Ok, I miscounted. Really there were three phases to the first round of celebration, and third was a great dinner on Monday that my brother cooked for me.

He made roast chicken in a bag which was great, and a rather marvellous salad, and we had some great wine and champagne – although I managed, to Arvind’s chagrin, to maintain my mid-week habit of not imbibing too much…

I also got AMAZING gifts. Gem got me an iPod Nano!!! I thought it was a double-CD when I saw the wrapped present! I still don’t quite believe it! They are every bit as beautiful and a little smaller than you’d imagine. I am going to have to plot something fiendishly good for her birthday to make up for it.

Siblings done really good. Some music and reading, a subscription to Private Eye and the box set of Jeeves and Wooster! And parents are buying me a bike, which my brother represented symbolically by laying his outer tyres around his living room with a bike helmet and a catalogue… hoping to shop for it today! So exciting!

It has been an awesome birthday – and the biggest party is yet to come! But I do already feel I have celebrated well, which is very satisfying, to say the least, and am massively greatful to friends and family for making it special in a dozen little ways.

Scary being closer to 40 than, erm, being born, though.