Birthday celebrations

We face-timed Mike this morning, so he could see Keith opening his birthday present - the gorgeous aftershave that he'd insisted on buying. He seemed very happy, and we saw the kittens again who looked delightful.

I was hoping for a quiet end to the working week, but it wasn't to be. I walked in to find Kathy on the point of leaving, as her husband had to go to hospital in Oxford this morning. That meant that I was on the phones with Sheila, so any plans to catch up with other work had to be put on hold. I struggled all morning and by the end of my shift, I still hadn't processed some invoices that had been sent through. 

I sped home at 4pm and mooched about until Sophie arrived. Keith then opened the rest of his presents - casual clothes to lounge around in at home, as well as a new book, and he also opened his cards. I ran him down to the pub and returned home to have one small glass of wine with Sophie. We watched most of the latest episode of Grand Designs and chatted. Sophie still felt tired from the two days she spent away and wasn't really looking forward to going to London tomorrow. She and Zain have tickets to see Anthony Joshua on Saturday night, and they're staying overnight in a hotel. I said we could look forward to a quieter Sunday and a game of Scrabble!

At 7.30pm we went to the pub to have dinner with Keith. Sadly, the place was almost deserted, which was very worrying. We took our seats in the restaurant and there was only one other couple dining. There was a small group of men having a drink, and that was it. Not good for a Friday night.

We ordered starters - breaded mushrooms with a garlic dip for Sophie and me, and whitebait for Keith. For our main courses, I had pork belly, Sophie had Hunter's Chicken and Keith went for his usual of cod and chips. However, he was sorely disappointed. His fish looked like it had come out of a box and certainly not battered by hand as it usually does. My pork belly was huge (I gave some away to Keith and Sophie) but it was tasteless. We were all dismayed by the food as normally it's very good. What has gone wrong? Ian looked ill and worn out so not the best of evenings for a birthday celebration!

We were all done by 9pm and there was only one other man in the pub. I fear very much that we could lose our village pub if things don't improve. It would be a huge shame as we have been going there since 1989!