The delightful first birthday

In a way The Baby’s first birthday was the first day of the rest of our lives for both Mr G and I.  Playing around with icing, planning food, overcatering – my career hasn’t left any room for entertaining ever and I’m completely new at it.  I bought the Australian Women’s Weekly Vintage Birthday Cakes books from my childhood and went all out on the number 1 cake.

Here it is, freshly iced with buttercream icing that I watched a million YouTube videos on how to do because I had no goddamn idea.

And here it is after I bombed it with a million decorations and spelled out her name (blurred) in silver balls that Mr G found in Woollies for me.

I also made Nigella’s Nutella Cake from Domestic Goddess.  The ganache split but the hazelnuts hid it well.

I’d never had honey jumbles as a kid (nor heard of them) but found this attractive looking recipe on Taste.com so thought I’d have a crack.  They were delicious and I’m told they were true to people’s childhood memories.  They are basically iced gingerbread renamed for some reason.  At some point when I’m less tired, I’ll start photoshopping my food photos to perfection like other blogs.

Here’s one heavily filtered with the Instagram filters.  Those are peanut butter squares also from Domestic Goddess up the front.  They taste exactly like Peanut Butter Cups – it’s frightening.  And delicious.  Note the copious amounts of cheese and glass of champagne,  because as I quickly learned, the first birthday party is really for the grownups.

And here’s the baby taking off because the grass is full of far more interesting things than a grownup has to offer!

I can happily report that much champagne was drunk, the baby cried and fell asleep in her pram while the rest of us stuffed ourselves full of party food and reminisced about childhood and discussed handbags.  The little things are so brilliant so sometimes.

Dust, the regular kind.

I sat down tonight, hair wet from the shower I had time to have, after playing with my baby all evening.  I realised that it’s been a month exactly since I posted, and it’s probably taken that long to start feeling like me again.  The person I was before medicine deconstructed me.  The dust is finally settling, and here I am, nearly 8 years on from starting medical schools, with all exams finally, finally behind me.  I can be who I want and learn what I want when I want.  In the past few weeks I baked a birthday cake for my one year old, I sewed a ton of quilt blocks for a quilt for her, I hung out with friends, drunk champagne, read books, did a yoga course – all things normal people do.  I still go to work and see terrible things from time to time, but it’s different now.  I get to have hobbies again.

And at work I’m clearheaded than I’ve ever been.  I see the problems, I investigate the problems, and I have plans for the problems.  I’m not perfect but that loud voice of self-doubt has evaporated and been replaced with a ‘you passed the Royal Australian College of Physicians exams!” voice whenever self doubt appears.  I will say this about education – once you’ve got it, no one can take it from you.  No matter what happens in life, it will always be yours, no matter what you choose to learn.

My blog is probably going to get less personal and more fun from hereon, but I’m so looking forward to the little things.