But worse was to come. While checking t'internet to confirm that this was a hoax (it was) I found the Independent (apparently a respected newspaper) had a headline: "Ebola 'risen from the dead' zombie story is a complete hoax". So glad they cleared that one up. Coming next week; "Pope is a Catholic" and "Bears defecate in the woods".

There have been a couple of other phrases in the last few days that have made me sit up and say "do what?".

The first was in an article about a forthcoming new Dad's Army film: "Jones will star as Captain Mainwaring". This makes a lot more sense when you realise that it is referring to the actor Toby Jones, not Lance Corporal Jack Jones.

The second was a court ruling where the judge had said "he hadn't been dishonest but he had cheated" (or may have been the other way round). Funny, but I always thought that "cheating" and "being dishonest" were pretty much synonyms for each other.

I had various low-key birthday events this week and weekend. I opened only cards on my actual birthday, saving my present to open at CGF's on Friday. Work was a normal day. The office has a tradition of bringing in cake for birthdays, but as half my colleagues were out last week I postponed that to this week. Instead, on the spur of the moment, I bought doughnuts for the colleagues who were in.

In the evening I had to go to the next village to give blood, so jumped in the car after being dropped off at home. The road between Smalltown and next village was closed (flooded and/or fallen tree, apparently) so I had to take a long detour, adding 20 minutes to the ten-minute journey (both ways). Then I had to wait for a while at the blood donation as I hadn't made an appointment. Luckily I had taken a book with me - in fact I was quite grateful for the wait, as it gave me a chance to read it.

All these delays meant that by the time I got home it was time to go out again, to SJA. I just had time to pick up what I needed (two cakes - one for cadets; one for adults). I had to rush as I wanted to get there before cadets finished or I would have a large slab cake left over. Of course, the eagle-eyed cadets spotted the cake as soon as I walked in - even though I went to the kitchen, not the meeting room. But they did sing "happy birthday" to me. The adults didn't - it was suggested, but they couldn't organise themselves to.

Saturday evening D-T came round and we got an Indian takeaway for dinner, followed by more birthday cake. Just as we were getting ready to cut the cake the doorbell rang. CGF had secretly invited J and family round. It was such a total surprise that it took me a while to work out that's what it was for. My first thought was "they must have been passing and just called in to see if we are here". My second thought was "they've come to watch Doctor Who with us, like we did with them a few weeks ago". Eventually the penny dropped and I realised that my birthday and their visit were not coincidental. That was a pleasant surprise; I can't remember the last time I had a surprise for my birthday.

J, incidentally, is the editor of the website that I moonlight on from time to time. And D-T's father has read one of my posts on that site (where I use another pseudonym) and worked out that it is me!