Chilli, Crab, and Cupcakes

Today's my sister's birthday, she's turning 23. I do this thing when I meet people in their early 20s and find out their age, I categorise them "older than my sister" or "younger than my sister". I have her as my benchmark that I compare other people too. And now she's 23, and I don't think I give her credit for being that old. She's amazing though. She runs an excellent business and doesn't give herself credit for how incredible that really is.

I bought her a bunch of kitchen things for her birthday (she's recently moved out of home and started caring about domestic things like that). One of the things I bought her was a tiered, swirly cupcake stand, and last night I made chocolate cherry cupcakes, and iced and decorated them all differently with silver balls, sprinkles, sliced up cherry ripe, and those raspberry lollies. They look pretty! I can't wait to arrange them on the stand and give them to her!

For my birthday as a surprise Jules took me to Harry's Singapore Chili Crab for dinner. She liked it so much she organised to go there tonight for her birthday too. It's an awesome, crazy place, certainly an eating experience. If you love crab and love chili (which Jules and I both do) you will love this place. It also has the best salt and pepper squid I have ever eaten. And the best plastic bibs I've ever seen. And the best shell-crunching implements I've ever used when dining out. I'm excited to go back there tonight!

I'm thinking lots today about the Figtree Anglican team in Fiji...I'm having a "wish I was there" moment. Probably because I just sent Juanita an email. I'm remembering the people I met there last year in Nadi, and thinking about the hot afternoons on the balcony of the training centre, and how there was no steps so you had to walk the plank to get to the ground, and how we ate random sandwiches with tuna and pineapple, and spam and sliced carrot (or was that in Suva....), and wandering the villages late at night talking to Muslims about Jesus. I'd love to be there and see what's doing with those people now, a year on. I should pray to entrust those people to the team that's there this year, and the field workers, that would be a positive and productive thing to do.