Blimey, the old dear has officially made it to the grand old age of 85. And Mum is still in amazingly good health, which she probably puts down to the 2 bags of Walkers crisps she extorts from Silviya or me every day.
So Hawksey and I decided to take her out for a bit of a splurgey birthday lunch, to Petersham Nurseries in Richmond. Which was very nice – plants growing everywhere in the restaurant, uneven floors, quirky tables, top notch service etc. Scoffed some large razor clams and a very godo truffle risotto while Mum ploughed her way through an impressive amount of prosecco, a starter, huge main course with a rather good white wine and an entire dessert, followed by coffee.
At which point, the bill arrived. hawksey scopped it up – not that Mum can read anything printed that small these days – while she repeatedly asked how much it was.
Cue lots of 'it's our treat', 'not for you to worry about today, Mum', 'this one's on us, you're not 85 every day' etc platitudes from us as we gasped at the rather whopping total.
Only to be brought firmly back down to earth by her saying 'well, my guess is that it was £12.'
So I said 'what, £12 each for all that?'
Which of course elicited the reply 'No – £12 for all of us'
Four quid each, hmmmm. Next time it's the bloody Harvester or Nandos – and she would probably be just as content!
Hey ho – happy birthday Mum.