Birthday portrait

Ben found it hard to keep a straight face while I was trying to take his birthday portrait - but this expression is very characteristic. My shy, awkward teenager has come out of his shell over the last year...

We had a fairly gentle day, visiting town in the afternoon and going out to an Afghan restaurant on the Lincoln Road in the evening. This part of the city is very different from our neighbourhood, and is a lively hotch-potch of different cultures. There are restaurants selling food from a wide variety of locations including Portugal, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, China, Turkey and Lithuania.

Our meal was absolutely excellent and our host was incredibly hospitable. As a Muslim restaurant it didn't have an alcohol licence, but we took our own bottles of wine, which made the evening much cheaper! For a while we were the only occupants, but as the evening wore on we were joined by a number of other diners, all Asian and mostly in single-sex groups. Even though we were only about two miles from home, it felt like we'd traveled to another continent.