Saturday, 14th October 2023

Misa (12th) and Emilka (13th) are 17 years old!

They are two young adults now with their own individual personalities, opinions, ideas, dreams and passions.  Young adults don’t need creative birthday parties to be organised for them with all the hard work beforehand, during, and afterwards, so a different approach was taken this year; tickets to the ‘Macnificent’ (with a ‘c’) live show of their (and our) favourite comedian Michael McIntrye were bought at the beginning of February and kept a complete secret until the day before.

Misa woke up on his birthday and unwrapped a few presents (an orthopaedic pillow and computing gaming keyboard as two diverse requests!), got a porridge with heart shaped chocolate sprinkled on top, and went to school and later to Tesco. On the way home he got himself Pho Vietnam soup for dinner as a treat.

Emilka woke up for the first time away from home on her birthday. I called to wish her a happy birthday and we picked her up from college at 5pm, visiting grandma and grandad for birthday hugs on the way home, and then arrived to pizza and unveiling the weekend surprise! Well, we made them work for it, asking questions to whittle it down.  It took them a while, but Misa got there in the end to huge excitement from them both.

We left the house at 7am on Saturday morning, dropping off some things in Whiteley for a Sri Lankan friend who had recently moved to the UK, with his wife and daughters following in November. We then drove to Gosport and our friends with 3 dogs (two Cocker Spaniels and a Miniature Greyhound) and went for a walk with them. Having a nice brunch in our favourite seaside café along with other friends was a special treat appreciated by all, celebrating togetherness with Emilka’s favourite burger and Misa’s ham, egg and chips.

Now it was time to drive to Bournemouth to walk on the sea front (so different to Sri Lanka), enjoy dinner at an excellent Japanese restaurant, and walk the short distance from there to the show for 19.30. Neither Michael nor his support act, Jake Lambert, disappointed.  We laughed, laughed and laughed from beginning to end, enjoying clever and creative humour that in being free of broadcasting constraints could push boundaries and be all the better for it.

Although we booked soon after tickets were released, we were sat in the ‘Gods’ quite far away from the stage and reliant on a large screen much of the time, but the feeling that he was in the room with us, on the stage was a good feeling.

We drove home that night feeling on top of the world for seeing our favourite comedian live. We have so many memories from that show and and are now using some of his punch lines in our everyday life. 

What about cake? Was there one?

Yes there was. I made a carrot cake, and Emilka decorated it with pictures of her favourite two Formula 1 drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. We sang her a  happy birthday song and she blew the candles when she had her two best friends with her on Sunday.  Misa wasn’t fussed having a cake. We will hopefully get a chance to stick a candle into a piece of cake one day soon so we can sing to him happy birthday and he can make a wish whilst blowing out the candle. 

Another year gone by, and in one more we will have eighteen year old adults. I can’t believe how the time has flown by. 

Rennie