Happy Lockdown Birthday

It was my birthday over the weekend, and, despite the lockdown and family not being able to visit, I was determined to make the best of it.




I actually started a couple of days early. A neighbour brought round some flowers and chocolates - leaving them on the doorstep and retreating to the end of the drive while they were picked up. Treating the chocolate box cautiously, I pulled off the plastic film-wrap, and then sat down and just ate them all (I don't normally eat much chocolate but seem to be craving it all the time at the moment)

For my birthday itself, I'd made plans ... but first I watched a video of grandson singing Happy Birthday (almost), chatted with my daughters, opened parcels (brought by delivery men) and a card, made by my eldest daughter and grandson, transferred electronically and printed down by my husband.




I'd already decided breakfast would be something other than the usual cereals - so, croissants (from the freezer) with jam, and coconut cream












I then took a long relaxing bath with some of the soap rose petals I'd received - aren't they beautiful? Almost too lovely to use.








But thought this present should wait till later in the day :)








It was already getting quite late for lunch even by our standards. Again, I decided it should be something a little different - a proper lunch-out sort-of meal with a mass of side salad - and accompanied by live music from German artist John Allen (via his Facebook page watched on the tv)

My evening plans included dinner (cooked by my husband, though he hadn't realised before) and a night at the theatre. Okay, more live streaming, but my youngest daughter suggested I put makeup and jewellery on make a proper night out of it. So, here I am looking a little greyer than usual because it hasn't seemed worth dying my hair when I'm seeing no one.

I made the effort to have a properly set table, and wine to accompany the food, a pasta dish similar to amatriciana, with bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms in a spicy sauce (it was only after serving it that OH realised he'd forgotten the mushrooms!)

Then we were off to the living room/theatre. The National Theatre regularly stream plays to cinemas, now they're streaming to our living rooms via their YouTube channel. Each play will be available for a week, and this first one is One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden. It's an almost-slapstick, farcical kind of comedy, and not really my kind of theatre, but pretending I'd gone out was fun.

Part of my daughter's cunning plan was to have a (very) small amount of ice cream in the interval, as you might at the theatre,  but I settled for a quick, queue-free, dash to the bar to sample my present from her - Isle of Skye gin :)


Doing something different made the day feel special and memorable, and all in all it was much more enjoyable than I'd expected.