Busy being spoilt

A happy spell of house guests and celebrations have kept me from blogging much lately. The celebrations were for my birthday, and for Mother's Day.

Mindful, perhaps, of the myriad treats I provided when he turned 40, TLOML laid on an abundance of fun excursions.

One such was a family trip to the Hermosa Community Theater to see Shrek was one - Lady P loved the singing so much she shouted 'more! more!' loudly after each scene. Yes, we did have to remove her before the intermission for reasons related to 'too much enjoyment'. But given my love of a musical, and of seeing Lady P enjoy herself, it was a treat.

The previous weekend, as a pre-birthday treat, TLOML took me to the Magic Castle. This LA institution is a members club for magicians. No, we are not magicians. But we know a man who is, sort of. He's an 'associate member' which allows him a silver owl pin: he's working towards one day getting full 'magician member' status and that prized gold owl pin. I had to stifle a snigger as we said 'open sesame' to an owl in a book case to gain entry, but these magicians are serious. There is a library full of magician's books which only magician members are allowed into, for example. Gob Bluths and Phil Dunphys everywhere and tricks being performed in every bar and parlour in this strange oversized folly. Photography is banned and so is any visible scepticism or scoffing. Rather bizzarre, very LA, and a lot of fun.

We also had a couple of fantastic dinners, including a date night in Hermosa's excellent Mediterraneo, where I ate more cheese in one night than I have since we moved here. You only turn 40 once, I thought. Then the next night we went out for dinner in Venice, with our favourite South Bay buddies, at a place called Scopa which has a beautiful bar and a dessert called a Peanut Butter Flutter. Again, 'you only turn 40 once', I thought.

Add to this a shower of cards and gifts and well wishes, an afternoon gathering with pear pie and champagne, and I felt very loved and really quite happy about turning 40. And almost - almost - partied out.

But fast on the heels of my 40th came another celebration. The US doesn't celebrate Mother's Day in line with the Christian calendar, like they do in the Old World. Here it's always the second Sunday in May and it involves everybody going out for brunch, or lunch, or dinner. After his largesse for my birthday, and with house guests to consider, TLOML can be forgiven for not booking a table for Mother's Day.

Instead, we (me and my oldest friend, who has a beautiful English rose of a baby) celebrated with a dad-cooked brunch in the Sugar Cube. A cooked breakfast, an elaborate fruit salad, and macaroons. I don't think there's a single restaurant in the South Bay that could have made me so happy.

So, forgive the lack of posts. But as you can see, I've been having too good a time indulging myself. Sorry not sorry, as the saying goes.