With it being Bron’s birthday today, the kids were up early and helped Dadu and Dida put up a whole bunch of decorations and inflate numerous balloons. Then they waited in anticipation for Bron to come down for breakfast to shower her with the balloons. It was a loud, lively and enjoyable morning including a special breakfast that my mum had made. We swapped presents, however, given we didn’t want to bring all the presents from home and then carry them back, we had printouts of what the presents would be. It made it seem a bit weird and lacklustre but the presents will be waiting when we get back home.

We had to go to City Centre this morning to collect Bron’s birthday cake and we took the opportunity to take another ride in an auto rickshaw. It was a bit of a tight fit with all of us and Thomas got a bit nervous sitting on my lap on the edge while the driver swerved around traffic. We dropped by the jewellery store to get Bron’s ring checked and cleaned and the kids noted the differences between such stores in Australia. For one, they offered us water, tea and coffee and brought out chairs for us to sit in. Also, they walked around and looked at some of the really large gold wedding pieces with extravagant necklaces and earrings. We selected the Belgian Chocolate and Orange cake for Bron and got them to ice “Happy Birthday” on it. After a stop at Tea Junction for a masala chai in a “khullard” we headed back home in another auto rickshaw.

For dinner I had booked Dumpukht at ITC Sonar Bangla which came very highly recommended. We needed two cars again to get there and the traffic at 6.30 heading out on the EM Bypass was very heavy. Having said that the driver we had must have been a rally car driver in his past life as he sliced through the traffic like a hot knife through butter. We made it to the restaurant a lot quicker than we expected and then had to wait for them to open. The restaurant specialises in Awadhi cuisine with a traditional way of cooking in a Dum. The menu was quite overwhelming and fortunately the wait staff helped with picking the dishes for the meal. The food was rich and exquisite and everything was incredibly well prepared – however some of the dishes were a bit spicy for the kids. We accompanied it with a nice bottle of South African wine. The staff took Emily and Tom away after they finished their mains to feed some fish they had in a pond. They also had a cake for Bron to help her celebrate her birthday.

We played a “Tag the Hair Clip” Game through the day today. The rules were simple, we had a small hair clip that had to be attached to anyone in the family without them realising. Anyone left with the clip at the end of the day was the loser. It was quite a lot of fun clipping it onto those unsuspecting and it was even more fun pretending to clip it on. The end is contended but either Ben or Emily were finally left with the clip.