The City was Strangley Empty.....

I think a very large proportion of 20-somethings and early-30-somethings have vacated Wellington this weekend. Me and Ange both have our flats all to ourselves.

1.
My birthday was a very middling 'average'. It wasn't bad - just nothing particularly memorable about it (except the Dashboard Diva, of course!). It was topped off by my dad and stepmum ringing in the morning saying they were couriering my gift up.... and it not arriving til the next day. I got a pang of disappointment every time I went past my desk or the office and it wasn't there...... I had visions of some sneaky kid nicking off with it.

One amusing thing was my little Marlene told everybody who'd listen that 'It's my form teacher's birthday today! She's very young - only 29!' (and she wasn't being sarcastic). Even before school started for the day she'd camped out at the gate and told about 4 teachers who came up to the staffroom and mysteriously knew it was my birthday when I'd been trying to keep it on the down-low from colleagues (I hate that kind of attention at work). She's a cutie... she made me two birthday cards and got the class to sing happy birthday for me.

Perhaps worst of all was that I started sneezing in the mid-afternoon and didn't stop all night. It turned into a miserable cold the next day (temperature, swollen glands, more sneezing) and I actually went home at lunchtime. VERY unlike me, I'm a trooper. But it was a teachers only day, so no big loss...... Just missed a bunch of debates on the new curriculum, which is as interesting as it sounds.

Having said that, I know people who've actually had TERRIBLE birthdays (Ange had one this year). Being in the middle of break-ups and what-nots (Nicky had a bad one where Ken dumped her and she was in the middle of a stressful first-section at t-coll).

I liked having dinner with Ange and Sam. That's always a pleasure. And I felt virtuous for calling up my brother and seeing him for the first time in two months. He seemed to enjoy me buying him beer.

And I guess the 'birthday period' has been tainted by some .... 'odd' decisions by Matt, which don't help. Sometimes boys are frustrating.

I'm still a bit under the weather today. Stink!