Birthday season

It's just one birthday after another at this time of the year.  First comes Ian's, then Carolan's, mine, Patty's and my mother's.  I know at least 2 people who have birthdays on the same day as myself.  The final birthday of the "season" is Brian's, on 6th April.  Of course we've all spent our money by then, so tough luck!  Actually, he already has a present from me, a pair of Gloven oven gloves that arrived on Friday.  They are amazing as you just can't feel any heat through them.  They can also be used to take things out of the freezer as you can't feel cold through them either.
I bought myself a watch last week.  My last one gave up, or at least had become unpredictable in spite of  a new battery.  So, I decided to buy myself a nice watch with part of a bonus I received.  I set myself a budget (200 euro) and went to a good jeweller in town.  It wasn't a good start as they were out of stock as it was "too close to Christmas".  I'm not sure whether that was last Christmas or next Christmas.  They did have a few watches at prices like 1,000 euro.  Do people really spend that much on a watch?  Is this why they still had them?
Anyway, I crossed the road to the next jeweller and set out my specifications - a watch that was easily visible for reading time, and not flashy, with the aforementioned maximum budget.  The nice lady I spoke to got the measure of me straight away and produced about half a dozen watches that were all meeting specifications and were within budget.  I tried them on, eliminating a few and getting down to 3 possibles.  Then she suddenly remembered that she had some watches that had been reduced to half price a couple of days ago.  To cut a long story short, I ended up buying a watch at my budget price that had been reduced from 400 euro (400 - that is way above what I'd even dream of paying!).  It's lovely - small, with roman numerals in black that make it very easy to read.  There is nothing fancy about it, but the price seems to be related to the Swiss make and the fact that its back is made of gold.  I'm really please with it, as it is rather special.
Gardening has started in earnest at this stage, though the cold weather means that I can't plant much.  My birthday present from Brian was fencing for part of the garden, enabling me to move raspberries across the garden and still protect them from digging dogs.  So far I've planted garlic and onions in the veg garden, and sewn broad bean and salad seeds in the greenhouse.  I've also done lots of digging and weeding.  I discovered that my compost heap had actually decomposed enough for it to be suitable for spreading across the garden, which I have now done.  It was a very satisfying thing to do.
Greetings to everyone!