Tom's Birthday

The snow had turned to hard ice this morning with the roads and pathways like sheet glass. It was Tom's 12th birthday and our original plans had been to take him and six friends (three girls and three boys) to Cadbury's World at Bourneville, Birmingham. My car remained firmly encased in the ice and we had phoned all his friends' parents to let them know that the Birmingham trip was postponed to be replaced by a birthday brunch of bacon butties at 11 a.m. at ours and sledging up in the Cow Field. I hoisted the Wiltshire flag in honour of his birthday (him being born in Salisbury, Wilts.) and we opened the many cards he had received. Tom is saving for an i-touch and received enough money to buy one with some cash to spare. I walked up to the village shop after morning tea to get the morning paper and cocoa for his chocolate birthday cake which Sara was baking. Taking the tarmacked road behind the village hall, the pathway was treacherous going up the hill and trampled slush from yesterday had frozen solid into a dangerous uneven surface. The shop was out of cocoa and so, ironically, we had to use Bourneville chocolate! I returned over the fields where the snow was less trampled and so hard that you could walk safely. Back home, the kids entertained themselves and Sara and I had a leisurely day. Sara's father phoned Tom to wish him personally a Happy Birthday. He had sent Tom a $50 dollar bill which we replaced with Sterling for him and which I have added to our dollar collection for our trip to Nassau later this year. During the afternoon, after clearing the melting snow from the rear patio, I watched 633 Squadron and two documentaries about the Earth's formation about its vulcanism and glacial formations. It is an interesting fact that the Tibetan Plateau is sinking and despite all the concerns about global warming, the climate is generally cooling - it was 15 degrees Celsius warmer 70 million years ago - and we are, in fact, in one of the colder periods of its history. This evening I cooked Sara a Chinese-style chicken curry like the ones I used to eat regularly when I lived in Liverpool. We watched two films this evening - Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the brilliant Forrest Gump. Saints' match against Watford was postponed due to poor weather and Grimsby drew 2-2 against Exeter at home. They were winning until the last ten minutes too! They moved one place up to 4th from bottom but Bournemouth are closing the gap with only seven points behind. My prediction is that Grimsby and Bournemouth will both stay up but only just with Barnet and Luton going down. Tomorrow we have a Praise Service at All Saints in the morning and as it is New Zealand Day we'll hoist the New Zealand flag. As I need to be in Dorking and Brighton on Monday I am hoping that the thaw will continue.