Hey Miss M!

Tis Miss M's birthday today. She turns 9.
We can't afford/ be arsed organising her a proper birthday party this year (even though it's her year for a party... they only have parties in alternating years - do you know how expensive these things can be???) so instead, we're taking her and half a dozen of her friends to the local Italian restaurant for dinner on Friday night. Which should be fun.
I asked her if she had any special requests for dinner tonight: her reply was sushi, green curry, then strawberries dipped in home-made chocolate sauce. What a classy chicken! So i've been and ordered a sushi platter for her - with one of your crabstick or cooked tuna muck - no way, not for this little 9 year old madam. Only the best sashimi grade salmon will do. And maybe, just maybe, I can sneak in some teriyaki chicken ones. Not that she'll admit to a liking for something as pedestrian as chicken sushi... This is the child whose favourite sandwich filling is smoked salmon and cream cheese. Or goats cheese at a pinch. Bloody snob. I guess I have only myself to blame...

I can clearly remember turning 9 - we'd arrived in Oz in September 1982, and my birthday was a month later. I'd started school a couple of weeks before. But Mum and Dad still managed to put together a decent little party for me. With an Abba tape playing.... 9th birthdays? Anyone else have better memories?