The collected works of ScottyB

And its over. Another day and another year added to the tally!

My Birthday came and went in the best possible fashion. It was a fantastic day - in fact I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a Birthday so much. My closest friends made me feel special, my loved ones made me feel whole. A huge thank you to everyone who sent me messages and presents yesterday! I think its so cool that a bloke all the way away in Australia sends and receives gifts with UK’ers met - of all places - over a MINI forum. I love this little thing we have going peeps! Makes our special days that little bit more special.

Dinner was at home, a pasta Carbonara, topped with Parmesan cheese - my Mum’s special - with toasted cheese bread entree. Naturally I ate too much and felt quite bloated for the next hour or so. It was worth it though - I’m about the only one that seems to really (and I stress really) enjoy the Carbonara.. nevertheless, for my Birthday it was prepared for the family (well three of us anyway, Dad decided he wanted a pork chop instead) and a big pasta bowl later, I was already appreciating turning 24.

As the Sun disappeared behind the mountains, another day passing, the cool evening air washing through the windows, I was joined by Kate. Fresh from her sisters Birthday dinner (in a miraculous turn of coincidence, her Birthday happens to be on the exact same day as mine - even the same year - and in fact, we are only separated by a few hours!) and she came bearing gifts. The best one wrapped in a big blue ribbon.

I was presented with:

The basket of goodies to end all baskets of goodies! In fact, this was no ordinary basket of goodies. This one would be talked about for years to come. Entire civilizations would base their religions upon such basket fulls of gifts and nations would fall at the hand of the mighty gift-basket followers - it really was that good - but for the time being (and with my Nostradamus-like predictions set aside for a minute) I had to settle for the original gift-basket.. the holy grail of gift baskets.

It contained one of the absolutely awesome Marvel ‘Figure Factory’ kits. This one was of the Thing. They also are packaged with a collector card - four in fact (for the record, I got Nightcrawler, Vulture, Apocalypse and Captain America - awesome).

The kit began coming together…

And I didn’t even consult the instructions!!! Anyone would think these were designed for 5 year olds! Oh.. wait.

Too cool… I’ve gotta get more of these things. (Ooh, see what I did there? ‘Things’ hehehe)..

I think Kate was testing my construction abilities, because next up was a robotic Spider-man.. which came in about eleventy-billion pieces (come to think of it, I have a feeling it may have all been an elaborate ploy. Have me assemble these things for an hour, while she gets to play Insaniquarium Deluxe… hmmmm)…

Needless to say I passed the test. One robotic Spider-man, complete with shooting arm launcher, successfully assembled.

Joining my desk in the little gathering of Mr. Men characters, was Mr. Happy, looking quite happy (quite ironic really) to be reunited with his long-lost Mr-friends.

Mr Noisy, Mr Tickle and Mr Happy look quite impressed to be around.

Also included, but not pictured;

Uno - the special, talked-about, hyped, addictive card game. Finally my own personal edition of Uno. I finally own it after all these years of being left out, or playing it only when at friends places. Now I can even play it by myself if feel like it!! muahaha…

Finger Bowling! I played marbles as a kid, but never took it that next level, to mimic bowling. Now is my chance! I just have to fashion up a little mini-lane out of the old bed tray I have downstairs and I’m set!

Formula One Play-Doh - almost as strangely as Kate having never seen a Bond film (with the exception of half of Casino Royale the other night.. before falling asleep), she has also never eaten Play-Doh. I think this is a hint. I mean really - how can one say he or she has lived without downing a little Play-Doh at least once in your lifetime. Its right up there with eating dirt from the garden (or was that just me?).

And completing the ultra gift-basket was a barrage of sweets and chocolates. A bunch of Kinder Surprise eggs (OMG yum.. I’m surprised there’s still any left this afternoon to be honest!), Willy-Wonka Nerds, Starburst Fruit-Chews, Starburst Gummis and the elusive Starburst ‘Anaconda’ clearly misrepresented as this one is only about 30cm long - not the 30m long thing that was in the movie with Jennifer Lopez. Though a giant gummi Anaconda would probably be a bit of an ask, as I imagine it would be quite difficult to ingest in the Human body as well as the associated cost of producing such a mammoth piece of gummi.

Great pressies Katie!! Love ‘em babe

I think that pretty much covers it. Another Birthday wrapped up!

Cheers everyone