Happy Birthday

Today my blog is 1 :)…so I would like to wish it a Happy Birthday. Many things have changed in the past year, and thank you to all those who have followed my ramblings. Hope you have enjoyed the ride.

Happy Birthday Ross :)

Yesterday it was Ross’ birthday, so we all got invited to his apartment for a BBQ. Unfortunately the weather was not that nice :(, but we moved the BBQ cooking to the oven inside, and just did some kebabs on the actual BBQ. But who need a BBQ when you have good friends? I went up a bit earlier to help out a bit with the preparations, but Norah, his apartment mate had everything under control, so there was not much for me to do. (Not that I am complaining about that :P). So I went back home (i.e. down a flight of stairs) to change and returned for the party portion.

People started coming, and I think it was a good number of people. We ate (Nora/Ross’ famous potato salad, Zahra’s great salads, small nibbles, burgers, sausages…you name it we had it)….a lot. There was food to feed an army. But oh well. Isn’t that the way with all parties? Norah and Ross were on cooking duty during the party, Nora (there are 2 of them…notice the H hehe) was on cocktail duty and the rest of us…chilled 🙂 and chatted and ate 🙂 Most of Ross’s friends are also good friends of mine, so it was a really enjoyable evening.

After all of us were stuffed to the brim came the desserts. We had a cake and then lots of party pieces (75 pieces in all hehe…thanks to Iceland). They were actually quite good, especially the profiteroles, which I loved. After some more chatting, the night was coming to an end. I helped them with the cleaning out (a bit haha) and then made my way home. It was a truly enjoyable evening…can we have another one soon?

Happy birthday Ross…hope you enjoyed your bday party as much as we did 🙂

Photos from Zahra’s bday

Well, the photos from Zahra’s bday party are in. Here you can see the wonderful food:

The delicious food

The friendly people:

The guests

 

The guests again

 

The group from DCU (and Ali): Ali, David, Ross, Me, Monika

The birthday girl with the cake:

Birthday girl and cake

No photos of dancing…but that is a good thing I think 🙂

Thank you Zahra for allowing me to borrow the photos (not that I asked hihi…but if its a problem tell me 🙂 )

Happy Birthday Zahra :)

Yesterday we celebrated Zahra’s birthday. Celebrations came a bit late, since her birthday falls on the Iranian new day, and so most of her friends (and herself) were quite busy celebrating their new year. However she decided to celebrate her birthday nevertheless. So she invited a couple of her friends to her house, where she prepared a banquet of Iranian food, washed down with some Iranian dancing.

All the people from our lab and Monika were to meet outside my apartment building (since I was the only one who knew where she lived, having been there before). I got dressed (bought a new dress in the morning, when I was shopping with Monika…was not planning on buying it, but saw it, liked it and decided to buy it on a whim…not so sure why cos I am not a dress girl, but we will see…I will probably see the photos now and say noooooooo what did I do, but anyways).

Surprisingly enough, everyone made it within 5minutes of the planned meeting time, and we made our way to Zahra’s house, which is a short 15 or so minute walk from where I live. Once we arrived, we were some of the first people there, but being a group of 5 people ourselves made for a merry group. The other people soon started trickling in, and the chatting increased. This time, we were the only non-Iranians there, but they always make an effort to speak English to us, so we still feel part of the group (or perhaps I just bother them too much asking what does this mean in Persian that they just don’t bother…but my Persian vocabulary is increasing 🙂 ).

After some initial nibbles, came (at least my) the favourite part of the night…Iranian food, which Zahra had lovingly prepared. Others in my lab have heard me rave about it, and Zahra certainly did succeed. She had told us to come on an empty stomach, and even though we ate and ate, there was still some leftover hihi. I had the lamb and rice, which I knew were delicious from last time, tried some new types of rice, and had the most mouthwatering sort of stuffed baguette thing with beef…MMMMMMMM. We HAD to go up for seconds hihi 🙂

After the food, came tea and then obviously the DANCING 🙂 I had had my first experience of Iranian dancing during Roya’s birthday, and knew what to expect. This time I was happy to see that Monika dived right in to the dancing, with Ross joining soon after, and then David. Basha had already left home, so he did not get to experience this :(. Well, what we did might not really be called Iranian dancing, cos in no way can I emulate what the Iranians manage to do so effortlessly. But we try (and provided comic relief to the Iranians there).

