birthday for Friday, and how awesome is mraltariel for putting on such a lovely event for you? I'm so glad you had such a fantastic evening.

[aliana1.livejournal.com]

Happy almost birthday to you! What a wonderful celebration (with wonderful food)--it sounds like you have some amazing friends who truly adore you! And OMG most incredible cake ever in history. My fave part is the little White Tree on the top! Too great.

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

Sounds utterly wonderful. Happy birthday and welcome to your forties! Still v. impressed by the cake.

[muninnhuginn]

That is some awesome cake. I can see why you might not want to cut into it.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Many happy Returns of the Cake!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

That's an impressive cake!

[kathyh]

Wow! What a wondrous cake! Sounds like you celebrated turning 40 in an amazing way.

Happy Birthday in advance :)

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

Happy cake-day! A truly awesome edifice. :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh my Goodness! I should start by wishing you a lovely birthday but... A CAKE SHAPED LIKE MINAS TIRITH.... I envy you the smoked haddock, fried egg, potato and mustard... the duck terrine, fig and pear... and A CAKE SHAPED LIKE MINAS TIRITH!

It sounds as if it would have been a wonderful evening even cakeless.... but A CAKE SHAPED LIKE MINAS TIRITH!!!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

That is even more impressive than the wedding cake my friend made for his wedding in the shape of the Athenian Acropolis (when asked why it had the Parthenon but not the Erechtheion, he explained that if you counted the number of columns it was clearly the pre-Peisistratid Parthenon so the Erechtheion hadn't been built yet). Thank you very much for sharing the photos with those who couldn't see it in the, er, cake.

Incidentally, I was clearing some duplicate books out in another attempt to regain some sort of order on my shelves. I know you were reading Ulysses last year - should I presume you already have Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and dump them on Oxfam?

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

The cake is beyond fabulous. I trust you have a candle to put at the very pinnacle of the City... shaped like Denethor...

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Yes, marvellous

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome cake!

Happy oncoming birthday :-) It's kind of hard to think of ourselves as middle-aged, isn't it? My body reminds me by aching sometimes, but my brain refuses!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking the photos of the amazing CAPSLOCK CAKE. I had a simply fabulous time.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

That cake is pretty damn awesome!

Happy birthday!

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a fabby cake! And what a lovely, lovely surprise evening you had! How wonderful. :-D

Happy pre-Birthday, Altariel. :-)

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! I've been 40 for almost a year now, and it is so far vastly superior to my 30s. I hope it's the same for you.

And that cake is amaaaaaazing!

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I tried to leave you a note on Twitter but it wouldn't co-operate. Anyway, I'm glad you had such a fantastic time and that cake really is a wonder to behold!

[greylin.livejournal.com]

That is SOME CAKE!

Forty's great. (So was 50 in my case). Life just keeps getting better and better, the older one becomes!

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

That is usually followed by a picture of a cake, but you never need that. You have the Picture of Cake which is unsurpassable!

[paranoidangel]

That cake looks amazing.

And happy birthday for Friday - if I leave it until Friday to say it I'll forget what day it is and not manage it :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Wow, how can you bear to eat such a work of art cake? That is a thing of beauty and wonder. And you deserve it.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Yay! Happy Birthday!

Happy almost-fortieth!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Wow - that is quite possibly not-cake. It's too pretty!

Have fun storming that castle...

Dwim