Closer to 30 than ever!

So, yesterday was my 26th birthday and a good one at that! Besides being my birthday my sister Hanna got her driver's license! I'm so proud of her :D Just hope she drives safe (I know she does though, she's not stupid). It all made the day that much better :) I'm not too bothered about getting older either I might be more than a quarter century old but I still, prbably, have 50 more years to go. If my family history is anything to go by, I might have closer to 75 more years!

In the morning before he went into work Rob gave me my present so I would have something to look forward to during the day: He gave me tickets to go see the Spanish Riding School of Vienna when they perform in Birmingham tonight! :D It's always been a dream of mine to go see them ride.

For those of you who don't know what this is; the Spanish Riding School is a 440 year old school training horses (they only use white Lipizzaner stallions) in Classical riding - Haute École. What they are perhaps more famous for are the schools above ground, where the horses perfom exercises in the air. These consist of movements that are natural to the horse, like rearing and kicking, but are refined and taught to perform on command. For example there is the Levade where the horse will rear, but with a very deep "seat" and under collection (riding term, meaning you use your seat and hand to bring the horses head down and in a bit to activate the muscles in the back, rear, legs and neck - it's comparable to the athletic position a human would use while woking out where you strengthen your core by activating muscles in back and abdomen). Courbette where the horse rears and moves forward by jumping on it's hind legs and the Capriole where the horse jumps and kicks out with both hind legs. These movements were originally learned to help strengthen the mind and body of war horses. Gym sessions if you will :) Anyway; short video showing the schools I just described:

0:54 Courbette under saddle
1:28 Levade in hand
1:36 Levade under saddle
1:57 Capriole in hand

In the evening I had made us a three course meal and set the table for when Rob came home. Think he was quite surprised :) For starter we had a small portion of smörgåstårta (literally sandwich cake), then fillet of pork with potatoes au gratin for main course and then sticky chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream for pud. I am really happy with how everything turned out. specially the pork! The marinade was really good and the meat was so tender... Fillet of pork is so cheap here as well, so I will definitelly make that again :)

We finished the evening by watching the last Harry Potter film (though I doubt Rob saw much of it before he was gently snoring away next to me). All around a very good day :)

 Pictures of starter and dessert :) Now I'm off to call C Residential about viewing a cottage ;) For rent, not for sale, but still very excited!

Love you all and thanks again for the messages on FB yesterday <3
Saga xx