Birthday surprises

2 May 2015

The day after my wedding anniversary is my birthday, which means I can’t forget the former, at least in theory. Not wishing to work on my birthday I’d booked the day off so there was no waking up at the crack of dawn and walking along the river. Given the cold, drizzly weather this was probably a good thing. A cold wet walk is never a good start to a birthday in my opinion. 

As soon as I’d finished my breakfast Commando ushered me outside anyway, still in my dressing gown. Luckily, there were no neighbours about to see me with my hair all sticking up, my dressing gown is thick and fluffy and it had stopped drizzling. Of course I wondered what he was up to but knew better than to ask questions. All I could think was that he’d left my present out in the car for some reason or maybe he’d bought me a plant. You never can tell with Commando.

It turned out to be neither of the above although I was almost right with my first guess. My present was outside but it wasn’t in the car, it was the car. Poor Mattie Matiz is as close to death as a car can be without actually falling apart completely and Commando has given me his car. He’s even arranged my insurance for it. Just in case I was in any doubt he’d tied a pink happy birthday baloon to it.

Back inside in the warm and feeling rather overwhelmed, there were more presents to open. CJ had got me some chocolate and coffee beans, knowing he couldn’t go far wrong with that and my sister in law had got me a special gardening mug for coffee breaks when I’m gardening. All in all, I was feeling rather spoiled and pampered, especially when I read all the lovely birthday greetings on Facebook and my texts.

Just when I thought it was all over, Commando appeared with a huge box. This turned out to be the pièce de résistance, a bean to cup coffee machine. Suddenly the coffee beans made sense. Now all I had to do was work out how to use it so I settled down with my chocolate and read through the instruction booklet. About an hour later I was ready to give it a try and, five minutes after that, I was feeling like a barista with my first cup of coffee.

It it would have been nice to go for a birthday walk but, with the weather and the time I’d spent faffing about with my coffee maker, I decided to give it a miss. Perhaps if there had been sunshine… In the end I spent most of the day indoors perfecting the art of making coffee. I think I’ve just about got it now. It is quite possible that the local coffee shops will go out of business within the month.

It turned out there had been some other sneakiness going on behind my back. When Philo arrived with a box of coffee and coffee biscuits, I knew he’d been in cahoots with Commando but I wasn’t expecting what happened next. My husband and my three sons had been plotting a surprise meal.  Philo drove us over to Bard’s flat and from there we walked to The Rockstone, where Bard works. For once he wouldn’t be spending the evening in the kitchen as he had the night off. His present to me was a wonderful meal with the four most important men in my life. All in all it had been a day of surprises but this was probably the best of all.