Birthday weekend

It was my birthday at the weekend (yes I am over 21!), we all had a really nice time thanks to my wife's organisational prowess. We kicked proceedings off with an organised wine tasting/meal etc. on Friday night at my kid's school (they have one every year to squeeze a little more money out of us); they are usually fairly dry but this one ended up being quite a raucous affair as the wines flowed freely.

Then, breakfast in bed on Saturday (slight headache), followed by lunch "en-famille". In an on-going effort to encourage my children to enjoy a wide range of foods we went for a slap up Chinese banquet at lunchtime, it was lovely watching them try different things for the first time. My Daughters face was a picture when she took her first mouthful of seaweed, a "Dad, quick, get these hedge clippings out of my mouth" kind of look... In the evening a few friends came over for some drinks and nibbles, lots of local gossip, putting the world to rights and blatant wine snobbery. Late up on Sunday (slight headache) followed by a lazy day of watching old films and playing games together. Then in the evening I went to see Tim Minchin at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading; he was excellent a really funny and talented guy. Tim's material is famously atheistic and secular, he also has a pop at pseudo-science, my kind of comedian. He specialises in pointing out the silliness of things in an observational humour kind of way but occasionally catches you off guard with something quite profound and insightful; most of his stuff is set to music either as poems or songs, he can certainly bash out a good tune on the piano too.

A sampling of my presents this year would include:

-150th Anniversary edition of "Origin of species" (lovely binding)

-Guitar Hero - Beatles Edition

-New Richard Dawkins book (The greatest show on Earth)

-Some rather nice bottles of vino to try

Should keep me amused for a while :)