Today is my birthday. So far my haul has included presents from my loving spouse and my sister. Not bad. Am most pleased. My mother rang earlier this morning to assure me that the parental present will be in Cork when I go back at the end of the month. And I suppose, in all fairness, I can’t expect anything from my brother until he gets something from me (his birthday was February 5 and still he has received nothing from his loving sister).
Last year, my birthday was on a Monday and I was eight months pregnant and we didn’t really do much. I was mildly bitter about that and I was anxious, for his own sake, that Mr. Waffle wouldn’t let something similar happen this year. I wondered whether he would like me to approach our babysitter. No. Now our babysitter is Polish and her French is not great so communication with her can be difficult, particularly over the phone. I am a champion communicator (or a non-stop talker, if you like) so we get along fine with a combination of sign language (ok, this is challenging over the phone) and guess work. But I knew that Mr. Waffle, who is the strong silent type, would not be in a position to book her alone. I will not conceal from you that I was concerned that another evening in was looming. This morning, however, he revealed that he had asked a Polish colleague in the office to call her. I was pleased. Firstly, because we are going out to my favourite restaurant in Brussels and secondly, because it is not his thing to approach colleagues and ask them to phone his babysitter. He is reserved, whereas I was once graphically, but not unfairly, described by a colleague as the kind of person who will tell her life story to the person beside her at the bus stop.
I see that Fluid Pudding feels that her husband’s birthday may not have gone as well as she might have hoped. While, I trust that Mr. Waffle’s birthday will not feature the general awfulness that bedevilled Snickerdoodle’s, the fact that he has given me an excellent present and arranged a fab evening out does put me on my mettle. Alas, his birthday is Friday week, so it’s not like he’ll have forgotten the efforts he made for mine by the time it rolls round. Furthermore, he is IMPOSSIBLE to buy presents for. We had the following conversation last night:
Me: What would you like for your birthday?
Him: Well, you know I read this article in the Observer the other week, I meant to keep it for you actually..
Me: Fantastic, don’t worry about it, I can find it online, I’ll get it, what does it say?
Him (sheepishly): Well, it’s just this guy saying that really at his age, he doesn’t need presents and anything he wants, he can buy himself. In fact has already bought himself. You really don’t have to buy me anything..
Blah.
Thierrry
on 10 March 2004 at 22:33
(^_^)
on 12 March 2004 at 13:06
Ah jaysus, apologies for missing your day. Well Happy Birthday to you. Hope you had a good one. 🙂
Ok, so even though you already got some presents from himself, I think it should only be fair that you follow his lead and get your own gift. Anything you really need right now?
(my own gift….err….it’s in the post!)
on 16 March 2004 at 15:25
