bank heists and birthdays

Wouldn't it be nice if you were the recipient of money from a bank heist ON your birthday? anyhoo....

Apparently, the posting of Maurizio's update was only a day late for his birthday... slightly bizarre.

And, since it was Maurizio's birthday on Tuesday, this hints that Hiroko's birthday was yesterday (am worst, most self-absorbed co-habiter ever). Thanks to the alertness of Fabiana (who is tonight going to interview the President of Khazakhstan!!!! OMG!), instigated immediate emergency intelligence search and, after personal testimony from Maurizio through IM, found suspicious entry on Hiroko's blog indicating receipt of a card yesterday. hmmmm. Well, we might be slow, but once we have strong evidence, there must needs be celebratory activity of some kind in the Hobbit Hole!

Additionally, a massive robbery took place today in Kent -- one of the largest in Britain's history. Radio 4 reports that the amount may be closer to 50m GBP instead of the 40m reported in the Independent article.

It is cold and rainy and my projects over the next three weeks will be: one Lexis paper, one Issues in Language Teaching paper, and two (yes, count them: 2) research proposals for dissertation. eek. Happy St. Patrick's Day to me!