I’ve had an awesome day today!
Matthew woke me up with a happy birthday hug, and seemed very enthusiastic to give me my presents. First up was a bottle of fuel injector fluid (very practical), then some cool seat covers for my car, and finally… a 17” LCD flat panel monitor 
Needless to say, about 2 minutes after we opened the box, we had headed upstairs and plugged the baby in. It’s brilliant, especially after my crappy 13.5” monitor that I’ve been peering into since I first bought my computer almost 7 years ago. Hooray!
Then we decided to put the seat covers in my car, only to find that they weren’t quite right, because the driver’s seat has a lumbar support lever on the side, which wasn’t accounted for in the design of the covers, and also the seat is a more contoured shape than the covers allowed for 
Big bummer, since they would have looked really cool. So we decided that we’d go back to the shop later, and get something else.
Then we had to get ready for lunch, which was at Chianti Classico. We went there for my birthday last year, and it was really good. This year was excellent too - Tuscan style tomato and bread soup, followed by chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto with slow roasted tomatoes :d Yummy. We were both too stuffed after our main courses to attempt dessert, even though they all sounded scrummy. So we settled for a hot chocolate/coffee.
After lunch we headed to the shop to exchange the car seat covers. I wasn’t sure what I wanted instead - Matthew said he’d looked at some hub caps, and also the gear stick knobs. I was looking at the knobs (I’ve been wanting one for ages, but have never got around to getting one), and saw one which had blue flashing LEDs in it - there’s a button in the middle that you press, and there are 3 light combinations. I thought it looked pretty cool, but maybe it was a bit over the top and not reeeally necessary… but then I saw on the side of the box: ‘enhances car interior at night’, and I imagined driving around at night and people looking over and seeing my gear stick knob flashing, and I thought ‘coooool’ (in Bart Simpson fashion) Matthew saying how gadgety it was sealed it I almost got some hub caps, but they weren’t quite the design I was after.
So then we headed to my parents’ house, where I got more cool presents, and had birthday cake and tried to eat afternoon tea even though we were still stuffed from lunch. And we watched tennis and cricket and had a good time.
Then it was home time, and so we loaded up the car with my cool birthday loot, and drove off. After I’d unpacked everything and done the dishes, we went out to my car put the gear shift knob on. I can’t wait to go driving at night! I’ll have to go out to the car tonight, even if I don’t drive anywhere, and just look at it for a while to decide which flashing configuration I like best 
So in a few minutes I’m going for a walk with Matthew, and from tomorrow it’ll be back to life as normal for another year… but this was the coolest birthday ever!