After round 1 of dancing, came more tea and the cake. And with the cake comes obviously (I am learning now) the Iranian knife dance. This time, I got to have my own dance (Marzieh and Sahar…grrrrrrrr…and Sahar did not even do it herself). However these people had seen me make a fool of myself all evening with my dancing, so whats a little more. Monika did the longest knife dance, and I think she was quite good. I just did the bare minimum and passed it on to the next person 🙂

Here is my favourite Iranian happy birthday song 🙂 It has good bits in English so you should be able to follow. I want it sung at my next birthday 🙂 Cos it is so nice and cute.

After the delicious cake, came more dancing and fun. However by now time had passed (it was after 1am by now, and Ross still had to drive all the way home…a 50minute or so drive). Other people were starting to say their goodbyes, so we decided to join the group, did our goodbye dance and made our way home. Monika and myself embarassed Ross all the way home with our dancing in the middle of the road and singing all the songs from the 90s (though Ross seems to be really handy with all the Spice girls lyrics haha).

Once I got home, I tried to sleep, but I was still on a high from the party, so I watched an episode of a new series I am watching and slept in the middle of it 🙂

Overall a REALLY ENJOYABLE evening…will post photos once they become available.

Thank you Zahra for inviting us to your beautiful home: TAVALODET MOBARAK AZIZAM 🙂

Iranian dancing?!?

Today it is my friend, Roya’s, birthday, and therefore yesterday she invited a couple of friends to meet up to celebrate. We met at Cafe Topolis in the city centre. With the help of a googlemaps printed map, Ross and myself managed to find the place quite easily. We asked about where the booked table is and they directed us downstairs hmmm. It seemed that Roya had booked the entire lower portion of the restaurant for our use (we were about 30people after all, and that is all that fit). Slowly other people joined us, including Zahra and her husband (and a couple of other Iranian people, who keep confirming my theory that Iranian girls are BEAUTIFUL). We had a great time chatting and then ordered the food. For starters I got to share a minestrone soup, and as main course got the Pizza Roma and got to try the Fettucine al Pollo E Funghi. Both were delicious, but I think the Fettucine were quite better 🙂

After the food however came the part I think I enjoyed the most. The Iranian dancing 🙂 I have been hearing about this. I have seen it being danced on Zahra’s wedding movie and have heard some Iranian music when I went to her house earlier on in the month. The music really get you moving, and I decided what’s the worst that could happen apart from me making a fool of myself? so I plunged in and had a great time. In particular I enjoyed it cos there was a Spanish girl too, who had never done any Iranian dancing. So we just had a great time with our interpretation. We also got a masterclass session with one i=of the Iranian guys who really seemed to know his stuff.

Then it was time for the cake cutting. But that requires a whole set of other dancing….knife dancing. These people really have a great time with everything they do. It was then time to go home, because this morning I wanted to be in Uni early enough. A great night. Thank you Roya. Tavalodet Mobarak. Bia Baghalan 🙂

 

The Gathering

 

Gozo

Bday part 3: Gozo.

After the Rockestra concert, Bernard, Julian, Christine and myself left to go to Gozo. We caught the 1am ferry and arrived at Julian’s family’s flat in Nadur. His dad had been in Gozo earlier in the day and bought pizzas for us weee…so as soon as we arrived we dug into the pizzas, had something to drink and plopped into bed. The next morning we woke up late (around 9am), lazed a bit around, then left to go to Victoria, the capital city of Gozo. Here we had some breakfast: Goat’s cheese qassatat and chocolate milkshake for myself. After this we left to go to Xlendi, where we went for a walk along the shore, up till the tower.

