Today was, as you may have guessed from this post’s title, Jenya’s (my mother-in-law) birthday. Aunty Sveta and her grand daughter Sasha came last night to celebrate with the family. We spent the morning grabbing cake, flowers and a few other bits and bobs. Then we went home to congratulate Jenya on the happy occasion. We and Ira’s dad got a new mobile phone for her (Nokia N76), which is now mostly working I was not a great deal of help as I have (purposefully) only ever owned one Nokia, many years ago, and so was not too familiar with their approach to the user interface.
We all had a nice couple of meals, with a little to drink, and were also joined by Dr. Natalya, her husband Sasha §, daughter, as well as Balzhan and her son Ildar. I built a fire in the living room fireplace, and it did not start the carpet ablaze, so all went well there

§ - When in doubt over a Russian’s name, Sasha is normally a safe bet