The alarm went off at 6am. It makes a sort of rainforest noise, which is not that different from the normal daily noises that emanate from our household, the main difference being that you can at least switch the alarm off. J and I catapulted into action and by 7am I had baked 24 blueberry muffins for the Lozenge to take to school as is the custom on a birthday. May Betty Crocker be praised. I don't think anyone noticed, and a fresh blueberry here costs approximately 50p a berry so Betty's mix was better value and a lot quicker.
Rashimi had a lie in after a later night than usual. I asked him if he'd had a nice lie in when I went in and he responded with: 'Rrrrraaaaaar!' I think he'd mistaken it for a li on.
He had breakfast on his own with me which must have been rather boring as he exclaimed: 'Lo Lo. Miss. Lo Lo. Miss. Daddy. Miss. Daddy. Miss.' I didn't take it personally since it's nice when other members of the family like each other.
Fortunately the Glammy was here by 9 and they skipped off together and allowed me to begin the real bake off (the 6am was a mere dry run) for the party that afternoon. I was fairly pleased with the results and for once the Jordanian flour didn't play up.
The Kinks were the most perfect soundtrack to my day - the first day in 7 I'd been in the house. 'Don't forget to dance. Don't forget to smile. Don't forget to dance,' sang the Kinks. And I did smile as I remembered Mohammad the professor's comment from the day before: 'For a careerist, you're actually quite thoughtful,' as I helped him wash up the plates after our picnic.
Poor J got stuck in a bus in nose to tail traffic for two hours but he made it back by 4.15 and over the next four hours we received a steady trickle of people from 70 to 1.5 years old who have made our time here in this city meaningful and fun. Countries represented were: Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Sri Lanka, Germany, Holland and the UK. Rashimi scuttled around after me calling: 'Chewwweeeee!' and trying to pinch them all from the top of the cake. No tantrums and no talk of presents = a success in my book. The Lozenge was still holding his helium balloons when his head hit the pillow.
By 8.30pm the balloons had reached bed level. I think helium they use here is imitation. And the Lozenge and Rashimi had eaten so much cake that....well, you can imagine, can't you. Let's just say, the Romans would have been impressed. Though Rashimi and the Lozenge didn't begin eating again until mid day the next day.
I Detol-ed the house the following morning and packed my camera bags for another trip to Za'atari, wishing I could have made more cakes to take with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment