Been and gone...

Well thats it then.

50th birthday been and gone yesterday.

The party is next Saturday to fit in with availability of friends so yesterday was a nice quiet family day, so traditional it made you squeak with whole-some-ness.

I made breakfast, a full cooked one, bacon, Lincolnshire sausage, mushrooms, fried egg on toast, tomato, and with a concession to healthy eating I fried it in olive oil, so thats ok then - all washed down with a bottle of Bucks Fizz, special offer at Aldi, fizzy and sweet, crap really but it feels so bourgeois to be drinking what you could imagine is champagne for breakfast.

We then took Jake for a walk in Golden Acre Park (which should really be renamed "Golden One Hundred Acre Park") in glorious sunshiine. It really was very warm yesterday and we sat on a bench near the lake fountain with a gentle breeze blowing a fine spray all over us, it was very pleasant, the park full of families all enjoying the late summer warmth - we had an ice cream too.

Even the presence of Mr and Mrs Chav and family couldn't spoil the morning, in fact it provided an object of amusment as Mr Chav was wearing the latest "must have" clothing for the underclasses this season - a sleeveless T-Shirt which displays your fat, tattoed upper arms to their best advantage - I'm not sure who or which magazine it is that informs the Chav clans of their sports-style clothing of choice but they have a great sense of humour whoever it is.

Returning home I made the traditional sunday lunch, a huge slab of Aberdeen Angus topside which had cost a childs ransom in Costco and tons of vegetables, which only I ate as vegetables are deemed to be food of the devil amongst the females of the household.


Real, proper, champagne was opened for dinner, French stuff, bubbly, sweet and £10 at Aldi, it must be good at that price, why the last "proper champagne" that I bought was about £30 a bottle, Aldi's buyers have their heads screwed on properly. To be honest it could have been fizzy turpentine for all I care, I hate the stuff, but again, it feels so burgeois to be drinking champagne for the second time in one day, just because you can.

And then finally all squashed onto the big leather sofa in the living room we watched "The Missing", Ron Howards attempt at a mystic cowboy film which was absolutely panned unmercilessly by the critics for its "native indian mumbo-jumbo". But I thought it was quite good, especially at the start when the snow covered plains scenery was just beautiful, maybe the story was crap but the cinematography was first class.

We also paid-to-play a film called "The Hills Have Eyes" on Saturday night but had to switch it off halfway through, mainly because Jodie was getting spooked by it but also because I thought it was complete bollax. We watched the rest of it yesterday afternoon and the rest of it was complete bollax too and is filed away now as an "18" film that should only be viewed by those under the age of 18, anyone over that age who thinks that it is not complete bollax has simply not mentally developed properly - see also "Jeepers Creepers" or any Scooby Doo cartoon.

Not almost a perfect day, but a fine day, very relaxing and just what I wanted for my landmark birthday, I'm 50 now and it was a bit weird looking at all the birthday cards that screamed "50" at me from the fireplace, realising that they were refering to me was strange as I still think I'm in my 30's but as my dad and Sinatra used to sing - "Thats Life, and I can't deny it"