Happy birthday me! - In the name of Thiago - Day 126
As I intend to have a
few sherberts this evening, I am sitting down to write this at about 4, as I’d
hate for you all to be disappointed with drunken ramblings at a much later
stage and besides with my track record I’ll have probably passed out by around
9.30!
Today has already been
a joy. There is of course a part of me which knows that there is one thing that
could have made my birthday perfect but that’s never going to happen but at
least I’ll always have the memories. You can’t take those away from me.
Putting to one side
the permanent sadness there will always be in my life, it’s been a wonderful day.
The weather helps of course and we’re lucky to have a garden, which is where
the day started with a birthday breakfast. Look at that magnificent spread. And
I got to sit with both my girls as Angelica achieved a remarkable thing today
and got Elisa out of bed before 9am. Shock horror!
Actually I tell a
slight porkie as the day really began with me opening a handful of cards, one
of which extraordinarily came from my father, although a call with him shortly
before 10 confirmed that this had been written under duress. When I corrected
him on thinking that I’d assumed he would forget when he rang me, he quickly said
“Oh shit, yes I remember now, your bloody sister made me do that.” Perhaps he
can make it up to me with cookers!
I also got a visit
from Sarah representing the Williams family, who gave me a card and the splendid
birthday badge above, which I suggested I might pierce through my nipple in a
nod to a long overdue midlife crisis. I reckon I’ve earnt one don’t you? A midlife crisis that is not necessarily a
pierced nipple. Not quite sure I’m there yet…
My best mate Bulldog sent
me a boxful of goodies, there were a couple of books, these charming fridge
magnets which I can make my nickname from (yay!), a little cake some beer (more
on that later) and a truly magnificent crossword based around the date 8 May,
which explains why my best chum completely lost it on the phone to me earlier in
the week. Yes I’m afraid I’m the day when the Russians celebrated their freedom
rather than the Brits.
My mum also sent me a
yoga mat, not any old yoga mat mind, this is like proper. I love my mum dearly,
she’s an absolutely remarkable and energetic woman, who I know will be reading
this but I did wonder whether giving someone a yoga mat was a bit like giving
your wife an ironing board. Sorry Mum, I promise to use it, which is of course
the point. I don’t want to be a fat bastard for the rest of my life – here’s a
little incentive, which I must complement by getting back to the walking.
Speaking of which, not
long after the brunch – I’ll definitely not need three meals today! – the three
of us went for a stroll out in Endon. It’s about 7 miles from our home and is
comfortably the furthest from our house we’ve been since lockdown, Elisa told
us it was the first time she’d been in the car, which makes you think about the
weirdness of the things that children miss. She did meet this horse though,
which made her happy. His name is Bob.
And so I shall bring this
to an end with a special birthday request for donations for my chosen two NHShospital charities of Royal Stoke University Hospital and Birmingham Children’s
Hospital. A shout out here to my lovely friends in Brighton, Trish and Dave for
the donation they’ve already made today, which replaces the usual birthday scratchcard,
(lovely touch guys). It’s 23 years we’ve known each other Trish, you’ve not forgotten
me once, bless you.
Thank you for all the
kind wishes people, donate if you can and cheers for the beers Mr Dan Bourdon, not so much aka Bulldog, more like oka Bulldog.
Only just spotted that it was your birthday 2 days ago, so … a belated Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, a lovely day was had by all!
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