Happy birthday

So Strider is thirty. We had the usual family birthday breakfast and I recounted the tale of how his mother was rushed in for an emergency Caesarian at ten o’clock at night. All vey dramatic but it meant that the two of us were all alone for the first few minutes of his life. I can still remember the look in his eyes and the feeling of wonder, it’s as vivid in my mind as if it happened yesterday.

I wrote in his card that if there was a TV reality show called Nice Guy Island he would win it hands down. It’s true, he really is that lovely. 

Mrs B our cleaner was in early and joined in with singing happy birthday . She is Phillipino and very sweet but also very direct. “You a lovely man. This year you find yourself a wife”. Until he does he has a few presents to keep him going including some rather sexy walking wellingtons and membership of the Imperial War Museum.

TSM still has a stinky cold so we left her with a pile of blu-rays and a warm house. There was no internet in our place when we left courtesy of Virgin Mediocre, although they came out at lunchtime to fix it. Strider, The Dizzle and I went up to London to revisit Churchill’s war rooms which none of us had been to in years. Quite astonishing, well presented and successful in recreating the atmosphere of the war years. I’m not an unequivocal fan of Winston as he was a Tory, an empire man, and as capable as the next politico of playing dirty tricks. But his is a great story in a remarkable century.

We visited a couple of pubs near Westminster, the sort that have bells in them to tell MPs when to down their pints and go and vote. No law against being drunk in charge of democracy. In the evening we went to the local Chinese with Mystic Em and Mr G and a good time was had by all.

Great birthday and not quite over yet ... come the weekend ...