We had planned to spend a lovely rural day at a local agricultural show, but the heavens had opened some 24 hours previous and gave no signs of abating, so we trotted off to Birmingham to wander around and sample the delicious delights of Fumo, an Italian styled tapas restaurant with delicious wines and cocktails, situated on the top floor of Selfridges.

We arrived on the dot of our booking and alas, the restaurant was full. No matter, the manager escorted us to the bar, gave us drinks on the house of which I had a glass of champagne (well it was my birthday!) and left us to chat for a short while.

Shortly we were escorted to a lovely central table and after taking our time over the considerable menu ordered three or four things each. The menu is designed to have small bites of delicious treats and I chose scallops, a tagliatelle ragu, cheese garlic bread and a mixed salad. Hubby chose some lamb chops and monk fish wrapped in parma ham, and Son no.1 veered towards buffalo cheese and truffles, a carbonara dish as well as some of the antipasto offerings. We happily shared our dishes, enjoyed with another glass of champagne and a delicious glass of red, everything was delicious.

While we were relaxing having taken our time to order a dessert, this appeared. It was so cute and so unexpected, I loved it, and just as we were sharing it a round of “Happy Birthday’ struck up from a choir of seven that had appeared from behind me, a rousing chorus of melodious Italian men and women’s voices, headed up by the Manager that I had met earlier. They were very impressive and as they finished the restaurant erupted into cheers and whistles. It was brilliant. I was blushing as bright as any beetroot, but I did love it so.

Our deserts were equally good and we wandered back into Selfridges happy and content, having had rather a lovely experience on a very wet birthday.