got the lot

It is Mr McMuffin's birthday tomorrow and a time of great despair in the McMuffin household. Not because Mr McMuffin mourns his lost youth or is inconsolable about his old git status, but because I have no idea what to give him. I thought I had it covered, a knife skills course at Prue Leith's cookery school, but the course is booked solid with no confirmation of a further date. Mr McMuffin has been very helpful and told me of all the technology he has coveted but denied himself, such as an iPod nano, but I really wanted to get something a little less predictable and a lot more satisfying to give.

At my request, Mr McMuffin kindly put together the snippets of film of Babycake's birth and made it into a coherent whole for me to watch. It's almost six months on and I only now feel as if I can watch it without hiding behind the sofa. I was quite surprised to see how well my memory of the event matches the reality and that I appeared on the surface to be very calm and quiet, even managing little breathy conversations between pushes. This is so unlike my usual hypochondrical presentation that I am very pleased we actually have the evidence of my bravery on film. It will also be useful to watch if I ever get broody (not that I ever have been yet) and less painful than hitting myself round the head repeatedly with a cast iron frying pan.