43

As birthdays go, for the most part, the day had been a dank and drizzly affair with the main highlight being a trip to Asda. The low points being a realisation that the cheesecake I’d made yesterday had been made with out of date cheese and then I’d had the oven on the wrong temperature for the birthday cake I’d made to replace the cheesecake. DisAHHHHster, dahling!

However, I collected The Eldest mid-afternoon and we nattered away on the drive back, following one last work call the wee ones turned up and I could finally open my presents, which included, books, sweets, a Spider-Man mug and a kick-as face mask from Simmo (see extra) then we got on Zoom for a chaotic family catch up, after which time it is fair to say that the prevailing conditions had improved drastically.

I’d elected for a Domino’s blow-out and so we all sat there quite happily munching our pizzas in front of the fire and watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I cut around the soggy bits of the birthday cake as the rest of it was fine and we finished the day out giggling at Cards Against Humanity (the family version).

The icing on the cake was another West Ham win taking us to fourth in the table! West Ham. Fourth!

However, I can’t let today’s blip pass without acknowledging that the giddy excitement of the evening’s fun was tempered by the news of the Covid death toll exceeding 100,000 people. I didn’t watch the press conference, but I’ve seen the photos of Johnson with his head bowed as well it should be. How he can have the gall to look anyone in the eye is beyond me. Can he even look himself in the eye and say that he’s handled this well?

Yes, a lot of people were always unfortunately going to die from this awful thing, but did it have to be THIS many?