All Present And Nearly Correct

“…TWENTY-ONE TODAY, TWENTY-ONE TODAY, SHE’S GOT THE KEY OF THE DOOR, NEVER BEEN 21 BEFORE, LA LA LA LA LA LA LA etc. etc.” Marie is my eldest son Andrew’s girl-friend and, apart from being (in my opinion) the best thing that has ever happened to him, she is, as you might have gathered by now, 21 today! For the last couple of weeks, she has been like a dog with several tails, looking forward to the day and, especially the party at the pub tonight. She did very well this morning, apparently, and, although she woke up at 4.30 a.m., she didn’t get up until 7 a.m. They had watched the first DVD by 9 a.m. Anyway, the point of this is, our gift to her was still at home this morning and, as we have to clean the pub on a Saturday, there it remained. I came back to get changed and my missus phoned saying why didn’t I wrap it up and bring it and the card with me when I returned for lunch, and we could give them to her while it was relatively quiet. OK, for a bloke, I pride myself on being extraordinarily adept at wrapping up parcels; well, the first seven-eighths anyway. When I get to that stage, something goes ping and there is an immediate metamorphosis which results in the parcel looking as if several people have already tried to unwrap it. The item was enclosed in several layers of tissue paper in a cardboard box and required two fairly large sheets of wrapping paper. I had two sellotape-related problems: (1) I couldn’t find any that worked and (2) when I DID find some, it wouldn’t stick to the box properly. I accomplished the mission eventually but I had to stick the curly bow thingy on so as to obscure the yellow insulating tape. Hands up if anyone else sweats while wrapping up presents. She’s worth it, though.