Sam brought me some lovely icing tools for my birthday, and combined with my new food colouring and fancy icing knife and glitter and whatnot from Mum I have all the gizmos I could ever want for icing cakes, so yesterday we baked cupcakes and then decorated them. I'd show you a picture but my camera's in the other room - sad you're missing out, though, because they're all daintily arranged on my V&A cupcake stand. They're not beautiful (it's my first go) but they're quite cool. Next time I think I'll separate my icing into two or three and make several different colours - then I'll take some pictures. It was very good fun though, we all got a bit giddy with all the sugar and pink and squeezy fun.

Hello trees, hello sky, hello flowers

Some of the best news I've heard, well, today (it's only half nine so I suppose that's not saying much) is that we're going to have a spectacular spring. Now that the long, gloomy winter is over, doesn't that just cheer you up no end?

And I can feel it in the air – these last couple of weeks have been so much more wonderful than the miserable, cold, grey winter. The birds have suddenly appeared, and they're so loud I can even hear them over the traffic. In fact, I woke up early on Sunday morning and couldn't hear any traffic, just very loud birdsong. Even better, on Sunday afternoon I saw my first woodpecker this side of the Atlantic in a back garden in North London. And on Sunday night, a heron.

Unfortunately, spring has also brought an infestation of greenfly in our beautiful herb garden. I think it might have got in on a bunch of daffodils. When I looked at it last night it was absolutely covered in little white things which, on closer inspection, turned out to be hundreds, or maybe thousands, of baby flies as well as some grown-ups. Our previous infestation (of ladybirds) seems so jolly and nice by comparison – in fact, Sam says the ladybirds are our allies in fighting off greenfly. But there were only two ladybirds around yesterday (I had evicted the others the night before) so I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the greenfly. We've ended up hacking the whole thing down. It's gone. Dead. Finished. It was about time anyway – the roots had grown so big they were pushing the top of the plant up and the smaller plants (dill, thyme) just weren't getting a look-in at all. We did salvage the herbs themselves though – we've washed the parsley and basil, chopped it up and stuck it in the freezer. I just need to figure out what to do with the chilli peppers and maybe make some mojitos with the mint.

You may also like to know that Sam is staying with us, and although I haven't brought him for any outdoorsy exercise yet, he has still managed to injure himself outdoors by falling over on the trolley ramp by Sainsburys. His knee is all swollen and cut, and he's having a good time complaining about it which is the important thing.

In which I have a birthday

Yesterday I turned 25. It's devastating, really. I'm not in my early twenties anymore. I've been around for a quarter of a century. And just to rub salt in the wounds, this is what Wikipedia says about the number 25:

"Under 25" provides a common cut-off point for designating youth.

(I'm sorry, if you've come here from Sam's blog you probably expected a more exciting fact. I feel like I've let you down)

So I am now officially old. My youth has been cut off. Wikipedia said so.

I did have a nice day though. Mum came to visit, and we jointly went to visit Ian in Bristol. We went to the zoo where they had lots of mini animals. There really was "a sort of a tiny potamus" (like in the poem, aka a pygmy hippo), and there were lions and flamingos and seals and penguins and butterflies and monkeys and stuff. My favourite bit was the Twilight Zone, where they had all sorts of twilighty creatures in a very dimly lit room, and you had to peer into the enclosures quite carefully to spot what was in there. There were some nice things in there, like sand cats and monkeys and tiny lemurs, but there were also giant jumping rats which are just not cool. They also had a fantastic glass-sided tunnel complex with naked mole rats running around inside. That was very cool.

On Friday Mum and I went to see Oliver. She amazingly arrived with one minute to spare, having landed in Heathrow an hour before. I forgot how many brilliant songs there are in Oliver. The little chappy who played the Artful Dodger was superb, he pranced around the place with a cockiness that was brilliant on stage, but I wouldn't like him as a little brother, he looked rather precocious. Griff Rhys Jones was great as Fagin too. The sets were amazing - they moved around to give the impression that people were running through streets or going underground or climbing or whatever. My favourite bit was Who Will Buy - the choreography and the costumes were just beautiful, all twirling around and cartwheeling and stuff. I could have sat watching that for hours.

I've just spent ages trying to reply to all my birthday wishes on Facebook. I've mostly caught up but I've run out of steam. There's only so many times I can come up with new ways to say the same thing, it's just too damn difficult.

