The birthday party (The Nokia Connection)

Hiya again

Yesterday we celebrated my now annual birthday dinner party. There were some new faces: Jill, Paco and Paola, Manuel's new girlfriend and Gaby, Susi's new boyfriend. Despite their GPS Jill and Paco got quite lost getting to our house but that's not unusual as we do live a bit out in the sticks. Another new face, of course, was my Father - this was the first time he has been with me on my birthday since 1981, so quite something to have him here. He's also a great help in the kitchen, I must say.

Missing this year were my beloved nephew Miguel, my dear friend Anne, our Turkish delight(ful) friend Burk, my beautiful and exotic Mexican friend Fernanda and Julio, of course. With us again and faithful as always were Ana and Tomy (recently married), Carmencita and Muppy, Fátima and Manuel. Only one guest couldn't make it and that was darling Rafa, my photographer friend.

Apart from my family, most of the guests have one thing in common and that's the Nokia connection as I got to know them all one way or another through working at Nokia. So that's something I can be grateful to Nokia for. The slogan "Connecting People" is just so true - there are other internal ones such as "Disconnecting Families" but that, thankfully, never happened to me, and "Reuniting Colleagues". That's the one I like.

Thank you all for coming, we so enjoyed having you. I certainly drank a bit too much and had a rotten head most of the night but it was well worth it.

As pictures say so much more than words; here are some snapshots of the evening taken by Susana with her new camera (problems with the red eyes, I'm afraid). I had to include one of the food because this year I went all out and was cooking most of the week and thought you might want to see my creations, labels and all.

And another celebration tomorrow. Eladio says my birthdays are like Indian weddings that last for days. He's right but then again I love partying, celebrations and having guests so my own birthday is a great excuse for going all out and indulging my pleasure.

Cheers/Masha

Photos from top to bottom: 1) The food. 2)The group (in pink and anti clockwise: Jill, Paco, Eladio, Tomy, Manuel, Paola, a bit of my Father and Ana). 3) Jill and Paco 4). The girls, left to right: Muppy, me, Carmen, Olivia and Fátima).