And the winners are…

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Paul and Jenny, for the best Weasley-style use of Muggle postage stamps on a birthday card. The envelope was also a brilliant colour. When I finally opened the it on Saturday morning, the card was just as good - a great way to start my birthday.

We did the usual thing of present and card opening in bed with our first pot of tea of the day. We didn’t rush as the morning started cloudy, though milder, and we expected rain at some point. We headed up the road to Icoco for breakfast. Nicky ordered the small breakfast of scrambled egg on half a bagel with grilled tomato and the optional smoked salmon. I ordered the Icoco breakfast which when the waitress brought it and said what it was I though she said “proper breakfast” - which it certainly was, and thoroughly enjoyable.

We decided not to stay for drinks as we realised we had just enough time to get to the cinema and we could have tea and coffee there, which we did. We saw Tea with The Dames, a film of an informal conversation/interview with Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins. It was delightful, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. Afterwards we purchased some sushi to take home for lunch. Stella called in just as we were preparing to embark on the jigsaw which Nicky had given me. We had a good chat and cut the cake. 

Nicky took time out from doing the jigsaw in the afternoon to prepare a salad to go with some steak which I had marinated, and we headed over to one of my drinking partners. He had invited us to his birthday BBQ, as we share the same birthdate. The rain still hadn’t arrived (fortunately) but we went inside for warmth all the same. The was a slight emergency with a BBQ related fire, but it didn’t mar the very enjoyable evening with a range of family (his) and neighbours, some of whom we even knew.

We had our last pot of tea of the day when we got home and managed to finish the puzzle (500 pieces) before going to bed. A very good birthday.

This week has also been notable for it’s weather, which has been the coldest we have had this year do to a high pressure giving us clear skies for four days and nights. As you can image the mornings and evenings have been chilly (3ºC one morning) but the sun has heated our lounge to 25-26º in the afternoons. The clear cool air has been stimulating.

Work has been busy for Nicky and quite good for me, and the weather has really helped with doing the laundry. We watched Goodbye Christopher Robin one evening which was good and we learnt much we didn’t know, if it was accurate.

Today was very wet until early afternoon. Jan came round after church and it was good to hear about her six days in Doha on their recent trip to Europe. Things have changed since I was there but they found it very interesting. Due to the inclement weather and having completed our newest jigsaw yesterday, we have binged watched the third series of The Fall today. Very intense but very well done. We will be off to bed shortly.

Take care, Rick

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