I had the most quiet birthday ever. Half of my firends and my brother and his family are down with this horrible bug Angelos had, and the rest are in business trips. So my phone was ringing like crazy all day, but I had no guests over in the evening. Which was good, because I was really needed an early night to catch up on my sleep. No matter how invigorating and precious a marathon is, it still is very tiring, mainly for the early waking up on a weekend. I just need my weekend for one basic reason: I need to wake up without the alarm for a couple of days. No matter if I wake up at 8 am or noon, I need to let my body decide on its own when to wake up!

Which happened today :) At 6.30 am! But then, I was in bed asleep by 10 pm!

Another good thing of my quiet birthday was that we had no birthday cake! Sofia and Vangelis are coming back this afternoon from Amsterdam and they called me yesterday and they said that we should go over their house tonight for an Amsterdam update, a belated celebration of my birthday, and some birthday cake they are bringing me. I am afraid they will do the crazy thing and bring me some space cake...lol.

I also did not get many pressies. Which is good. lol Cos my parents and brother and 2 best girlfriends and my partner all gave me the money they were going to spend on a gift so that I can buy more stuff I want from Amsterdam! Sofia is bringing my gift from Amsterdam tonight :) And Angelos got me 36 red roses and said that he will buy me my real gift in Amsterdam too! I told him that Amsterdam is famous for its well cut and really good quality diamonds. He said a pair of boots is more likely the case...hehehe

I ate a bit too much last night too. I had apples all day. I have grown so fond of apples lately. Did you know that apples are full of peptin, an enzym that helps digestion? Eat an apple after meals, your body will really love it! But in the evening, Angelos said that we should have something fancy for dinner. And we did. Not fancy really, but something we really both love. It is a big pitta bread grilled in charcoal and filled with chunks of pork fillet, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes all grilled in charcoal. I could eat this every day! I just love its simple yet devine taste of all the different aromas mingled. Food grilled in charcoal is so much more yummier than grilled any other way!!! Sounds healthy, and it is, only it is REALLY big!!!!!!

So I weighed back to 89 this morning. I think the carbs of the pitta bread did this. But I don't really care. I will be good today and tomorrow, and we have planned almost all dinners in Amsterdam, and as Angelos very well put it lat night "If you gain a kilo or two while we are in Amsterdam, you will just have to work a bit more when we come back. Don't let food stress you in our trip. Taste is always part of one's trip, and let's face it, Amsterdam is shopping, coffeeshops, sex shops -new toys....yeeeehaaa ;) - and good food. You don't want to miss any of this, do you?"

Little devil my husband can be at times...hehehe

I did a good search yesterday, and I have found new tastes for us to try. So we will go to our favourite tex - mex the first night. I still have the taste of Gaucho's spare ribs in my mouth! Then we will go to a Tibetan reastaurant the second day. Noone has ever tried tibetan food before so it will be a surprise! Then we will have Indian food, and Portugese. And on Sunday we are meeting the dutch people from the congress I organised last October who are taking us in a typical Dutch reastaurant! The hotel has a warm buffet breakfast, and I am sure there will be eggs and fruit, so this is what I will be having. And we will have falafel or smoked hering sandwiches for lunch. The hotel we are staying is about 6 km from downtown, and we will walk there after dinner. The weather is very cold right now, it will be between -1 to 5 C and the humidity? Most days go between 98 - 100%!!!! Walking and cold will take care of some of the calories huh?

But I am not going to stress over it. Strangely, I do not have the fear I would usually have about eating something after a very restricted diet. I know now that I can do this, and I know that I can take corrective action really fast for any gain to stay and multiply. And honestly, I really prefer to go with the decision of eating whatever I fancy and surprise myself with making healthy and reasonable food decisions, than go with a "perfect' eating plan on mind that will make me feel guilty with each mouthful that is not "on plan"! Who needs guilt?!?! I have had my gargantuan share of it and thank you very much I will take no more!!!!

Thank you very much for all your birthday wishes, I printed them and saved them in my box of birthday cards I have had over the years. Your support and freindship means so much!

So now go have a great first of February! And before you go, I will tell you something extremely wise one therapist did to us in the marathon. I will copy from an email I sent to Lynda yesterday (because I am lazy to retype it)

One of the therapists, in the beginning of the session, took out a tape measure, and went to each and every one of us asking our age. I was the first, lol, so I got the surprise! So she asked me, how old I am. I said 36. She took the tape measure and said. “O.K. this is what the average age span is” and she showed me 80 centimeters. She then folded the tape measure to this, so I could visualize the “length” of my whole life. “And this is what you have lived” And showed me 36 cm. “And this is what you have to live” and showed me the rest. “And you can decide today the work you still have to do in order to live the rest of your life the way YOU want it!”

Do this if you want. It is really really an eye opener!

Now kisses, I got to wash my hair!!!!