The Minx at 40

It's the Minx's 40th birthday, today. She loves other people's birthdays - putting a lot of thought into presents and making them special - but is curiously averse to any attention to her own.

This year, though, being her fortieth, even she accepted that there would have to be some recognition of the day, so she hired the downstairs bar at The Deaf Institute in Manchester. (The photo shows one of the basement windows, or at least where I think a window might once have been.)

I came down in the morning with Dan and Abi so we could have a birthday breakfast together and the Minx and miniMinx went out with her mum for tea in the afternoon, while I took Dan and Abs back to their mum's and picked up my daughter, Milly, and her chap for the evening do.

The Minx and I have liked the Deaf Institute since our first visit to the restaurant bar and we've also been to see a few gigs in the upstairs room, which makes for a cracking little venue. Tonight was our first venture to the basement, though, which turned out to be quite perfect for the forty or so guests.

The music was provided by the Minx's 'Forty' playlist on Spotify, a brilliantly eclectic choice which she played through a neat DJing app on her iPad, although there was also a couple of hours of splendid music provided by her lovely friends Sarah and Mike. 

A couple of things struck me: firstly, how nice all of the Minx's friends are and, secondly, the effort that people had made to be there. Four of her friends had even come up from London. It's just like The Beatles sang: "And in the end, the love you take/is equal to the love you make."