Today I turned 25 and it has been the best birthday I've had in a while. My birthdays are not usually a day of celebration so I was more than happy to have a day just relaxing, minimum fuss and maximum chilling. This was much to the consternation of S - here in Portugal birthdays are a big deal whether you like it or not. So when I first suggested that I just wanted to spend the day relaxing at home and then call out for pizza this was met with a combination of amazement and disbelief - how dare I be so selfish on my birthday as to not want a fuss made of me!
As I have been rather ill lately (I did indeed spend all of yesterday tucked up in bed, watching episode after episode of Jonathan Creek and teaching S to play Go - note to self - the wearing of body armour whilst playing board games with S is a necessary precaution) and extremely insistent about not wanting a fuss made I was largely successful in my aim for a relaxed birthday but I did have to make a number of concessions. We would need to leave the flat at some point and there would be no takeaway but we could make our own pizzas.
It has now taken me over 8 months to realise this but I am engaged to a ninja, either that or I was slipped something in my Ovaltine last night because S managed to successfully sneak out this morning to get my birthday card and cake without waking me and I'm not the heaviest sleeper in the world, especially in the morning. Here is a great photo of what I woke up to this morning:
After stuffing as much of the bola de Berlim as I could manage down me I got up and we went to the Oceanarium. I was thinking here that few things could be more relaxing than a couple of hours watching the fish and thankfully I was right.
The Lisbon Oceanarium is a relic of the Expo in 1998 which the area around undergoing a huge redevelopment. The Parque des Nações houses the Oceanarium, The Vasco da Gama Shopping centre (along with self cleaning roof) and tower, as well as some cable cars and evidently one of the most popular make-out spots for the teenagers of Lisbon.
The day was lovely and we saw the fish getting up their antics. The Oceanarium really is a must see for anyone visiting Lisbon for the first time, someone once told me it was the largest of its kind in Europe!
Here is me outside it:
After a couple of hours with the fish and the screaming children (including one unfortunate enough to be called Bruna) we decided to head home but not first with out an obligatory visit to the shopping centre. S had seen some brown boots that she was raving over and her parents had offered to get me something for my birthday so I decided to get another pair of pants - some rather funky checked ones. They're hard to describe but they look pretty good on (much to the surprise of S who had turned her nose up at them originally!) I also got a 'cowboy' shirt because I wanted something to wear on Saturday and S refuses to let me wear my rather tight one for fear that the poppers will explode thus exposing me to the masses.
When we got home we were pretty shattered but we still managed to make a couple of lovely pizza and now I'm about to settle down to finish off some Jonathan Creek and put my padding on for another couple of games of Go
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