Have you ever seen the film Borat? You know the one. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen it, I won’t judge you. (You may want to judge me though.) Anyway, there’s a scene in that in which Borat introduces his family in Kazakhstan to the audience. A wizened old women, dressed in frumpy old clothes and headscarf stands in front of their family home and Borat tell us, “This is my mother. She is oldest woman in whole of Kuzcek. She is ah forty-sree. I love her.”

Beautiful earrings, a present from Mr Mac

I was forty-three yesterday. Which is utterly ridiculous, by the way. But I had a lovely birthday. I was spoiled silly.

My birthday actually dominated our whole weekend. Mr Mac took me out to dinner on Saturday night, to our favourite steak house, which I’ve written about many times before. This time though, we were given a very effusive welcome from the waitress who has served us many times before. She shook our hands and even commented on my new hair do (I’m a red head now!) We had our usual menu of a mixed salad with French sauce (Italian for His Lordship) and a horse fillet steak. The meat was so tender you could literally (and you know I never use that word out of context) cut it with my fork. Absolutely delicious birthday dinner. But before we left the house, Mr Mac gave me this gorgeous pair of pretty silver and pearl earrings which I wore that night and haven’t taken out since.

And then, on Sunday, Mr Mac treated me to Cine Delux, to see The Great Gatsby. You know I’m a big fan of Mr DiCaprio. I’ve never read the F Scott Fitzgerald book from which this movie was adapted so I went into it with a fresh brain and no expectations (except that I would fancy Leo). I really enjoyed it. Typical Baz Luhrmann, some scenes were so ridiculously busy that it was an assault to the eyes and the music horrendously trendy and modern. But, for me, it all worked well. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was that we saw it in 3D. 3D isn’t for me anyway but in this case it just came across as gimmicky, didn’t work in certain scenes (hurt my eyes in the fast car scenes) and added nothing to experience of the film. Why won’t 3D just go away?

And then came yesterday which was my actual birthday and was a public holiday here for Pentecost. It was a relaxing day. Patrick was working, James and Ewan spent most of the day with friends and Mr Mac ran after me, not letting me lift a finger except to knit another blanket. It was a lovely birthday indeed.

My present from Patrick and Fah, an engraved(!) bottle of J’adore along with a Dior make bag filled with samples of lovely things. The lipstick is particularly gorgeous- a lovely deep pinky-red. Not pictured, a little bag of various eye cream samples. I am a lucky, lucky woman of 43.

In an attempt to breathe a bit of life into this poor blog, I’ve decided to try and post something funny I found around t’internet on a Friday. I don’t want to call it Funny Friday or Friday Funnies coz, like…. *rolls eyes* But, Friday and funny do kind of go together. It’s alliteration, innit.

So, for the inaugural Thing on a Friday What Made Me Laugh Throughout This Week Coz It Was Funny post, here’s The Best of Murray Hewitt. Arguably the best character in Flight of the Conchords.

You know Richard Osman, from Pointless? Of course you do.

I have a brilliant new business idea #brilliantnewbusinessidea

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 15, 2013

I will personally ‘translate’ any text sent to you by any man.’What does he mean by that?’ I will instantly tell you #maletexttranslator

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 15, 2013

So, I sent him (an excerpt from) a text I got from from Mr Mac this morning and he replied.

“@msmac: “Not feeling too good. Hungover like hell.” from @craigmclovin”

“I regret that thing I said last night” #maletexttranslator

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 15, 2013

No, seriously. I remember trying my first oreo cookie. After all the hype in US pop culture about these biscuits, I was expecting some amazing culinary experience. Then I tried one and was more disappointed than I ever had been in a biscuit. I thought, “Ughh, it’s not even as good as a chocolate bourbon!” (Mind you, a bourbon is a pretty good biscuit.) I also hated the ads on Australian tv. A syrupy showcase of a little kid talking to his puppy, “Chocolate’s not good for dogs… But you can have the rest of my milk.”

But then I saw this saccharine monstrosity on Twitter this morning. What were they thinking?

I had absolutely no idea who/what Owl City is. But then I came across this parody video.

It made me laugh. And know that I don’t need to know who/what Owl City is.

This month on Bea I share some of my most favourite Swiss recipes. One of them is good old Nüsslisalat which I’ve shared here before. But that shouldn’t stop you reading it.

A Taste of Switzerland: three delicious and easy Swiss recipes to try

Go on, click it. And let me know if you try any of the dishes.

Yes, I’m still here. Back from a one week holiday with my family and friends in Scotland and all fresh and raring to go, powered by stealing cuddles from my gorgeous niece and nephew, Hannah and Liam (will put some photos in a private post for my long-time reader(s))

I just wanted to share a couple of little things I’ve seen around t’internet over the past few days.

First up, this lovely time lapse video of Zürich which I found in Facebook.

Then, this Sad Cat Diary which is very funny, even if you don’t like cats. Like me.

And one more video which I found while I was looking for a video of pine martens online. You see, when I went out for a walk with my mate this morning, we took our usual route and while headed down the hill, saw a furry, substantially-sized thing bouncing about in the long grass beside us. It was too big to be a mouse, too bouncy to be a rat (also- ewwwww!), too hidey to be a cat and too small to be one of the cows. My pal mentioned it might be a marten of some description. I searched for martens online to see how they move, see if they have a bouncy action, and I found this:

They do! And I really think that’s what we saw this morning. How exciting.

(List of wildlife I’ve seen in the Village of the Damned: Foxes, deer, grey herons, red kites, buzzards, badger(that was very exciting), and now a marten.)

And finally, a silly website which tells you, if you give it access to your location on your computer, whether or not you should hang your washing out. Warning- swear words. But that’s what makes it funny.

Nüsslisalat- en guetä!

Nüsslisalat, or Lamb’s Lettuce, as I knew it BS (that’s Before Switzerland. Well, it is now.) is a great favourite with the Swiss. Every now and then big bags of it will be on special at Coop and you see it in everyone’s trolley. It’s traditionally a food for Boxing Day, as far as I can make out too, which I find a bit strange- a salad in the middle of winter.

But anyway, I never really knew what to do with it until Patrick invited his dad and me to Easter Brunch (that’s another Swiss thing- “invited” means they’re paying) at his fancy* restaurant. There was Nüsslisalat on the cold brunch buffet (along with smoked salmon, salad nicoise, prawn cocktail, celeriac salad and a load of other lovely things made by Patrick himself, as the cold kitchen chef.) Patrick was serving at the cold buffet and when I asked him for some Nüsslisalat, he asked, “Do you want everything that goes with that?” I took everything that makes up a proper Swiss Nüsslisalat dish and it was delicious. Here’s a very simple recipe so you can try it too.

• 1 bag Nüsslisalat/Lamb’s Lettuce/I think it might be Mache in the USA
• Croutons
• Roughly chopped hard-boiled egg
• Bacon pieces
• French dressing

I emptied the bag of lettuce into a bowl and sprinkled the croutons, bacon and egg over the top. Then add dressing. Perfect for summer, I reckon.

In other news, we might have some quite exciting news to share soon and I still don’t know what’s wrong with my protected posts.

* as in the restaurant he works in. Not, well, you know…..

Nope, haven’t changed the password on any of the protected posts, they’re just not working right now for some unknown reason.

I’ll get back to you on that.

This month I interviewed a friend of mine, Jenny Schimak, about her experiences while volunteer nursing in Tanzania.

Vocational Travel: Nursing in Tanzania, an Interview with Jenny Schimak

Sounds like an amazing experience.