T’was my birthday today.

Not that I usually expect anything out of the ordinary or make a big deal of the occasion.

But someone special hurried home from school, stood in the kitchen and truly made my day, today:

I love you, Vic!

Managed to mow the lawn at last this afternoon.

Hadn’t looked promising that morning, but the rain finally decided to give us a break and as the air then suddenly filled with Indy-500-gentlemen-start-your-engine-like sounds, I thought I’d join in on the fun.

Which I probably would have had but for the following instructions from DBW:

Mind you mow AROUND the primroses, will you dear?

Took me bl**dy AGES!!!

Today was the last day of the girls’ Spring Break.

So I thought I’d take a day of work and treat them to a day out, something special, just them and their dad. I accordingly made a virtual list of places we could visit and “fun” things to do: nothing out of this world, mind you, just the usual stuff kids enjoy such as Europa Park, etc…

Those were the days: I could have suggested a trip to the Moon!

Sarah’s reaction was:

“I want to spend the last Friday of the holidays with my boyfriend”

(…which kinda figures as she had just spent the last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the hols with said individual).

Vicky, sensing my upcoming defeat, offered:

How about lunch at the Brasserie Lipp followed by an afternoon of shopping?

Pragmatic, eh?

So that’s what we did. I ended up only having to take the afternoon off (didn’t want to wake the little darling before 11:00 on a day off!!!), having a GREAT lunch with my favorite youngest daughter at our favorite restaurant,

where we gorged on cockles, whelks, muscles and other delicacies before waddling off towards the Bahnhofstrasse.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon, wallet in hand, visiting such establishments as H&M (3x), Tally Weijl, Claire’s, Jelmoli (had to buy some Sushi, you know), Clockhouse, as well of a bunch of other places whose name I simply cannot remember.

Enjoyable? Definitely! I now know why my brother enjoyed playing with Barbies so much..

So the clown is back in power:

The good thing is: in Italy prime ministers rarely last longer than a couple of months..

The bad: someone HAD to vote him in.

The mind boggles!

Ok, maybe it WILL stop raining eventually permitting me to give the lawn its first cut of the season (before having to resort to a scyth); and maybe, just maybe it WON’T snow next tuesday.. But spring is here. Definitely!