Friday

Today is K's birthday. We get up early and she opens the few presents I've assembled on the kitchen table, as well as a book and a huge bar of chocolate my mother sent from Scotland. I got her Psychoville and Zombieland on DVD, as well as a bag of Mini Eggs, which given that her birthday generally falls around Eastertime I'm sure she's more than used to. I'm also putting some money towards her new iPod. Yeah, I'm a pretty good boyfriend when I put my mind to it.

Work is fine and when it's over I go to Sainsbury's to get ingredients for the dinner I'm cooking tonight. I get a nice looking hunk of rump steak and a pack of powder which, it claims, becomes peppercorn sauce when mixed with milk and butter - and who am I to argue? I also pick up the obligatory 3 bottles of birthday red wine and head home to chop some potatoes for home-made oven chips, some onions and mushrooms for tasty fried garnish. Needless to say I'm pretty proud of myself when it's ready and has been happily munched by myself and the birthday girl. Strange to think that only a couple of years ago I lived alone and barely bothered to cook for myself beyond picking up a frozen pizza on the way home from work. Nowadays I have a fairly respectable range of meals in my culinary arsenal. I won't pretend it's not all down to K's good influence.

Later on we get stuck into the wine and play a bit of Scrabble. I pull no punches - it may be her birthday but that doesn't stop me revelling in beating her by 50+ points. We then watch Zombieland which, despite the fact that I'm completely uninterested in zombie movies and the horror genre in general turned out to be quite funny and have a lot of nice ideas in it. The Bill Murray cameo in the middle is stunningly weird and only reaffirms my love for the great man.

Psychoville is also just as great as I remember it and such a shame that it wasn't better publicised - or at least a shame that so few people I know saw it on TV last year.

We end up, naturally, rather drunk, full of meat and chocolate and very content before a sensible bedtime.