For the longest time, I was convinced that my brother would kill me by the time I turned 23. I do not know which I was more surprised about: that I lived past 23, or that I actually just turned 45. In any respect, it is a good reason to celebrate, and after a lot of hemming and hawing, I finally decided to have a party down at the house in the countryside for my 45th birthday. Seven lovely people joined me for the celebration: Csaba, Jackie, Gergo, Lennard, Jeroen, Marikaneni and Guszti. Thanks for coming!!! Csaba and Jackie drove me and the the food down on Friday night. We were rudely awoken at 7am by Attila with the weedwacker, something he should have done days before. But, up bright and early, we had plenty of time to slice and dice the vegetables for the chicken paprikas bogracs. It rained most of the day, but cleared up just in time to light the fire. It was a bit chilly and I had to light the buboskemence for a little while to shew away the blues. Jackie and Csaba gave me a game of tiddlywinks, something I have not played in 40-odd years. Although I played a lot of quarters in college. Gergo came by train around noon and unpacked a 5 liter keg of Heineken which we tapped immediately. Along with the Pimms cocktail, our eyeballs were already swimming in alcohol by early afternoon. A couple hours later, Jeroen and Lennard arrived with a bunch of snacks, made a big salad, and gave me some of their homemade chutney. Marika and Guszti arrived with homemade crumble cake, pogacsa, preserves, tomato juice, lecso, palinka...It started to rain just as we finished dinner, so we moved inside where we dug into the chocolate and cream cakes Csaba and Jackie brought. Early the next morning Csaba asked for help surprising Jackie, who was also celebrating a birthday that weekend. For as long as they have been married, Csaba has woken up Jackie birthday morning with "happy birthday" written in something, such as crabs, shells, stones...Gergo and I wrote it out in green and red apples in the courtyard.

Monday afternoon, Maki of Makifood took me for a birthday lunch at a new Indian-Thai restaurant. Joining us were two of her friends, Christine and Fay. Christine's family runs the Momotaro Ramen Restaurant on Szechenyi u. (5 ker). The conversation was great and touched on everything. I learned many new things. For example, spring onions and Chinese cabbage when ready are pulled up by the root and then stuck back into the soil so they keep all winter. And pumpkins are fertilized by hand. You have to rub the male and female flowers together! For dessert, Christine and Fay surprised us with various moon and sun cakes just in from Taiwan. Having stuffed myself to the gills at lunch, I took a bike ride in the glorious autumn weather. On the way back, I finally stopped into Kobuci kert in Obuda for a birthday beer. I have been passing this folksy place for years but for some reason had never gone in.

On my actual birthday, Margo took me out to the Hummus Bar on October 6 u. for lunch where we had a couple beers, tahini hummus and felafel. A couple hours later I met another friend. She said I should meet her at Boraros ter. I had no idea what she was planning, but it meshed well with what I had in mind. She took me on the BKV boat, which is free public transport for those with a monthly pass but only 400 huf anywhere between Kopaszi gat and Romai furdo. First we took it one stop to Kopaszi gat and walked around this beautiful area for awhile, watching the sunset and the dragon boat training in the bay. Heading back the other way, we caught the last boat towards Jaszai Mari ter. The air had cooled off, so while admiring the birds all lit up above the Parliament, we shared some hazi palinka she just happened to have in her handbag. Parliament is one of my favorite buildings, and my favorite story about it I read in John Lukacs' Budapest 1900. Apparently, a bystander asked the architect Odon Lechner why he had put all those grotesques and gargoyles way up high and on the roof where no one could see them? Lechner replied, "Well, the birds can see them."

The next evening Chris and I celebrated our joint birthday, according to tradition, at a Chinese restaurant. But prior to that, we met at an old watering hole Captain Cook's. Chris warned me on the phone with maniacal laughter that I should be prepared for a large, practical, and very embarrassing gift. He arrived just before the downpoor hit, carrying a lovely green standup clothes drying rack. It was not so much embarrassing as awkward trying to walk with it it high winds. Having met Christine the day before, we decided to eat at her Momotaro Ramen Restaurant, also known as "the ramen noodle place." We used to go to the Momotaro for many years for our joint birthday and "Jewish Christmas" because they would make me vegetarian baozi by request. However, at some point they stopped, and we started going elsewhere. Christine assured me that there must be some mistake because vegetarian boazi and jiaozi have always been and still are on the menu. Usually made with pork, it is a rarity to find a vegetarian version so we had to go try again. More-or-less across from the Bank Center, the restaurant used to be a small 5-table venue whose overflow would be directed to the connected former Nimrod wild game restaurant. Since the last time we were there, the situation has reversed and now the main dining room is off Nador u. and in the former-Nimrod section. The place was packed already at 7:30pm on a Wednesday with Chinese, Hungarians, and foreigners. For starters, I had the hot and sour soup while Chris had the spring rolls. For the entree, of course I had the vegetarian thin skinned steamed jiaozi. Chris had something called fish aroma pork. I especially liked the fact that we were given proper dark wood chopsticks that were very comfortable to use. Christine surprised us with some yummy steamed buns stuffed with bean paste and rice flour-coconut balls stuffed with sesame for dessert. The steamed buns brought me right back to China in 1987 - we always looked forward to them best.