‘Enjoy a different birthday abroad,’ said D in her birthday card to me last week. Here’s a snap of the breakfast table with chiffon mocha cake (note the Southeast Asian ‘chiffon’ slant) and just at the back there you can see the birthday bill from our school bus company for next term. We’ve certainly never had one of those before.

The royal line-up of events I always organise for myself spanned the usual week (I’m Gemini, it’s always got to last longer than the royal coronation celebrations) but this year involved a Chinese reflexology treatment, Thai lunch and dinner at a rooftop restaurant looking out towards Indonesia. I even had a bit of a different birthday song (an extra ‘Happy Birthday’ instead of my name – that’s an ‘over here’ thing as well). I am looking for Chinese-themed thank you cards to keep the game going.

So D, you can be sure that I did have a bit of a different birthday abroad indeed and xie xie to all those involved. I’ll see you in a few weeks to do it the British way: put the kettle on.