'Sue Chef' steals the show at Jamie's Italian

Just back from Mum's 60th birthday bash in Bath.

I'd set off yesterday at about 10.30am with a route carefully plotted to avoid the motorways and the inevitable summer holiday crush heading to the South West.

The journey took a modest three-and-a-half hours including two stops for a gentleman's toilet break and light refreshments break, and which also included some glorious Wilts/Gloucs scenery and towns along the way - the stand-outs were Tetbury and Cirencester.

Our booking at Jamie's Italian at 8pm was looming large.

The majority had gathered at the Riverside Cafe by Bath's Pulteney bridge when I arrived at around 2pm. My great Auntie Susie (aged 80) had been up at 4am to catch a flight from Newcastle and was there along with Mum, Dad, Jim, Karen, Steve, Kate, Simon, Abbey, Murray and Jane.

It was a cosy little cafe - nah, it was a shoebox - and we all squeezed around two tables like a throng of French Troglodytes for a casual catch-up, gift handover session and intake of caffeine. Mum gulped down two coffees - she was certainly getting in the drinking spirit already!

After a quick R&R at our farmhouse B&B on the outskirts of Bath, we were soon taxiing back to Bath to return to the finely-tuned birthday schedule.

Next on the agenda was a meet-and-greet for all at Brown's Brasserie at 7pm.

Tables were in generous supply but despite this, the majority (including me) were content to stand and sip. Lizzy, Davey, Beccy and Jess joined us and Davey's football trivia had us stumped for ages, namely, 'Name the three Irish players who've captained their teams to the Premier League and Division One title'. We got two pretty quickly, but can you get the last one!

We drank up by 7.45pm and swaggered and staggered to varying degrees over to Jamie's.

With a party of some 20 or so, we were seated around the biggest table in the restaurant right beside the hot drinks and beverages bay - how did that pass 'Elf and Safety'? - and I gave Dad a hand getting the table set up. Margaret and Simon joined us too.

Dad had gone to some effort organising everything.

Leaving few stones unturned in his prep, he'd hand-crafted green and red felt 'Happy Birthday Sue' hats for everyone and a white felt 'Sue Chef' chef's toque for Mum, as well as personally-engraved 'Welsh love spoons' - aka wooden cooking spoons with graffiti - for everyone. And finally, there were party poppers, a 'Happy Birthday' banner and baby trumpets too.

Mum's cake was a spectacle. The waiters carried it over carefully in its white cardboard box and as they steered behind Mum's head, they dropped it. Yep. It fell on the floor. Dad's jaw dropped.

The box was empty, but that didn't stop Dad for falling for it!

When the cake did finally arrive it was, indeed, a spectacle. Themed carefully around Mum's passion for cooking, the cake had been decorated liberally with a trinity of edible versions of her favourite culinary hardbacks. Rick Stein, the Barefoot Contessa and Jamie himself all featured with no room left for Mum's many other inspirations.

And for a final flourish, numerous Irish stew ingredients had been delicately inserted around cake perimeter - ahem...British stew.

Before and after the cake arrived, we added backing vocals to Dad's lead on some carefully selected songs - some highly personal, others highly controversial but all enjoyable. Dad then circulated a nice photo album he'd compiled in the truest 'This is Your Life' sense charting Mum's journey from naughty baby to even naughtier Mum to proud Grandmum - or 'Ninny' to apply her proper title.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful night and I turned in at around 1.30am.

It was great to catch up with family and friends and thanks go especially to Dad for all the effort he put into making it such a special and personal occasion. I know Mum appreciated - we all did.