Happy Birthday to Me

I was born on the 15th of October umpty tum.   The year is a secret but there was a war on.   This birthday is precious as I nearly didn't live to see it.   It is now six months since my big fall and I feel really well along the supposedly 12 month recovery period.

Six months is quite a while yet the remnants of the Get Well flowers from the Restoration Man producer Melissa Mayne are still giving pleasure:

Here they are in the lounge with the Restoration Man black book and a water tower postcard in the foreground.

Bless them, daughter Lorna and grandsons James and Ben came all the way from Gerrards Cross to visit us this weekend.   Not the best picture in the world but here they are tucking in to my pre-birthday dinner:

Later we all enjoyed a super coffee icing birthday cake 75% covered in candles.   Damn, that may have given the game away.

Monday, and now it really is my birthday.   The sun is shining too.   Loads and loads of social media messages.   Pressies too.   What can you get for a 75 year old hoarder who has already been given everything?   The challenge was well met:

 a bunch of coins including a 1943 half penny.   You would have thought they might have used the copper for Spitfires in 1943 wouldn't you?

an i phone charger and lead.   You cannot have too many of these especially when you have grandchildren.

a bumper box of 4 x 500 piece jigsaws of scenes from the forties.

and an exercise cycle.   This is the very latest type with presumably magnetic resistance to the pedals, it really does simulate the real thing.   It has electronic read outs showing your pulse, mileage, calories expended and probably the FTSE 100 Index if you know what buttons to press.   I spent much of the morning assembling it.   Any born-again child knows that the best gifts are the ones you can actually play with.