Happy Birthday to me!

T'was my birthday, and what a smashing day I've had. MUCH better than yesterday!!

It started with breakfast in bed - my favourite treat - pancakes (with strawberries), followed by cards, messages and pressies. Christine left a parcel on the doorstep when I was out with Archie, and it included a big bag of fresh peas.

Archie went to spend the afternoon with Pip and his mum and dad, and in fact he had his tea there, as we weren't back till nearly 7pm. We had a super day in town, starting with lunch on Harvey Nick's sunny balcony. And actually, the man with a pneumatic drill down below was preferable to godawful muzak blasting inside, because he stopped now and again. And then we could hear the lone saxophonist across the road. It was a set lunch, plenty of choice, with a glass of bubbles, and we were both delighted with our choices. Here's the desserts.

When we'd finished, we wandered over to Everyman cinema in the St James Centre, just a short stroll, and we were just in time to take our comfy seats for the much anticipated Oppenheimer...

But neither of us liked it. In fact, we hated it. JR dozed through parts of it. At three hours it's at least 1 hour too long. In fact, the whole final hour is a 'kangaroo court' scene that just goes on and on and on, and was quite complicated American politics of the time. Apart from the extreme length, there was the VERY LOUD sountrack which NEVER STOPPED. Even in a scene with two people in the Mexican desert, there was a booming and crashing accompaniment, not unlike the 1812 Overture, so that you couldn't hear what they were saying. WHY??? I kept wanting to switch on the subtitles and turn off the sound, like we can do at home.

ALSO... the air conditioning was set for 40° outside! No, we're not in Southern Europe, we don't actually need air con in a Scottish summer. I was frozen, and reminded myself to bring a jumper, a wooly hat and earplugs next time we go to the cinema.

But it was a super day, and the final cherry on the cake strawberry on the pancake was the bus arriving at the bus stop at the same time we did. BONUS!