What a way to spend your birthday

This blog is a personal account of the journey of Paul Zaidman and Cheryl Smith dating back to March 2005 when we first were recruited to sail onboard the QE2 as dancers, performers and teachers.  What started as a 4 month contract turned into almost two years as we progressed to the number 1 cruiseline, Crystal Cruises. This blog was updated regularly with photos and stories.

“Fancy working on your birthday!” my aunty exclaimed as Paul and I completed teaching over 1000 people to waltz at the luscious green Fitzroy Gardens yesterday.  “Call this work?” I responded “That’s a word that doesn’t exist in my daily vocabulary anymore!” I told her.  “How much fun is this? Dancing, meeting people, hanging out, this just can't be called work” I said.

And its not work, its an incredible life of fun, happiness, joy and fun.. oh I said that already.

Yesterday was my birthday, Feb 8.  I kicked off the day with a coffee on Chapel Street at around 1am after our show in Richmond. Home for a quick sleep and back up again for early lunch with a handful of close friends. Quick trip to the Docklands for our 5pm Beginner class and then off to the Fitzroy Gardens for a 7pm Waltz class.  Back to the Docklands after that and then home to a nice pot of tea and chat on the couch with my best friend, dance partner, business partner and partner in life, Paul.

The highlight of the day for me was the effort Paul put into making me happy; first with my favourite tea on the front porch in my favourite pot with my favourite cup. He then ducked out to do some mystery shopping and reappeared hurried, stressed and a strange look in his eye, somewhere between excitement and that of a smiling axe murderer.

Not only had Paul given me the most beautiful purple amethyst (February birthstone) but he went on a search to find the perfect birthday cake, the birthday cake to end all birthday cakes as he knows my love of the birthday cake ritual. 

But he didn’t want to get just any birthday cake for his queen, he couldn’t bear the thought of going to the suburban “Cheesecake shop” or to “Michelle’s Patisserie”. Paul had big things in mind, he wanted something with presence, a statement, something that said “Ta da, I’m here!” as far as cakes go.

So with 2 hours of searching and no planning whatsoever, he scoured the outer suburbs of Narre Warren and Berwick finally stopping at one of my favourite cafes (Berwick Primary School Cafe) thinking they would have something extravagant.  The waiting staff know him so they were kind of amused by his stress, they laughed as he rejected the carrot cake, the orange and poppy seed one, they weren’t in the business of making big fat, decadent birthday cakes.

But wait! They remembered something…. Oh, it was big and it was extravagant…. But would it suit the occasion?  Out the back, in their cool room, they had the most wonderful chocolate mud cake with soft white chocolate icing and white chocolate waves as a decoration on top.  It was big, it was bold and it was built for a very special occasion.

“I’ll take it!” Paul shouted at first sight “Its perfect and she’ll never know” He said as he trundled off the heavyweight birthday cake.

As we cut the cake at the restaurant I told him I was impressed, I asked where he got the cake from, it was different to the ones we usually purchased, pleasant in an unusual kind of way. Paul looked sheepishly at me and said, “It’s a long story, don’t worry about it, just eat your cake”.  “No no” I insisted “Tell me the story, I love a good story” I continued and after pushing him a bit more he finally confessed.  

“Well, it was kind of left behind” he said looking embarrassed and hesitant. “Its actually layer 7 of 8 layers of a wedding cake” he screwed up his face as though I was about to hit him.  A big laugh exploded from my chest…. “You bought me a wedding cake for my birthday!” I exclaimed “Yyyyes” he said hesitantly as he shied away from me.  Defensively he added “And the worst part was that on the box it said ‘Congratulations Darlene & Jo, I made sure they gave me a knew box!” he bounced back proudly. 

“I couldn’t help it” Paul said “I had to get you something, I know how much you like cake and I just wanted to make it special and NOT get it from the Cheesecake shop” he blurted out.

We all fell back into the couches, guffaws all round, Paul had bought me a second hand cake for my birthday from some random bride and groom that didn’t pick up the top layer of their cake. A strange, yet hysterically back handed gift of decadence.

If you looked really closely, under the white chocolate waves on top of the cake you could almost see the brush marks of where they had smoothed out the icing from the two sets of feet in that little bride and groom plastic statue placed in the middle of the cake!

So the highlight of my day was the hysterical wedding cake from Darlene and Jo as my birthday cake, big, bold, laden with chocolate and oh so second hand!

Hey but it was on sale!

Our First Blog  Nine sleeps till departure Three sleeps till departure Hello! From the QE2!  Meet Sharlene and Gino Carting old folks round It's official, we rock! We love you asbestos we can Eating crepes in the south of France Naples the mafia city Welcome to Copenhagen Passenger feedback Virus attack for Paul and Cheryl Sicily and Norway Virus continues Sunshine after the storm Paul and Cheryl Voted No.1 on the QE2 Fabulous Fjords The Vitality of Cruisers  Greetings from Iceland  Our first day on the Crystal Harmony  Our first time in Alaska British Columbia Juneau Alaska Sitka Alaska Paul and Cheryl Strike Again! Funny Paul Mexican Riviera Mazatlan Mexican Hurricane President Bush on the Crystal Harmony Happy halloween The power of dreams Almost home Crazy Melbourne Weather Australian Dancesport Championships Funny times in Melbourne Happy Silly Season Bon Voyage Again! Our first time in the Caribbean Greetings from St Lucia  Antigua, West Indies Moped in St Martin, West Indies Panama Canal Devils Island, Brazil

Living the dream  NEW I danced with BRYAN WATSON! NEW Photos Mediterranean  Only in Siciliy!  Santorini Greece  Doing the Med properly this time  Internationa Shoppers Nightmare  Life, Death and Sunshine  Family  Cape Horn - roughest oceans in the world!  Cruising down the Amazon  Rio De Janiero, Brazil  Buenos Aires, Argentina  My Famous cousin, the photographer Six Days off!  HOTPANTS Brigade, Debut Performance  My first steps (student story)  Give Blood, its good for the community  The HUMMER is here!  Ever wondered what it's like to be a dance teacher? DANCE101 produces outstanding results!

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