It was my birthday on Saturday. (Cue cheers and screams of excitement from the crowd.) Fox was away for work, which sucked, but I had fun hanging with Errol and some friends in Vesuvio Playground in Soho, where there’s a water feature for toddlers to run around in that both thrills and terrifies him in equal measure. So cute. My belated birthday dinner is this weekend at this place.

I must have been a Very Good Girl this year as I received some gorgeous presents. (Wait, do you have to be a Very Good Girl for birthday presents? Just Christmas? Okay then. That’s good since really I’ve misbehaved terribly.) The best present of all: a surprise playlist that Fox made just for me on Spotify of ‘our’ songs. Sorry to be retch-inducingly romantic, but it was one of the most perfect presents ever. A mixtape for 2013. Such a good idea, I wanted to share it with everyone as it’s such a nice way to let someone know you’ve been thinking of them. Here’s how to do it. 

I once made a mixed CD for my best girlfriends of all of ‘our’ songs. I designed – well, I begged my then-art director Chris to design – a proper cover and everything (I titled it The Best Of The Best: Top Gun. Because I am a DORK). I wish I still had it, I lost it somewhere in the last 14,000 house moves… I seem to recall it featured, among many others:

I am pretty sure it is the only time those six songs will ever be on one CD, ever.

My friend Bec and I thought ‘Bad To The Bone’ was our personal anthem, with, I hope, a lot of irony. We knew all the words, and would play air guitar and mime this song, with absolute confidence, absolutely anywhere. We had no fear.

PS My second-favorite birthday present was another one from Fox: Cire Trudon candle in Ernesto. Oh my God it smells so good. Green and spicy and vanilla ambery and argh, just so so nice. Reminds me of one of my favorite perfumes: Habanita by Molinard, which isn’t surprising since both of them are allegedly inspired by Havana. I have not been to Cuba. I guess I should go. 

This is the copy about the Ernesto candle on the Cire Trudon website. Hilarious: “In a hotel of Havana, sizzling under the stubborn sun of the Revolution, fierce overtones of leather and tobacco meddle with resolution the waxy silence of wood. Breaking out of the cool dimness, sly grimaces emerge, framed by the smoke of cigars and the barrels of guns.” LOVE! I wish I’d been able to write shit like that when I was a copywriter. I spent all my damn time trying to make cars and milk and bank accounts sound sexy and failing miserably.