A splendid day! I am THIRTY-FOUR bazillion years old!! Of course, I didn’t worry about that until about 2.55pm, which is when I was actually born. I woke up, and M made me tea and porridge - pointing out our polished-for-the-birthday appliances:

Note the birthday shrine and the gorgeous roses from my mum, who also made me a cake - and not only that, but entrusted me with her Tupperware cake traveller on pain of being written from the Will if anything happened to it.

Then I began tearing open delicately removing the wrapping from this excellent looking book, and a lovely necklace and swag of magazines - and of course the impeccable card from my five-year-old friend Jack. And then in no particular order I got a fabbo Coty vintage cosmetics case that I’d had my eye on (since the hinges of my current one did not survive three weeks at sea), an fabulous InEssence travel vapouriser/oil/candles set, and voucher to the Paperback Bookshop. And then I got to M’s gifties. And oh, did he win some serious points!

I love it when I am a victim of successful subterfuge. It’s very satisfying being successfully deceived for good and not evil. Thus, I had been gagging to get a tour T-shirt when we went to see Wilco play a few weeks ago. M got up a few times before the show started, saying that his dinner had upset his stomach. The first time he left, I had a sly girlish hope that he was going to come back with a T-shirt for me as a surprise, but he just came back with a I-have-a-petal-stomach face, and when he dashed off for the second time I thought no more of it. But he secretly hid the following under his jacket, and now it’s MINE!

All wrapped up in freak cat paper. The next present blew my tiny brain. I schlep around the place with my old Palm T3 with a 512MB card in it, and I have to put on only four or five Harry Potter mp3 files at a time, and it’s battery life is crap. Imagine my wonder when I totally unexpectedly unwrapped a…

Tres EXCELLENT!!! I was so horrified and overwhelmed by the wonder of the present that I took ages to get it out of the v.sexy box. No more endless transfer of files to my Palm! I can listen to the next two Harry Potter books read by the imitable Stephen Fry and they only take up about five percent of my Pod!!! *squeaks*

So now the bed was demented with wrapping paper, and cats that thought they should be on the wrapping paper;

Note the faux wood walls - M and I were hysterical that this time last year we were homeless, but awoke in the Hydro Majestic in the Blue Mountains and this year we live in trailerland. Ha!

I plugged in the IPod to charge it up and Dad and T came over for a cup of birthday tea - I scored the first series of At Home With the Braithwaites and a contribution of funds towards the Auslan course I’m keen to do. I got a Happy Birthday text from my old friend Bridget, whose birthday was yesterday, which was an excellent surprise. M and I then set off - he chauffered me in the Humber - to the Merricks General Store for a splendiforous lunch.

I extravagantly ordered House made gnocchi in a light blue cheese, spinach and chardonnay cream sauce with toasted pinenuts and Grana Padano which I topped off with a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and finishing with a chunk of Turkish Delight and a piece of my favourite pistachio, cherry and cranberry nougat.

Did I have to include a blow by blow description of the food? Absolutely. It was divine. We went for a noodly drive to Balnarring Beach, and then checked the post box on the way home. Didn’t get home until after 4pm and just kicked back for the rest of the day, biding our time until candles and cake!! I can’t remember the last time I’ve had the combination of a Melbourne birthday and T-shirt weather! My trailer birthday, while different to last year’s in Katoomba, was kickass!