--- Forty Three! ---

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday dear me,
Happy birthday to me.

I made it this far!

There were moments, towards the end of last year, when I actually thought I wouldn't. There were also moments, around the same period, when I actually didn't want to.

Most of us went to bed at a reasonable time last night so as to get up early this morning and head off to EuroDisney for my birthday. Desney had asked me quite some time ago what I wanted to do for my birthday. I explained that this year an evening out at a nice restaurant would be a complete waste as would getting me fine wine or anything gastronomic. However I also said I wanted to have fun... and I suggested EuroDisney (Disneyland Paris) where we've been many times before.

I say most of went to a bed at a reasonable time. But Jessica, who missed my birthday dinner, was out babysitting around the corner. She could really use the money so when the SMS came on Saturday asking her to babysit she jumped at the opportunity. She was supposed to get in around 01:00 - 01:30 and we were going to wake her up at 08:00 and let her sleep in the car on the way. In the end she actually got home closer to 02:30. But things worked out all right for her in the end.

The weather on Saturday was actually quite nice. There were a few scattered rain periods but they didn't last longer than 15 minutes at any given time and the sunshine afterwards was wonderful. We decided that if the weather on Sunday could be anything like Saturday then it was a perfect time to go to EuroDisney.

I slept like a kid on Christmas eve. I awoke at 06:00, again at 06:30, again at 07:00 and again at 07:30. I would have keep finally gotten up at 07:30 but I had made a decision at 07:10. We had said to the kids that we would not wake them up if it was raining as there was no way we were going to stand outside in the endless queues at EuroDisney in the rain. At 06:00 in the morning I could hear the rain pounding outside. At 06:30 it had not died down. At 07:00 it was just as strong. Finally at 07:10 Desney rolled over and asked me when I was getting up. I responded that I wasn't and we could just have a lie in.

Alexandra got up herself around 07:30-08:00 and was watching television, of course, when we crawled out of bed at about 10:00. Just to truly frustrate us the weather became absolutely beautiful for the rest of the day as of 10:30!

It was obviously time for Plan B. Unfortunately I had not prepared a Plan B.

We sat around having breakfast while I opened by birthday presents. Everyone bought me exactly what I had asked for. Jessica, as usual, had gone her own way. She made me a beautiful card and she bought me a couple of posters including a great, and hard-to-find, Bruce Lee Nanchuku poster. We also watched Desney's one regular television experience: 2 BBC gardening shows every Sunday morning at 11:00: Garden Rivals and Alan Titmarsh's How To Be A Gardener.

We then had to make a decision. The weather outside was beautiful. But it was now afternoon. Do we rush off to Disney for a half-day or do something else? We decided to reschedule Disney for a full day sometime later during the Easter Holidays and I came up with something else.

I had not been bowling in many, many years. Those rare few who knew me way back when in my early days in Paris would remember that I used to bowl quite regularly. I was even captain of the OECD's bowling team in the International Bowling League in Paris. I thought bowling would therefore be an interesting idea as it would work no matter what the weather outside. The kids and I had gone bowling once in Montparnasse as well and it went quite well.

I found my bowling ball and shoes downstairs in the basement, wiped off the dust, and we all headed out to Bowling Champerret. We had to wait just a bit to get our lanes but once we got started we had a great time. I actually played right at my old level of 20 years ago (about 140 average) and Desney got better each game. Alexandra gets very, very frustrated when sports don't go quite as well as she'd like and therefore was not overly pleased. Jessica... Well let's just say that bowling is just not Jessica's sport. We played 2 games and then headed back home for tea.

After tea we headed down to the cellar for a few games of pool. The four of us played for a couple of hours until dinner time. Desney played better than we expected and actually much too well from the point of view of those of us who were playing against her. It was just warm enough to really enjoy the temperature of the cellar and the new Harman Kardon Soundsticks II speakers really made the tiny iPod sound great. Desney and I listened to old songs from the late 70s and The Big Chill Soundtrack to the great regret of our children.

For dinner we ordered sushi and watched a movie. I wanted something fun and I had just received Mission Impossible II as part of the Amazon DVD sale order. I put it on and within about 15 minutes the kids realised we had actually rented and seen it before! They were both able to recite certain scenes frame by frame. At least it had made an impression on them. We watched the rest of the movie anyway and enjoyed dinner and each other's company. Desney prepared my favourite dessert again, this time with more ice cream and less chocolate which went down much better, and after tea we headed off to bed.

Next year's birthday is going to be soooooo better!