Another Year Older...How did you spend your birthday this year?

So my ideal birthday often starts with a) gifting myself 'Birthday Leave' from work b) a sleep in c) lounging on the couch d) Netflix and e) a day of blissful nothing :)

The best laid plans....

This is how my day ended up looking, at least for the first half. Usually at work I have 1 or 2 meetings a day but for some reason EVERYONE wanted a meeting on this one day !! No birthday leave for me but on the upside we did have our monthly cake day on my actual bday so that was quite fun!

Work over, what next?!

It wouldn't be a @phamished birthday if it didn't involve copious amounts of food and I've recently been obsessed with Korean BBQ at a nearby local place. I was into Korean BBQ 10 years ago but all the authentic places were either in the city or at least 30mins drive away so finding an authentic, high quality KBBQ only 10mins from us it was a no brainer.

A low-key family affair :)

It was my sister's birthday a few weeks ago but she was travelling overseas so tonight we thought we'd celebrate her belated birthday with mine with our partners.

Getting started with some banchan!

I'm always STARVING so I love it when I can snack on something within 1 minute of sitting down in a restaurant.

Next up is Dolsot bibimbap - I love anything in a stone pot. I don't know what it is but the fact that it stays hot, the rice gets nice and crispy on the bottom and the SIZZLE sound --> I'M IN HEAVEN.

Spicy cold buckwheat noodles - I used to never eat this but one of my Korean friends introduced it to me as something they traditionally eat with BBQ foods especially pork so now we always order it. The contrast of cold noodles with hot, BBQ pork meat is y-u-m-m-y.

Let the meat begin

Wagyu chuck flap tail

Soy marinated pork ribs

Don't worry these aren't to be eaten raw, they're ready for some self-cooking on the grill. I love this style of cooking as I'm a bit of a control freak and love to cook my own food so let's begin!

Another day another stone hot pot

This is galbi jjim, slow cooked beef short ribs in a hot stone pot. The beef is tender, melt in your mouth and slides off the bone. In hindsight we probably ordered too much meat but hey what other day to overindulge than your born day?!

...and we don't know when to stop

So we ordered a side of Korean dumplings :)

Full, Overindulgent, what next? PRESENT TIME

'Cause we are living...in a material world and I am a material girl...

Okay, okay. Look I love a good day in, sleeping on the couch and eating instant ramen BUT I just as equally love material things...retail therapy is something that really works for me, nothing like spending a little money for a bit of a pick me up!

So husband is very practical...we don't waste money on occasion-specific wrapping paper around here!! So my present was wrapped in baby paper instead...actually I thought it was hilarious!!

BOOM! Woo! Ok guys reading this are probably like 'wow that's a really tiny portable sandwich press!'. I mean it could probably work like that but it's a hair straightener yayyyy. GHD = GOOD HAIR DAY. WOW, mind blown right? Haha

I actually thought this card was SO good, it had cute little stores in it and actually seemed to match our relationship so well and he had written little comments in it based on past dates we had - super cute!

All in all a great, low-key birthday spent with family

I absolutely LOVE big parties and I generally throw quite big shindigs but this year I wanted a really low key affair for my actual bday and this one certainly delivered. Wish I didn't have to work but hey I'm 28 now so I had to put on my big girl pants and take some responsibility!

Hope you guys enjoyed reading about my day as much as I loved writing it. Let me know how you like to celebrate your birthday!

@phamished xx