"It's he-e-re!"

Even a stranger would've known that it was my birthday today for the following reasons.

1) I was still asleep at 7:40am

2) My children came into my bedroom happily singing instead of jumping on me saying, "get up and play with us".

3) The final give away would be that they happened to be singing 'happy birthday' to me, being closely followed by the lovely M carrying a cup of tea and crumpets, one covered in strawberry jam and the other in honey.

The stranger in my room would be forgiven for thinking that it wasn't my birthday as both children then proceeded to scoff both my crumpets and even managed to fall out over who-had-what flavour crumpet.

Dear, dear me, sibling jealousy, what a laugh!!!

My smashing wife had bought me time with a Michelin starred chef, to cook in his kitchens and basically learn as much as I can and yes, you'd be right in thinking that it's actually a present for her as she would be reaping the benefits from my new found skills (note to self; confront wife about her ulterior motives for this choice of gift) but even so, I am very much looking forward to cashing in this gift.

The rest of the morning was spent getting slowly ready before dining out at the Blue Elephant, a Thai restaurant in Fulham, SW6 which was just fantastic; very different, very extravagant and very delicious.

For all my sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek comments throughout the year, I would like to say a genuine thank you to my lovely wife for her thoughtfulness, her generosity and her kind & patient nature.

If you are very lucky in life you will get to meet someone as smashing as she is.

Just make sure you appreciate them when they come along.

Thanks again wif'.

You are luvvin'.

I will leave you with the front of what was probably the funniest card I received today.

But then, I have got a strange sense of humour!!!

Come on the 40's - I'm ready for you!!!!