Oh crikey – it's nice to be remembered (seeing as I am an absentee from the forum these days  ).

Birthday or not, been working all day (damn job is still 14 x 7 but the thing goes live on Thu so hopefully some semblance of normality will return).

Birthday or not, I cooked brunch and will be kicking off the supper soon. Fiona has gone off to the allotment. Hopefully I can can go tomorrow for a few hours.

On the positive side, I did get some lovely pressies.

A cheque for £30 from MIL age 91. Bless. That will buy a ticket for Sunderland v Chelsea on Sat Sep 10. I have not been to a game in over a year so a treat is allowed.

The dogs gave me a pack of my favourite chocs in the whole world – Lindt Lindor. I would sell my gran for those . Sadly, they are already a distant memory.

Nothing from the chickens yet but I didn't have high hopes in the first place  

My darling gave me four brilliant pressies:

- a hardcover book "The flavour thesaurus" that describes how to combine ingredients, like what goes best with what. 90 ingredients are covered. Brilliant! 

- a crime thriller (740 pages!) "The Leopard" by Norwegian author, Jo Nesbo. Never heard of him but the blurb on the back cover definitely looks promising.

- a litre of Bells whisky – am on glass #2 and I do not intend to deploy any measure of self discipline whatsoever on my b'day and with a bank holiday tomorrow  

- it's roast chicken for supper and with my favourite starter, a real throwback from the 70s – PRAWN COCKTAIL IN MARIE CURIE SAUCE (Ok, the Marire Curie bit is one of our in-house CSH jokes). On a bed of our kitchen garden lettuce, it will be a real treat. I suppose she expects me to share it with her

Thanks to everybody who posted a Happy B'day message. Lovely jubbley. I should not name individuals but I will: Mutley, old chap, great to see that you are still kickinass. We want you and Jade to join us next July for the meet-up. That would be "wicked".

And yes, I don't look a day over 35. That bit is 100% true