it's the longest possible time between now and my next birthday

I love birthdays, and not just my own. I get so freaking excited about them in general. I mean, I love it when everyone has to be nice to me and buy me things, but I like being nice to people and buying them things, as well. It isn't just because I'm a shameless narcissist. 

And I had a lovely day, even though it was a rainy Monday and I had to go to work. The upside of the rain was that the traffic was so bad that I ended up sitting on the bus for a whole extra hour. Now, for some people that would be annoying. But me, I'm a glass half full type. Yep, that's me, always finding the silver lining... what? Why are you laughing?

Anyway, the silver lining here was that I had a whole extra hour to listen to my new favourite podcast, Answer Me This (occasionally foul mouthed banter, which is my favourite kind of banter), and I also ended up having a work day that was shortened by a whole hour, hooray! 

Then we had dinner at my favourite steak restaurant, and I was showered with gifts, which makes a nice change from the sorts of things I'm usually showered with. Amongst the lovely things I received were the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography (Jesus but it's huge) and a very nice tagine, which I will be taking for a test-tagine on the weekend. 

Jo promised to make me a monkey cake, but he had to work later than he'd thought, so when I got home from work, this is what my much vaunted and anticipated cake looked like;

Barely a monkey cake at all.

But I left work early today because I was sick (sick of work, am I right?! No, in all seriousness, I did feel a bit wobbly which is nothing to do with my consumption of birthday booze. I have some sort of fluey thing and also a swollen foot for some reason, so I chucked it in and went home).

And I took it upon myself to en-monkey my cake, with I think quite spectacular results;

Hell. Yes.

Now that is a monkey cake to be proud of and the only downside is that I'm reluctant to cut into that cheerful little face. 

All in all, a satisfactory birthday. Thanks everyone for making it a adequately enjoyable time.