Birthdays

Here are the sayings on the birthday cards I got on Thursday 23rd:





"Birthdays are Nature's way of telling you to eat more cake" Jo Brand


"Life is short. Eat dessert first!" Jacques Torres


"Age and treachery will triumph over youth and skill."


"Age doesn't matter when you've got STYLE!" (with a baby on the cover)





Anybody spot a trend (or possibly two) here?





But anyway had two lovely birthday parties, thanks so much to all of my friends who crossed over from several parts of London on a particularly dreary day, and to my friends and family who put up with my lack of organisation (i.e. food) in Porto.

Got loads of lovely gifts, amongst them a quirky diary from Ali that promises to "organise my life in neat little lists" - some of you may know about my addiction in making activity lists, but that has never resulted in having a less disorganised life so maybe this diary will change that! A pin from Andy Wong saying "What if there were no hypothetical questions?". And although all gifts were fantastic, I have to admit my favourite was my cousin's goodie hamper containing red tea, rock sea salt and red berry jam. I am still flabbergasted that any man (let alone close family) could pay enough attention to what I was saying, and remember that I have been looking and/or needing this stuff for ages..

Absolutely gorgeous party in Caminha for Andy Shaw's birthday. Still not sure how much I can post about this, but here is something on one of the episodes that I wrote a while ago:

My friend was having a few days holiday in his family's country house with friends, culminating in a birthday party on the weekend. On the first day, a stray mongrel female dog arrived and made herself at home. She was very friendly, and allowed herself to be petted by everybody. On the day of the party she kept company until the early hours but when the party calmed down she disappeared. Some of the party who were staying at a nearby hotel found her there when they retired for the night, socializing with the guests who were still awake (it was by then very late). Obviously our party wasn't exciting enough for her anymore. Apparently she is well known in the area for befriending all visitors but not tying herself to any owner. We called her Barbara Dufus, but she probably has a new name every day.