Poof. Another year has yet again disappeared somewhere, as I turned 33 (yikes) on Saturday. Most of the day was spent shooting a wedding (and a lovely wedding it was too), but when I got back home in the evening S had prepared a delicious birthday feast for me, which was pretty awesome. My presents this year have been pretty incredible as well, I can’t remember when I’ve gotten such uber birthday pressies before, if ever. Jumping the gun a bit, earlier in the month I bought a 45mm tilt & shift lens for myself, which we agreed with S was to be my main birthday present. I wasn’t 100% sure how much use I’d have for the lens, but it turns out I’m really loving it and use it at least once in every session. Another awesome present was my new phone. Since my INQ trial came to an end, and my old Nokia had died in the meanwhile, I really needed a new handset. Dad was kind enough to get me the Nokia E75, which is hands down the fanciest phone I’ve ever owned. And since it was purchased from Finland it has a ‘proper’ keyboard and everything – a bonus! Also, while in Finland, mum treated me to a facial and some Clinique stuff, which I couldn’t live without.

On the actual day I got lots of pressies from Susanna, one of them being her offering to assist me for free at the wedding, which was very kind of her indeed. I also unwrapped one present from her only to find a book I’d lent to her earlier, which was a bit peculiar, but thoughtful, as everyone hates a non-returning borrower. 😀 On closer inspection I saw that she had actually gotten my book signed by the author, none other than Mr Ethan Hawke himself! How awesome is that! (You must excuse me for I can’t seem to stop using the word ‘awesome’).

Three presents in one: Sooz posing with my Ethan Hawke autograph, taken with my new E75. 😀

The biggest surprise awaited me when I got home from the wedding though, and went to transfer my images from the cards to the computer. I thought something looked ‘off’ with my desk, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. Only after turning the computer on did I eventually realised that there was a brand new 24″ wide screen monitor sitting on my desk! I was pretty gobsmacked I can tell you that much. 😀 It takes a brave person to try to surprise me, and S had definitely gone all out on this one. I must say that I love love love the extra screen space. I’ll just have to get the calibration right as I’ve now noticed that yesterday’s edits look awfully dark on the monitor here at work. Have now ordered a Spyder from eBay, and hopefully once it arrives I can truly enjoy the benefits of the new beast. Can I please say awesome again.

Thank you for all my amazing presents (oh including shopping vouchers from Marjut – woo!), and all the birthday wishes I got via text and Facebook. <3