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Birthday Malarkey

Months ago, I had plans. Plans to make something lovely and memorable of Andy’s approaching 50th birthday. I thought, ‘The zombie apocalypse will be over by May, bound to be. I know what would be great for a birthday celebration - a festival!’

And I had plans to erect bell tents and gazebos, rig up a music system, string bunting and fairy lights around the garden, hostess the mother of all barbecues, basically recreate the Glastonbury Festival in the garden and it would be a MARVELLOUS celebration befitting His Lordship Malarkey’s 50th year. 

Pah! The Government and Scientific Posse in Charge of the Zombie Apocalypse (or GoSPiCZA) deemed otherwise - DO NOT MEET, STAY APART, YOU CANNOT EAT A SAUSAGE IN A FACE MASK, SANITISE YOUR HALLOUMI - and, as it happened, so did the weather, presenting us with a bit of sun, some rain, some wind and a thunderstorm. 

And so the celebration progressed as a two person play of a single act but it was a generally pleasant day of companionable chat and laughter and, to be honest, at the moment that’s the best anyone can expect. 

I presented Andy with a magnificent, and enormously heavy, telescope...


...which he cleverly constructed and enjoyed telescoping with very much. I also gave him a heavy duty professional rebounder with added handle bar and resistance bands. It can be dropped on one side so it feels like you are running up a hill! Andy intends to improve his fitness now that he is 50, and I think this will help enormously. One could practise weight lifting with it purely by carrying it around - it is very heavy as I discovered when I carried it upstairs to wrap and hide it, and then carried it downstairs again this morning abetted by Bambino in his life-long mission of causing Death on the Stairs by getting under my feet when I couldn’t see them because I was wrangling a very heavy box.

Bambino gave Andy an original portrait drawn by the famous writer Paul Magrs, who also frequents the Doctor Who community. Andy is a huge admirer of Mr Magrs, who, when I contacted him, was only too happy to draw Bambino’s portrait. It is a unique item, just like Bambino.

Heather and Ollie presented Andy with an archery set. I fully expect to be announcing the demise of one or both cockerels before the end of Summer. Andy also received various books, games, gift vouchers and a mildly rude mug. Many cards, too. And I made him a cake...


It was a pity that the zombie apocalypse rules are still in place because we had no one with whom to share the cake. And it had to be eaten today because tomorrow I am going to support Andy in a three week kick-starter programme in his new endeavour to improve his fitness. And to allow such a gorgeous cake to go to waste would be a sin. Also, today was ‘Eat What You Like Day’ and we like cake very much! (I should like to point out that, because of the camera angle and aesthetic lighting, the cake is smaller than it might appear. I made a small one with the urgency of eating it today in mind. And we ate some of it for breakfast so it counted as one meal. And these excuses explain perfectly why we both struggle constantly with our weight...sigh...)

Anyway - tomorrow begins the three week kick start fitness programme. We are both looking forward to it enormously....

I might blog daily to chart our progress. Or I might go silent for three weeks. Depends on how much oxygen I have in reserve at the end of the day. 


Comments

Anonymous said…
Happy Birthday, Andy!!
KJ
11 May 2021 at 19:59
Denise said…
Thank you, KJ! Hope you are well? x
13 May 2021 at 10:18
Anonymous said…
Yes, all is well. :-)
KJ
14 May 2021 at 19:10
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