I've just been to the cinema with Siobhan to see A Single Man. Andy's away this week, you see, so I'm doing things he wouldn't enjoy. That film is definitely one of those things, but I liked it very much. What a beautiful, beautiful film - beautiful clothes, beautiful buildings, beautiful music, beautifully shot. I left the cinema feeling like I'd just been to an art exhibition or something.

On the way I popped in to the Coliseum to book tickets for Satyagraha with my new Access All Arias card which gets me very cheap tickets to the opera because I'm under 30. The man at the ticket desk was extremely irritating, pompous and patronising. I asked for Upper Circle tickets, and he told me there were no AAA tickets left, explaining that there is only a limited allocation of AAA tickets for each performance. So I asked if there were tickets for other tiers, and he spoke to me very slowly, like I was stupid, saying, "That's what I'm trying to explain to you, there are no tickets." He 'helpfully' told me that if I turned up 3 hours before the performance, in person and with my student ID, then I could join the standby list. Thing is, right, it's not a bloody student privilege, it's for under-30s. There are people under the age of 30 who want to go to the opera who have JOBS. Which means we can't turn up at 4pm just on the offchance that there might be a ticket. You also can't book AAA tickets online, and nobody answers the phone if you ring. I thought he rather undermined ENO's efforts to make opera accessible and friendly to young people by being so patronising and making it so very difficult to actually purchase a ticket.

Do you think it's okay to only have popcorn for dinner? It's just, I ate so much of it at the cinema that I'm completely full. But it doesn't seem like very healthy sustenance. I do have some asparagus in the fridge, but I had asparagus soup for lunch and I don't want to turn into an asparagus.

I had a nice day yesterday. Andy and Katy and I went to a little place called Twyford near Henley to visit Aaron, Annabel and their little baby Finn. Although he's a lot bigger than last time I saw him. He's a very fun child - he doesn't cry much, he gets fascinated by everything, and he gets a major kick out of stick his hand in my mouth.

Twyford's lovely (or whatever the nearby place that Aaron actually lives in is called). We went for a yomp in a forest with Finn in his rucksack carrier thing. Finn looked very comfortable and fell asleep straight away. The sun was shining and the air was much cleaner than it is here, and we had a nice big roast in a pub then went to another pub by the river. All in all it was a nice break from London life.

Devastating snub?

According to a politics.co.uk headline, during dinner last night Mr Zuma sought to recover from a 'devastating Sainsburys snub'. Goodness me, I thought, was it Lord Sainsbury? Did he refuse to shake hands or, perhaps, spit in his face? Did the local Sainsburys refuse him admission? Did they turn down his application for a Nectar card?

 

The reality is rather more mundane.

 

"South African president Jacob Zuma finished his state visit by attending a City dinner last night, as he sought to recover from a devastating snub at a local Sainsbury's.

 

Mr Zuma, who has stayed as a guest of the Queen at Buckingham Palace and engaged in high-level talks with Gordon Brown in Downing Street, was touring the local Sainsbury's in Greenwich, south-east London, when the incident occurred.

 

Despite being flanked by a coterie of bodyguards, as well as Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King and environment secretary Hilary Benn, one elderly couple utterly failed to acknowledge him.

 

John and Catherine Przeslawski, aged 92 and 86 respectively, were instead busily engaged in choosing which cheeses to select from the cheese-counter as the presidential swarm swept past.

 

''We didn't notice anybody, we were too busy choosing our cheese, we didn't see the president at all," Mr Przeslawski said afterwards."

 

I'm not even sure that needs further comment.

The Butcher and Grill

Today Andy and I are very full because we've been to the Butcher and Grill in Wimbledon Village for a mixed grill. The best mixed grill ever. We had delicious rump steak, lamb chop, sausage, bacon, calf's liver, kidney, duck egg, mushroom, sundried tomato, chips and bearnaise sauce. It was all such deliciously wonderful meat, so tender and beautiful. And then, when we were completely full, we found space in our dessert tummies for creme brulee. Yum yum yum yum yum.

This was all because Andy has been offered a new job at Sport England. He's not sure whether he wants it or not as it's not quite the one he applied for, but being offered a job is always something to celebrate, so we did.

And another thing ...

