The Obligatory Birthday Post 2016

April 18 is my birthday.

Though I didn’t get around to celebrate a whole lot today, because I had to work. And so I spent the whole afternoon teaching German as a second language to refugees. The class is brand new, too, and only started last week, so it’s still very exhausting.

I did start off the day by watching Snowpiercer late last night. I usually watch a nice movie for my birthday, though I probably wouldn’t have picked Snowpiercer (which is an excellent movie, but also rather harrowing and not exactly a feel-good film), if it hadn’t been on TV that night.

Then today I was mostly at school. When possible, I go out for lunch with my parents on my birthday, but not today, because of school. Cause for my birthday, I don’t want to hurry and I want to have a glass of wine with my lunch, too.

I did have a birthday cake of sort, since after school, I bought some pastries at a local bakery for myself and my parents and the neighbour who dropped by.

Quarkini – little balls of deep-fried dough made with curd cheese.

Here is an explanation of Quarkini from the company that produces a batter mix. I’m quite fond if Quarkini, since they are not so loaded with icing as other deep-fried pastries such as Berliner and Victoria.

Of course, I got presents as well. Books mostly, as well as a bottle of red wine from my neighbour.

Wrapped presents.

Unwrapped presents: Behold all the lovely books

I’m really happy with that book haul. It’s also notable that except for the Adam Christopher novel, all the books are either small press or self-published. Even if you are primarily a print reader (though I own two e-readers, a Kobo Glo and a Tolino Shine), indie books are becoming a lot easier to come by.

I got a few phonecalls, too (and probably missed a few more due to being away at school), from my aunt, my cousin and a former student.

I also got another phonecall, late tonight, that was not so happy. Because the phone suddenly rang at half past ten. “Huh”, I thought, “That’s rather late for a birthday call.” Though it might have been someone who knows I don’t normally go to bed early.

So I answered the phone and found that it was my aunt, which was odd, because my aunt is a) not the type of person to make late evening calls, and b) she had sent me a card (the one with the pink roses), so I was surprised she called as well.

However, it turned out that the call wasn’t a birthday call at all. Instead, my aunt called me to inform me that my uncle had died that evening. Now this is less tragic than it sounds, because my uncle has been extremely ill for years now. He’s also been close to death several times before, so the news wasn’t entirely unexpected. Nonetheless, I was stunned, especially since I had talked to my cousin earlier that evening with no indication that anything was wrong.

Coincidentally, my uncle happened to die not just on my birthday, but also on the birthday of his mother, my grandmother (I share a birthday with my grandma), and one day before the birthday of his grandson.