Xlendi Bay...with tower visible

We chatted along the way, and had a relaxing time. This brought us to lunch time. We went to the Country Terrace Restaurant at Mgarr. We found a table outside overlooking the Mgarr Gozo port, Comino and Malta. On such a nice day they were really breathtaking views. Now that I know I am leaving Malta, I guess I have started appreciating these things more and more each day! We decided on our selection: calamari for Julian, Squid Ink ravioli for Christine, Beef Steak for Bernard and pasta parcels with rikotta and pears for me. MMMMMMMMMM. Whilst waiting we were (as usual) brought the bread basket. Again we were pleasantly surprised (it seems as the thing to do in Malta to give different breads)…Instead of the normal rolls, we got warm rolls, all of which are different…brown, with olives etc etc…MMMMMMM (we asked for more hihi).

After Lunch we went back to the flat, where we changed into our swimsuits (except Julian who left his in Malta pfff) and went to Hondoq ir-Rummien. We do not go onto the beach part however we prefer the rocks. There fewer people would be around and the sea is simply beautiful (and you can park mere metres away from the sea). Bernard, Christine and myself jumped into the sea, whilst Julian stayed in the car listening to sports…so he was certainly not disappointed. After an hour or so of swimming, off we went to the flat, got our things and left to come to Malta.

Thank you Bernard, Julian and Christine for a wonderful birth day!

Hondoq ir-Rummien

Birthday Dinner with Bee!

Last Sunday…12th September…was my 24th birthday weeeeeeeee…so how did I celebrate? Well, I did a whole mixx maxx of things over a period of 3 days, which together made up my birthday celebrations. First up was dinner on Friday evening…me and Bernard went to Ferretti…the restaurant has not been opened long, but I have been wanting to go for ages due to its beautiful setting, and having heard about the good food there from Bernard who has been before. The restaurant is set in a historic battery, and is overlooking the sea at BBugia…it even has a moat :D. I remember passing close by a few years ago and peeping through the railing of this old old battery. However this has now been restored beautifully.

Ferretti Restaurant View

Therefore after a ride with my eyes closed, cos Bernard did not want me to see where we were going…although I had a feeling we were going there…Bernard told me to open my eyes (he did not even think of bringing a blindfold pfffffff) and I was at the entrance (with Bernard you rarely have to walk very far cos he always manages to park just where he wants to go).

 On entering we were immediately shown to our table, which was at the lower outer deck, at the moat level. Not many people were around us, so it was really nice and peaceful…just us, the sea, the waiters and someone sometimes passing by. We were given our menus and we started poring over them…mmmmm…we had only one problem…too many things looked really good. We settled on a starter of seafood ravioli for Bernard and lamb quadroni for myself, followed by stuffed calamari with salmon and yoghurt for myself and chicken with gorgonzola cheese and parma ham for Bernard.

I also chose the wine, since I am the person who generally does not like the wine. Luckily the wine menu had some sort of description of the wine on them, making it easier for me to choose. We love Roses…so I had not much to choose from luckily…I decided on the Medina Rosé Grenache D.O.K. Malta…simply because I like aromatic things and the description included aromatic haha…After my close scrutiny and vast knowledge of wines (heqq hmmm) I was not disappointed…even the wine serving service was an experience in itself. And the wine was really good…Wippie…I even drank faster than Bernard hihi…

The food was delicious…even the bread at the beginning…was not simply bread rolls but rosemary bread twists…and from the food the stuffed calamari were especially good…I cannot describe it…mmmmmmm…and I even had them all to myself since Bernard does not like calamari or octopus etc…haha. We were stuffed by the end…but we can always make room for dessert…A Chocolate Fudge for Bernard (surprise surprise he had chocolate) and I only wanted something small…so had a lemon sorbet.

Then stuffed and ready we went home to sleep 😀