Birthday girl

So it was my birthday yesterday and the day started as every Tuesday does, getting up at 5am to start putting together the DR news in English for www.DR1.com. I said Happy Birthday to myself, and read all of my online cards and congratulations on Facebook. So far so good.

Danilo then got up later – as usual I was asleep when he got home from University, and he begun to mop the floors (luckily he does it as apparently I don’t do it properly, I don’t use enough water) and agreed to put the cushions back on the sofas for the day as a birthday treat.

I looked at him and nearly fell over. His hair and parts of his beard, usually black, were bright orange.

As I howled with laughter he explained that he had noticed he was going grey, so when he went to the barbers the previous evening the barber said he could get rid of the grey with a tint. Danilo asked what colour the tint would be and the barber showed him that it was dark brown in the tube so would come out that colour – almost black. He put the tint on his beard and hair, waited, washed it off, but there was no electricity in the shop – only candles and what with a lack of light and the fact his hair was wet Danilo had not seen the colour – until the morning. Thank goodness he went back to the barber that night, threatened him with instant death, and now has normal black hair again.

Some Dominican friends came to visit and cook me lunch. They brought presents including the all important cake – for Danilo as well as me as it is his birthday on Sunday.

Plus apples, grapes, 2 Snickers bars, a bottle of rum and two packets of cigarettes. What more can a girl ask for.

We tried out the new barbecue – interesting you have to climb in it to light it with the help of turps sold in a whisky bottle. And the hair glowed like a beacon in the dark!

The chicken was delicious.

And although they were big chickens they looked a tad small given the size of the barbecue!

So all in all a great birthday. Let's see what this next year brings!