This week, Greg turned 41. This day holds a lot of weight; over the past few years, he has had notoriously terrible birthdays. A first newborn baby who we had no idea what we were doing with, a pushchair we couldn’t get up or down in the rain, a whole family ill with stomach flu, a second newborn baby with colic who didn’t stop crying for six hours. Last year, Greg said to me “Surely I’m going to get a good birthday this year?” I had secretly planned a big party with everyone we knew but all surprises had to be cancelled because he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a month before and began his chemotherapy treatment on his 40thbirthday. It felt like the cruellest joke.

This year, I asked Greg what he wanted to do for his birthday. If you know Greg, you’ll know he is never going to choose sky diving or other bucket list adventures. He is at his happiest and most content doing simple things with people that he loves. He decided that he wanted just him and I to go to Winchester to eat good food, drink lovely coffee, hang out in book shops and people watch while we chatted about life.

You might wonder why you would choose this if you are scared about your mortality when you could do this any day of the week. I certainly did at first; Greg and I have very different personalities so I would have chosen to fly to Iceland to drink cocktails in the Blue Lagoon or hold a 70's roller disco. But as I was sat drinking gingerbread latte, listening to an obscure Dolly Parton Christmas record, watching the shoppers pass by and talking to Greg about finding connections with lots of people, I realised I was sat in heaven. This moment was absolute perfection, there is no holiday or gift you could buy that is better than this second, right now.

Later in the day, both of our families came together for a meal with dancing, wine and cake. I did what I do pretty much every Sunday – watch Dali, Bay and our niece Cherry dance together, listen to my father in law tell wildly inappropriate jokes, stand outside to look at the sky with Greg's brother Aaron, whisper nonsense to Greg while we drink tea. It was the best evening I could have imagined.