Happy birthday to me!

I was whining earlier at Phantom's about how people forgot my birthday this year, but now that the day is nearly over, I promise I have a bit more perspective. Actually, it was a pretty good birthday after all. And I have lots of recommendations and anti-recommendations for you, so that you can share the benefit of my hard-won wisdom :)

Let's start with the negative, so I can end on a positive note and justify Rebecca's touching belief in my sunny good nature.

Anti-recommendations:

Cheap Chinese knock-off mp3 players. Even after you decipher the mysteries of the user manual*, you may find the device has strong opinions about your music collection. The only files that mine seems willing to play are Dido (and even then it gets bored and randomly reboots after about eight tracks—although, then again, after eight Dido songs, so do I). It won't recognise the Indigo Girls at all; it hates Michael Jackson so much that it crashes and reboots at least once per track; and the rest of my 80s music (especially Tiffany) causes it to barf every five or six minutes too. If we can't fix it by tomorrow, we'll have to send it back, but since it took three weeks to ship here, and requires return within 30 days of shipping if defective, we may not be able to get a refund. And even if we do, refunds don't include shipping costs, which in an order from Australia equates to about 30% of the total price. Sigh.

Parents. Just don't have any. More trouble than they are worth.

Underpants. As a gift for your daughter-in-law. Especially in a shade of cyan that I haven't seen since the early nineties when computer manufacturers got smarter.

Saying in your birthday card that accompanies said underpants, "I didn't know what size to get you, but I thought, 'Well, she certainly isn't small...'" (Although now I better understand the conspiracy of nature and nuture that inspired my brother-in-law's famous tact malfunction last Christmas. He gave me a bottle of anti-aging cream that promises to make its wearer look ten years younger. Me, "Gosh. Um, thanks!" Him, "Yeah. I hope it works.")

Recommendations:

Ethiopian food. Really. Really truly. And if you are local, this place in particular. It's a little more pricey than some of the other restaurants nearby, but if you are with someone else and just have one of the two-person combination platters, that comes to a total of $50 and you won't need appetisers or desserts (although if you do, I recommend the chickpea fritters for the former, but not so much the semolina cake for the latter, which was pretty ordinary). Also, their coffee is the best I've ever had. Just try to ignore the owner scowling at you miserably from the front of the bar. I think he is watching to see whether you eat properly or spill food all down your front. (I failed).

A Geekman. One who wakes you up on your birthday by bringing you coffee and your present in bed.

Wonderful friends on the other side of the planet who send the world's most awesome present. (A dip pen! With interchangeable nibs! And fancy metallic inks! In the world's cutest bottles!) You rock! And it arrived this afternoon, just when I was feeling like a pair of underpants and a defective mp3 player was not a sufficient birthday haul to satisfy my avaricious nature.

Going shopping on your birthday. You'll find you can justify buying all the things you never usually would. Like fancy teas. And gourmet chocolates. And pretty, pretty new boots.

Blogfriends who are sweet and lovely and email you birthday wishes. Thanks, guys!


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*Some gems from the user manual: "Stir or press on NEXT, blue back strip move downward to the last option and go next page to last page and go first page indicate the current activation option."
"If stop at lyric status, please return non-lyric window."
"Upgrade to realize the firmware upgrade, repair, backup function. It's in the waiting status while entering."
"As player is easily telltale, so it is very important for user to protect private secret."