Friday August 15th 2025 "Birthdays! Have YOU got one this year? Most of us have, I would imagine!"

Birthdays - have YOU got one this year? I.e. you weren't born on February 29th, for example!!!!

Yes, birthdays! We all look forward to them, but some years, they come with their share of "issues" to put it mildly. Am I right? Or am I right !!!!!

Poor Mrs Fulmer !!!!!

And just down the road from the Fulmers, here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, my light-to-moderate wife Lois and I have a busy "exec" like that Robert Fulmer guy in our family, would you believe!

my light-to-moderate wife Lois and me - a recent picture

Yes, step forward, Edward, our son-in-law, a hotshot London lawyer, who's got appointments coming out of his ears, if that makes sense!  [It doesn't! - Ed] But, busy as he is, his busy workload never stops him taking time out to mark our daughter Alison's birthday, we're glad to say. 

And this year it's a big one for Alison - the big "Five-Oh". If he wasn't the caring sort, Edward would have every excuse to "reschedule" it, however, because the family only got back yesterday from an exhausting holiday on Mauritius in the faraway Indian Ocean, and they're all feeling a bit rough, to put  it mildly. Despite that, the two of them are  determined to celebrate with a brunch out at a swanky restaurant, and a night out at a theatre in London's West End.  

some of our daughter Alison's birthday cards displayed on their mantelpiece

Lois and I pop in around lunchtime, hoping to catch both them, and their 3 teenage kids, actually in their home for five minutes or so (!), and hand over our card and our present to Alison, a nice necklace. 

our dear elder daughter Alison's 50th birthday - what a milestone! 

(top right) she tries on the necklace we've got her as a birthday present this year,

and (bottom left) Alison's husband Ed lights the candles on the traditional

Colin the Caterpillar birthday cake from Tesco's - awwwww!!!!!

Alison and Edward are going to be seeing a play in London tonight, "The Daughter of Time", which is all about another busy man, Alan Grant, this time back in the 1950's. And in the theatre audience tonight Alison is going to be sporting the shiny new necklace that Lois and I have gifted her, which is nice!

(left) our daughter Alison pictured later today on the drive to London

with husband Edward to see "The Daughter of Time" at the Charing Cross Theatre,

wearing the necklace Lois and I gave her for her 50th birthday today

In the play, the main character, poor Alan, the busy police inspector, is in hospital with a broken leg. In those crazy, far-off days, NHS hospitals were mainly filled by patients with ailments like broken legs and arms, because most of today's major illnesses hadn't been discovered yet, which was a blessing!

Alan is a bit bored however. He'll be in there for about 6 weeks, just to make sure he's better before being discharged (!). So, to fill in time, he's decided to research the life of Richard III (born 1452, died 1485). Believing Richard's life-story as King of England to have been treated badly by historians, he's hoping to get Richard's case reconsidered for a possible posthumous pardon by one of Richard's descendants - step forward, His Royal Majesty King Charles III. 

To help him with this research, the broken-legged Alan enlists the support of an American PhD student. And Alan also "takes on" a pretty actress, for the purposes of light-to-moderate relief [not shown!!!].

scenes from the play: Alan, a busy police inspector is stuck in a hospital bed, suffering

from a broken leg; out of boredom he turns to historical research, with the

aid of American history student Brent and pretty actress Marta

I know what you're thinking - it's been done before, hasn't it, and many times! 

Lois and I think it's a pity that Alan's story has never been done as a musical. And we spend some time today writing some show-stopping numbers and choreographing a few dance scenes to go with the theme, which we recreate using some of our latest A.I software. See what you think!

(top) some of the hospital dance sequences Lois and I have choreographed

and (bottom) our iconic flashback scenes of the Battle of Bosworth (1485)

Well Lois and I have been retired for nearly 20 years, and we've allegedly got loads of time to spare,  - ha bloody ha, and pardon my French !!!! And so we've got to do something with our occasional free moments !!!

Anyway, as her 50th birthday treat, I'm sure that our dear daughter will thoroughly enjoy the play tonight, with or without mine and Lois's iconic dance numbers (!).

And on TV tonight, Lois and I find out even more about birthdays through the ages, in Dan Snow's latest fascinating programme in the new Channel 5 series about the ruined Roman of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 69AD, but miraculously preserved under all that volcanic ash.

Lois and I didn't know that birthdays were a big thing even back in Roman times. The Romans didn't invent birthdays - that honour goes to the Pharaohs of Egypt apparently, but the Romans enthusiastically adopted the custom and took the celebration of birthdays up to the next level, to put it mildly!

Parties parties parties - the Romans, rich and poor, just loved them, it seems, whether it was for somebody's birthday, somebody's wedding or somebody's "coming of age" celebration, as the series' historical consultant Dr Kate Lister explains.

Any excuse for a day off, perhaps? Well, they were Italians, after all (!).

Women lived them too, and in Roman Britain, we know that birthdays were being celebrated just as much as they were in Italy.

And the Romans even had birthday cake on their birthdays, it seems.

But what Lois and I wonder tonight is - did those Roman birthday cakes taste as nice as the Tesco "Colin the Caterpillar" cake that we enjoyed at our daughter Alison's house earlier today?

Well, maybe not, Dr Kate thinks!!!!

Go on, Dr Kate, try a bit - we know you want to !!!!

That good, eh?!!!!

Well, I think Lois and I will stick with a Colin the Caterpillar cake from Tesco's, if you don't mind haha !!!! It least it has "smarties" on top, which is a bonus!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!