Yesterday was the Whale's 75th birthday and we decided to cook him a meal at home and invite Elisabeth and her two sons rather than book a restaurant in town.

His day started with a full English breakfast followed by cards and presents - mostly DVDs of his favourite detective series. The physio came in during the morning but I doubt the exercises were enough to use up the extra calories, especially as lunch was sausage and chips.

Jay and CC did the shopping for the evening meal and spent far more than the budget. It might even have been less expensive to eat out. Never mind, our combined efforts produced Soup aux choux de Bruxelles, baked fish with a tomato and fennel sauce, beef stew and dumplings (at the Whale's request) and a cake obtained at the last minute because Jay and I each thought the other had ordered one. It seems that between Christmas and New Year the patisseries only produce 'buches de Noel' so finding  a 'ready made' birthday cake was not easy. Eventually Jay tried one of the more expensive establishments and unearthed a less Christmassy concoction priced at 38 euros. When he explained his dilemma and confessed he only had 30 euros left the patissiere took pity on him and let him off the other 8 euros 'because it was for a birthday'.

Now, what about the Bear? Did he join in the birthday celebrations? Well, he wasn't unpleasant but he decided just before lunch that his tummy was upset and so he wouldn't join us for the meal that evening. Despite that he managed to finish off a quiche from the day before and eat his share of sausage and chips before taking himself off to bed mid afternoon. I went through from tme to time to see if he wanted anything to eat or drink but he declined. When one of his daughters rang I told her he was in bed with a funny tummy but when I took the phone through I heard him tell her that it was his leg that was playing up!

Jay and CC were neither surprised nor sorry that Bear had decided to keep himself away. Jay even went so far as to suggest he was doing it out of 'tact'.

As for the Whale, he had a great time being the centre of attention and eating lots of his favourite food. The only thing that disturbed me was his announcemnet that a gypsy had told him he would live to be a hundred!