Birthday Tea

At work yesterday, we had a morning tea for my birthday. We had it on Thursday instead of Wednesday so that everyone could be there. Robyn works part-time and she was making the cake, so she had to be there! I requested an angel food/sponge cake with strawberries and cream (my birthday tradition - I remember my first birthday in San Diego (my 21st!), Mom and Dad and Maggie came down to San Diego in the RV for Crew Classic because both Doug and I were racing and it coincided with my birthday. Mom had made 2 angel food cakes in ALameda that she brought down with them. How cool is that?).

Anyway, Robyn delivered, with gusto! It was soooo good. She made a layered sponge cake, with strawberries in the middle (soaked in sugar like Mom used to do) and then cream and chocolate flake on the top. They all sang Happy Birthday, followed by 3 very loud "Hip. Hip. Hooray!"s, which is apparently an Aussie tradition.

Me and the cake:





Me and Emily and Jenny (both of whom used to work with me but are in different parts of the department now, but we have lunch together every week):



They got me a CD and a pair of earrings as a gift. The CD is Triple J's Top 100. Triple J is a national radio station in Oz, and on Australia Day, which is in January (sort of like 4th of July for us) they do a countdown of the top 100 songs in Oz, as voted by the listeners (online I think. See, R and A - they DO do everything online down here!). Basically Australia Day is all about having a barbie with friends and listening to Triple J's Top 100. Then they put out a CD - and that's what I got. It's a great mix of Aussie artists and other artists (US, UK, etc). The top 3 songs this year were Aussie artists, which was a first I think.