My Pandemic Birthday
I actually had a birthday party in 2020. As unbelievable the idea of having dozens and dozens of people crammed into my 700 sq ft condo (sharing food and having drinks no less!) sounds right now, it is a thing I did, because my birthday is so early in the year. At that time, it would still be two days before any cases would be reported outside of China and 14 days until the first case was reported in Canada.
So I didn’t have to have my pandemic birthday until this month ((I was about to say “last week” but it’s actually two weeks ago now! Where does the time go?)). I liken it to the Chinese zodiac. My birthday is early in the year, so while most people born in the same year as me according to the Gregorian calendar are Snakes in the Chinese zodiac, I am a Dragon along with most of the people born in the year prior to mine. Side note: I’m hopefully that the horribleness that is 2020 is also operating on the Chinese year – things started to really go south after Chinese new year in 2020, so things should start to get better after Chinese new year 2021. We are moving into the year of the Ox and out of the year of the Rat. It all fits. But I digress.
Since the pandemic still rages and it’s illegal to socialize, I had to opt for a pandemic-style birthday gathering – a.k.a. Zoom. I also decided to try making a Swiss Roll as my birthday cake. I took a picture to remind it by:
For the record, I didn’t love the Swiss Roll. The whipped cream was too sweet and the cake was too eggy. It also ended up a little more oval shaped rather than round. But still, it’s my first new food of the year, so I’m 1/21st of the way towards my goal for the year.
I think I’d like to try making a Swiss Roll again, just with a different recipe.
In tastier birthday news, I got my free birthday milkshake from Burger Heaven. Last year I didn’t get it because you can only get it during your birthday week and I got food poisoning the day before my birthday and didn’t feel well all week. So this year, I got to right that wrong.
I also learned on my birthday Zoom from my friend Kim if you sign up for Red Robin’s loyalty program, you get a free burger during your birthday month, so I’ve still got that to look forward to!
[…] mentioned the other day that I think the mistake was assuming that the suckiness of 2020 was based on the Gregorian […]