Birthday Card

I received my first birthday card this morning. There’s an Irish postal Mark so I think it is from Granny and Granddad in Dublin. Thank you Hazel and Michael. I think John and I are going out next weekend to celebrate it and we are going to do cake with the children on Sunday afternoon. Tara, Aaliyah and Amritsar are going to help our nanny Sindy bake it! Amritsar and Tara’s Birthday is coming up too at the end of March. I did some shopping for their big day today as I managed to escape the house as all are either at school or preschool until 3.15pm on a Thursday. Overall happy with the bits and bobs purchased. My own gift (from John) however is a days wage for a Chippie to come and rebuild a chunky mahogany coffee table. The gift is at my request. Another rip off purchase I made on eBay that fell to bits in a flash. Two hundred pounds splashed out on an antique table that fell apart. Don’t get me going – some of the rubbish available on eBay is scandalous. The table is basically four cut down snooker table legs that were badly screwed into a mahogany top. Some antique dealers attempt to botch together something from bits they had lying around. These kinds of things might look good in the photographs, but there you go, enough said. I miss the old brass coffee table. It was circular with a hole in the middle. It was a hand made Indian style with brass rivets in it (Victorian arts and crafts). Only problem was that the sheet brass started coming up and became a bit of a health and safety issue with the children. Luckily we were spared any cut fingers – it had to go, but it did look well in the living room. Safety above style sadly. I remember when auntie Sara’s two were little. She padded every surface with foam pipe cladding and removed everything from the living room. I do get it, but I have so many memories involving our old brass coffee table involving all of our children. They used it as a house, a castle, a car, even a flying saucer. Plus we stashed the sea of toys inside of it at the end of each day. I am a lot happier that we no longer do toys in the living room. It’s good to feel like an adult again. Just one of the sacrifices in the early years we all make.