43rd Birthday Celebration
Droids, lightsabers, ube cake, a Ferrari, and the finest beef in Madeiran tradition. Normal birthday stuff.
There are birthdays where you reach a number and think: right, I should probably be sensible now. A nice restaurant. A tasteful gift. Something appropriate for a man of a certain age. And then there are birthdays where you turn 43 and spend a substantial portion of the day assembling a Bluetooth-enabled robot droid, wielding a lightsaber umbrella, and building a championship-winning Ferrari, before finishing the evening with a platter of garlicky, wine-sauced beef that you eat with toothpicks like the absolute king you are.
Guess which kind of birthday I had.
The Gang's All Here
The family gathered, which is always the best part of any birthday regardless of what follows. There is something about being surrounded by the people who love you, who have, crucially, learned that the best gift for me is something that involves building, beeping, or both that makes the whole thing feel genuinely special.
They did not disappoint.
First Up: The R2-D2
Let's be clear upfront: this is not LEGO. This is something altogether more impressive in a very different way. A buildable electric robot that we can then control via an app. Something that will be fun to build with the kids.
The Cake: Ube With Caramel on Top
At some point in proceedings, a birthday cake appeared, and it was not a standard birthday cake. It was an ube cake: that glorious purple Filipino yam sponge with its distinctive earthy sweetness topped with caramel.
Then Came the Lightsaber Umbrella
Someone in my family has excellent taste and a very good sense of humour, because among the gifts was a lightsaber umbrella. A lightsaber umbrella. For when you must commute, but you must do so with honour and the Force as your companion.
And it lights up, of course! Can't wait for the rain to come - not just because of the umbrella, but also because is currently unbearably hot.
And Then, Because Why Not: The LEGO Ferrari F2004
By this point in the day, most people would have called it. Cake eaten, droid built, lightsaber brandished. Time for a sit down. But there was still the LEGO Icons Ferrari F2004 Michael Schumacher to attend to, and this was not a day for half measures.
The F2004 was the dominant car of the 2004 F1 season, winning 15 of the 18 races, securing Ferrari its sixth consecutive constructors' championship and Michael Schumacher his seventh drivers' title. A legend of a car, and now a beautifully detailed miniature version of it lives on my shelf, next to the two previous F1 legend cars.
To End the Day: Madeira Picado
And then, because a birthday this good deserves a proper send-off, the evening ended with picado.
For those unfamiliar: picado's roots are deeply embedded in Madeira's social and culinary traditions. The name comes from the Portuguese verb picar, meaning "to chop" small cubes of meat, typically beef, are marinated, sautéed with garlic, onions, and spices, then served piping hot. It arrives on a platter surrounded by chips, and is served with toothpicks.
The core spirit of the dish is shared, informal, and deeply flavorful, which made it the perfect way to close out a birthday spent in the company of family. Everyone leaning in over the same platter, toothpick in hand, making short work of beautifully garlicky beef while the day wound gently down.
43, Then
Here is what I know about 43: it feels exactly like 42, except you built a Bluetooth robot droid, ate ube cake with caramel, wielded a lightsaber umbrella, assembled a championship Ferrari, and ended the evening with a shared platter of picado. Surrounded by family who knew precisely what kind of birthday you needed.