The PicuMarZ Diary

Thanks to Stephen I had a wonderful 34th birthday, despite the bad weather. At around 11pm on Saturday evening I got the first present from him; after a hint written in my book and some extra help I found a package containing two large chocolate bars above my bed .

In the morning Stephen prepared breakfast and then he went jogging while I was feeding Martyn and getting us all dressed. When he came back I went jogging, for the first time in several years, and I was positively surprised that I managed to go jogging all the way to Kopmanholmen Harbour and back without walking. When I came back to the cottage I took a refreshing dip in the sea like Stephen, and it felt very good afterwards.

We packed our things and left the cottage around 11am. In the car I found a present, it was a body lotion with suntan-effect.

The children both fell asleep on the way to Kokkola, so when we arrived we went to Prisma, and Stephen stayed in the car with the children. I bought 2 T-shirts and a skirt very cheap, since there was 70%-sale. I also bought a pair of gloves for Miranda, wetwipes for Martyn and Carmolis-candy for Stephen.

Shopping makes you hungry, so we decided to go to our favourite restaurant in Kokkola: Pedrina's Mexican Restaurant. The children woke up when we arrived, but they both behaved very well during the meal. We ate salad and chicken wings as starter, Miranda ate quite many. The main courses were also very tasty, I ate pork and Stephen chose beef.

When we finished eating I noticed that there was something under the tablecloth . The present contained a book in Swedish: "Sjojungfrun" by Camilla Lackberg. It seems to be my type of book! A bit before I had also found the birthday card and a lottery ticket in an envelope under the tablecloth. The card was soooo sweet, with drawings of our Mifsud-family.

I was so happy with my presents and the delicious meal, that I did not notice that there were two small presents left on the table. They were two heart-shaped necklaces from Mdina glass, one green and the other lilac. So many nice presents!

After the meal we went for a walk in Kokkola centre, but we soon returned to the car, because it started to rain.

I got a good laugh when we arrived back home, when I found a cleansing gel inside Martyn's jumper . We stayed inside the rest of the day, because the rain was pouring down.

But it was still a very fun day, because amazingly there were more presents to come! I received an sms saying that there is a present hidden in the kitchen. It took me long to find it, but finally I saw something behind the curtain. It was a stopwatch to use for example while cooking, it seems very handy.

After a while it was time to search for the next present, hidden in my old bedroom. On a shelf of the bedside table I found a book: "Man som hatar kvinnor" by Stieg Larsson. And inside the book was another lottery ticket!

When we were watching TV Stephen asked me to bring him a biscuit, and inside the bag of biscuits I found a note, which took me via the TV and the computer to the shower room, where Miranda helped me to find a body lotion behind the bin.

By now I thought this must be it, there cannot be any more presents. But I was wrong, the big one was still to come! When we were putting the children to sleep I found a cryptic note in Martyn's bed. It said" Hint: BtB". First I read "t" as "+", and my first idea was "bed & breakfast", but that did not make any sense. A bit later I came to think of Bob the Builder, one of my old soft toys that Stephen is not very fond of. After some searching in the dolly's pram where the soft toy was, I found the present. I was totally amazed when I opened it, because it was an advanced mp3-player! I never expected such an expensive presents after all the other presents, so it was a big, but pleasant surprise.

Just before I was going to sleep I found a note on my pillow. A last Happy Birthday from my sweet husband, and also one last present: another beautiful heart-shaped necklace from Mdina Glass. I got so spoiled this birthday, it is a day I will never forget.