Today was Bob’s 75th birthday – utterly incredible but true… we just thank heavens that we feel as well as we do and can continue to live an active and happy life.

We started the day with a family breakfast at Casa Jaali. Daisy was up with the lark and we tuk’d over there to arrive just before 9am. It’s a lovely location, fantastic view across the Patnem Bay and today everything was running like clockwork. Our food delivery was incredibly fast, and everything right…. we even had cutlery and napkins from the very outset.

I had their special granola mix – very cinnamony and nutty – with yoghurt, fresh fruit and honey. And I had an amazing mug of black coffee using the special Tall Dark and Handsome blend of beans. Wonderful all of it. Daisy had the same coffee as me, plus poached eggs on a beef mix of potato cake with chipotle sauce. She wolfed it down. Bob had a pot of English tea with a dish of shakshuka – great confit eggs on top.

After that amazing start, we walked across the beach to Sea Front and pegged out for the day. Lots of swims – idyllic – and then in the afternoon Bob and Daisy played canasta with Pamela and Eddie and managed to win both games again!

After showers and a rest, Daisy came up to our room at about 630 and gave Bob a present of 2 lovely cotton shirts from Chim. Really nice blue and white prints. I’d gifted him a special shaving brush from Edward Jagger, his favourite Sheffield shaving manufacturer. Then we went downstairs to start the celebrations. Marylyn and Clive had so kindly given us a lovely bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a fabulous chocolate birthday cake from Candace. We had to share it of course. So, we managed to cut the cake into at least 12 slices for everyone including Candace, Clive, Marylyn and Nitesh to enjoy with us. And a first round of Happy Birthday to Bob.

Daisy and I went down to the beach ahead of everyone else and found the guys at Roundcube getting our table all set up. A horseshoe shape facing the sea, and one of the guys had made lovely hearts of rose petals across the table cloths. There were individual red roses in bottles covered in silver paper and of course candles…. It looked absolutely lovely.

We all sat down and enjoyed twofer cocktails and then dinner. I had prawn kadai. Bob had green Thai curry with rice and Daisy had an amazing chicken cordon bleu. After we’d all finished eating – and several rounds of drinks – Mark the manager, set off the firework packs. We had a 150 shot firework display – 2 for every year of Bob’s life. They were really good – no great huge banger ones, mostly different golden explosions of different sizes and shapes. A lovely display.

Finally, we had another amazing birthday cake. This one was a chocolate cherry genovese sponge with a chocolate mirror icing. It was tremendously delicious and we all managed a sliver despite all being very very full by then…. there was about 1/3 left which we donated to the waiting staff.

It was a fabulous evening with great food, drinks and lovely friends to help us celebrate my lovely husband and his 75 years of awesomeness. He is still as much full of mischief and mishap as he was when he was 7 and a half….. our life is a great and wonderful adventure every day.

We came back and had a lovely hour zoom call with Lucy and Geri who have bought Bob rugby tickets for Twickenham in June to see the Springboks, which he is very excited about. So nice to see them in the new flat and we can’t wait to see it in the flesh in early April after we get back.

So endeth, the birthday…… a lovely one from start to finish. Thanks to everyone who joined in, ate cake, and celebrated.