Nat's Birthday (6 August 2006)

Hey all,

Well as most of you would know it was Nat's birthday recently. And the first one that she has spent away from her family!

Here is a rundown of the days festivities:

We were awoken by messages from home wishing Nat a happy birthday. It was so surreal waking up in London on the other side of the world and receiving birthday wishes from friends and family back home. Cam was off to make his world famous pancakes for Nat, coz she loves them so much! It was a difficult time as this was Nat’s first birthday away from her family. But the few friends we have over here and family still made it a great day.

Cam has been trying to organize a theatre show or something similar for her over the last couple of weeks but have been unable to find anything running on a Sunday. Anyway Nat found ‘Stomp’ on lastminute.com and booked it in. I have been talking to her friend Lynsey, Craig her cousin and Brooke to arrange a surprise dinner for her as well. I decided on a place called ‘Shakalaka’. It is a South African restaurant in East Putney. We decided on the matinee show in the afternoon and then dinner later on.

We caught up with Brooke at her new live-in house. Quite a flash place indeed! 4 stories and stuff, with heaps of rooms. We dropped off the cake and some rose for later and headed out to the show. Got into the theatre and settled in for what would be a great show. It was a nice old theatre, looked like it has heaps of history, and many shows over the years.

Once settled with a couple of pictures and my beer, the show started. There was an impressive setup at the back of the stage, with all this random stuff hanging from the side of this large panel. You could tell that there was going to be something impressive happening here. The show was underway, and so many things were used for their sounds. In case you have been living under a rock and don’t know what Stomp is, it is where performers use common every day items to create sounds in time, much like a brazillian percussion band. There was some amazing things used, which included match packets, zippo lighters, plastic bins, kitchen sinks (strapped to there bodies!) and various other items. It was the combination of these things and the impeccable timing of the group that made this so special.

The finale was awesome really getting everyone worked up into a frenzy. It really was crazy! And then it finished, but you could tell there would be an encore. The crowd were going crazy, and clapping all in time and stuff, almost goosebump material!

The encore was really good, getting the audience fully involved in it with our timed clapping and stuff, we all walked away with sore hands from so much clapping! We all walked out with big smiles, tapping our toes, thigh slapping a plenty!

We had a coffee and a sandwich afterwards as it was a while until dinner. Found a great place called ‘Coffee Republic’ Nice ambience, great service (for a change) and the coffee was great! Then we were off to collect some of our stuff including Nat's Birthday cake.

Cam was off taking pictures (as usual) of the buildings and stuff around. We then headed back to Brookes abode on the tube (again…) By this time we were running out of time, but managed to get a couple of glasses of wine down. Brooke’s border parents had arrived home from their farm out in the country. Sounds tough! Back on the tube but only a couple of stations this time over to the south side of the Thames. There is some rivalry here between the North and South of the Thames, much like North and South of the river at home! They even have a competitive marathon coming up between the Northerners and the Southerners for bragging rights.

Nat still had no idea where we were going for dinner. We arrived at the restaurant, right on time! Yes it is amazing! Nat still had no idea that the restaurant Cam had chosen was well known for the seafood platter, her favourite! We got stuck us in this booth with the heat from the kitchen being trapped there. I know it’s meant to be like an African restaurant but feeling like we were in the Sahara desert was taking it a bit too extreme! They eventually moved us into the main part of the restaurant and pushed a couple of tables together. There was even a guy singing and playing guitar.

We got to meet Steve, Lynsey’s new boyfriend. He seems like a nice bloke! A couple of drinks and some fine food served. I picked this place because they had a seafood platter that sounded great! It was reviewed in a newspaper over here. The platter was quite nice, and finally some decent fish to go with it! Then it was time for Nat’s birthday cake. I had gotten up in the morning and picked up a cake for Nat. The waiter bought out the cake, the guy on guitar played ‘happy birthday’ and the whole restaurant sang Nat a happy birthday. It was awesome!! Nat would like to thank Cam for all the effort he put in to make my birthday so special. He kept surprises to himself and made the day fantastic.

Nat was feeling rather homesick in the lead up to my birthday, but after receiving a birthday card from my parents and Cam’s parents, loads of text messages from home and emails, it was truly a special day. Thanks to Brooke for organizing the beautiful flowers and being there with us, and Lynsey also. It was a great day and the first birthday in many years that Lynsey could share with me. Thanks everyone!!