Bring on the bouncing birthday bears!

Bears? what bears? Birthday? O that birthday!
Bears?
I think the blue and grey and white and black striped sky outside the window has gone to my head. I see no bears.
Ooh! It's cold. I just went out to take a picture of the above mentioned sky.

the day before yesterday I suddenly decided it was time to play with my Ikea desk. the one that was in stock and we did bring home. Thursday, kindly and helpfully agreed to abandon what she was doing and came over and we spent several happy hours fixing the obliging Ikea puzzle bits together to create a desk! It was one of the most difficult Ikea puzzles I remember doing so it really was great to have both the company, the help and the extra brain for moments of complete bafflement since I'd decided to make the desk with a left sided drawer instead of right sided which meant every time we moved onto a new part, we had to reverse the destructions. There were one or two times we had to reverse our constructions too but finally it was made. And it all worked! I have to say that me and Thursday ROCKED at making desks. Sadly the next one will only be a table top and two trestles so probably not challenging enough to need a pair of Ikea experts.
The night before last, we went out with youngest and her partner for a birthday dinner. It was a real blast! One of those very fancy swanky places where the door opens as you arrive and minions flock to whisk away any garments you wish to dispose of and gather round to offer drinks and stuff. And then the table has great big blue swirly glass plates apparently ready for you. But when your dinner arrives, these are whisked away (they were just to make the table feel dressed) to be replaced by plates decorated with food! plates of all shapes and sizes...square ones, oblong ones, pointy edged ones, oh all sorts. And you're allowed to eat the pretty food too! Food arranged in castles and towers and turrets and swirls and splashes with creamy bits and foamy bits and chunky bits and airy fairy floaty and pointy bits. And when they bring the food they remind you what you ordered. Not as silly as it sounds because even when you know what it is, it takes a minute or two to work out which fluffy bit is the herby creme fraiche and whether the creamy bit was the horseradish parfait or would it be the bit that trails off the side of the little mound of haddock and mustardy potato and draws a neat little circle round the whole plate.*
Barney came away minus some arms and legs but he said that was ok. He wasn't so keen on having his napkin replaced on his lap every time he left the table but he didn't mind having his glass refilled the minute it looked a bit depleted.
And since Youngest and her partner own the house where two of the chefs live (and anyway she knew them from when they worked at the local gourmet pub) we got an extra little terrine served on a square, glass plate edged in fiery red, with a tiny criss cross of something crispy and delicate, all courtesy of the chef. Or was that topped with some small succulent fruity thing? I'm not sure.
And there were little tiny cups of foamy pre starters (delish) and a little foamy pre pudding cup and on my plate, a sugar crystal circle with happy birthday written on it in red. Which was then wrapped in tin foil (arranged by one of the waitresses as a sort of swan for me to take home:)
It was a bit over the top. But all such fun!!!! And all quite utterly delish. (As so it should be at that price)
Youngest said they were saying in the kitchen that we were a nice table...I think that was maybe because of the squeaks and general enthusiasm as more and more pretty, fancy, fairy tale food arrived! there should probably be a moral ending to all this but I'll try and think of one of those another time. You can't always be moral, I find.
It's suddenly very late.
Have a lovely weekend everyone and enjoy whatever you can. Hope you cope with the rest. I say nothing about manyana...it never comes. Like Father Christmas. Not to be waited for.

*It would have suited you Mel, hardly any of the food touched any of the other food, mostly it just floated about elegantly!