The Big Day has arrived! Today is Thursday, September 22nd! It's almost seven in the morning, I am at Matthias's, everyone but Michi and myself is sleeping. I'm going to a birthday party!!!
The party has been great. I am not particularly one for noisy fireworks, but Gandalf's displays are really something. Bilbo has just vanished and I am sitting next to "One hundred and forty-four flabbergasted hobbits", but Frodo is in a different mood; he's just realised how much he's going to miss Bilbo.
Bilbo has left and Frodo has not had time to say good-bye. Much better that way, according to Gandalf. Bilbo preferred to slip off quietly. Now... the Ring. Gandalf mistrusts it. The best piece of advice: "I should not make use of it, if I were you. But keep it secret, and keep it safe." He's gone to bed and the morning of the 23rd has dawned. Still, I have to keep on reading, as I said in my first post, and cover 17 years in one day. But I'm going to make myself a nice cup of coffee, hoping not to wake Mani and Portos up (wishful thinking, I know...).
Of course it was wishful thinking. Portos was greeting me through the window as soon as I entered the kitchen. He doesn't like the measuring light of the camera, and even less the flash, though, so he left after the first photograph, came back, and left again after the second.
This reminds me of three years ago, when I was preparing new material for my new classes very early in the morning. I used to wake up at 5.30, went down for a coffee and Portos was already at the window. Princesse used to do the same, but not so early; when she did, it was because Portos had woken her up. I miss her!
My birthday cake is on the kitchen table and, since the party has already ended, I think I can now safely post the picture which I took when I finished it yesterday. I also think I am allowed to have a bit for breakfast, but not alone. Birthday cakes are to be shared, so I'll wait till Matthias is up.
It's a vegan version of the traditional Yogurt Cake recipe, using a soya yogurt and substituting the eggs for ripe bananas. You can find the recipe on my blog on "Vegaterranean cuisine" http://vegaterraneancorner.blogspot.com.es/2016/09/bilbo-bagginss-birthday-cake.html
Since today is the first day of autumn, I decided to add some seasonal decoration.
Now Gandalf has left, the first chapter is over and I think it's time to wake Matthias up and have a bit of cake.
In vain have I struggled, it won't do :P I must tell you I am determined to follow you on this journey, if you accept me, of course ;) This time it will be just for pleasure, pure pleasure :)
ReplyDeleteGreat! Two is company!
DeleteAnd if you bring Mr Darcy... well, it would be very useful to confirm the title of chapter three, don't you think?
DeleteI must say I'm not a great fan of fireworks either (or crowded parties) but the way Tolkien describes them, their shapes, their colours... It's impossible not to feel as if you were there sitting down next to a lot of hobbits, feeling some fresh air of the beginning of autumn. I can't help but feel sad for Frodo. Surrounded by so much laughter and joy which he cannot share, for "he realized suddenly that he loved the old hobbit dearly" - I'm sure he already knew it but, like him, I don't like goodbyes...
ReplyDeleteI like the festive mood, but I don't want Bilbo to leave. How can one leave the comforts of a hobbit-hole?
ReplyDeleteAnd now we are THREE...
ReplyDeleteAnd three is company!
DeleteSIX YEARS LATER
ReplyDeleteThursday 22nd September 2022. Happy birthday, Bilbo! Happy birthday, Frodo! I am afraid I did not celebrate it as I did six years ago. I was really enthusiastic then and I found the time to bake a cake. This morning there was no Portos to greet me and looking at the pictures of six years ago make me smile and cry equally. I know I should be grateful. Indeed I am. I am blessed, sharing my life with such fantastic creatures, loving them fiercely and missing them horrendously when their time is gone. But the love, ah, the love continues. Love trumps death, and death is not the end.
This morning I was greeted by Mirra, Mani and Quenco, and in the afternoon, it was Minca and Mishkin's turn, together with Triskie and Stevie. Don't think I take Matthias for granted, but he would have been the only one with whom I could have shared a cake and today we were not going to spend much time together, and I didn't have time anyway, so it was not a great birthday party. In fact, it was not a party at all.
I did not read the corresponding part for today, but I listened to it. I have become somewhat addicted to audiobooks and I've been listening to it on the bus (or trying to, today I decided to get a pair of noise-cancelling headphones), read by Rob Inglis. I know there's one more recent recording ready by Andrew Serkis, and I may give it a go in the future, but I got this version in Audible before the more recent one and I quite like it. What do you think of audiobooks? I've realised that I also like being told stories, as when I was a child, and it's a good way to appreciate the oral aspects of storytelling. So I'll be combining both in this road with hobbits.