Do you have any suggestions of things for me to do in London? If so, let me know and I'll try do them.

Ireland v England at Twickenham

Last weekend (27 February) I went to my first international rugby match, Ireland vs England at Twickenham. Andy had managed to get tickets through work, so we went with his parents. Our seats were right at the very top of the stadium, very very high up, but with a fantastic view of the whole pitch. Only thing was everything looked a bit blurry and out of focus to me from up there - I'm going to have to get glasses for that kind of occasion it appears.
Although the place was mostly full of England fans, the Ireland fans definitely made our presence felt. England fans just wore normal clothes, but Ireland fans were bedecked in green. Puma, the new sponsor of the Irish team, had people giving out free flags, hats and inflatable bangy things to Irish fans, so we were quite visible. It was a little strange being there with three England fans though - every time I jumped up and down with glee they sat there looking a bit sad that their team was losing.

My favourite bit, though, was walking back to the train station after the match. The Irish people all around me were singing, in a way English people never do. They were singing the Fields of Athenry, Molly Malone and the Black Velvet Band, just snatches of songs coming up from different parts of the crowd. I think it's only on occasions like that, when I can see large groups of Irish people in contrast with large groups of English people, that I really notice how different the two countries are, and I start to understand the stereotype of Irish people being so much more relaxed and friendly than people from other countries.

Chinese New Year

The next day, we went into town for the Chinese New Year festivities (a week after Chinese New Year). It was odd, really. The crowds were huge, but there wasn't really enough to actually sustain our interest for very long. There was a big stage in Trafalgar Square where people did some fantastic dancing, but in between the dancing two girls spent a very long time reading out characteristics of people born in various years from pieces of paper to fill time. It got a little dull.

Chinatown itself was much more exciting. There were lanterns absolutely everywhere, and huge queues outside all the restaurants. The main street (Gerrard Street?) was impassable because there was a dragon dancing. I really wanted to see the dragon, but we couldn't see it properly because the crowds were so dense. Every now and again you'd see the dragon's head bouncing up but then we were hustled back out of harm's way.

All the children had those firecracker/banger/snaps things, those little twists of paper with gunpowder in them that you throw on the ground. I really like having them myself, there's something very satisfying about throwing them on the ground, but they're quite annoying when small children throw them at your feet. We did buy a paper dragon thing and a drum thing though - I'm not sure why, we just got caught up in the whimsy I think.

The disappointing bit, though, was the fireworks: we had timed it so we'd be there for the fireworks at 5pm. We checked with the information stand, who confirmed they'd be at 5pm. But it was a bit cold so we went and had a cup of tea at the Cafe in the Crypt, and reemerged at 4:45. We headed for Leicester Square, where the fireworks were due to be, only to find they weren't going to start until 6pm. Cold and bored, we headed for home.

Regent's Canal and Primrose Hill

I promised Dad I would do more fun stuff and then write about it, but I haven't been very good at keeping my promise so far. So here's what I've been up to (photos may follow).

Saturday week ago Andy and I went for a walk from Little Venice to Camden along Regent's Canal. It was lovely and sunny but still very cold in the shade, so lots of the canal had ice on top. There were two kayakers floating along, enjoying themselves sliding over icy bits and bashing it with their paddles. We passed lots of very lovely narrow boats (which I wouldn't want to live on, too narrow) and barges (which I would want to live on) with teensy tiny little garden spaces at the side of the towpath. People are so creative with garden spaces when they only have a tiny space and they spend lots of time outdoors. There were wheelbarrows and signs and benches and potted plants and things hanging off the walls and barbecues and it was just lovely. We scrutinised the huge canalside properties in Regent's Park, trying to understand why you would choose to live in London if you were rich enough to be able to afford one of those houses, and mocking the naff faux-Roman pillars several of them had glued on the front.

The canal walk takes you through the zoo, except you can't actually get into it. I learnt that Andy doesn't really like birds - why didn't I know that before? And we saw hyenas prowling up and down in their cage.

We stopped off at Primrose Hill, clambering up to get one of the best views of London. I expected the hill to be bigger - it's really not very big at all, but there is certainly a good view of London. It goes on and on and on and on, I don't think the scale of the place had ever really hit me before because it's so darn flat, you never get a true perspective of the size of it.

Then we went to Camden for a very good burger, and that was about it really.