Amy was bored for the first time in ages. She wanted to re-visit a specific planet but couldn't remember its name. Rory had given up the guessing game ages ago but the Doctor had been avidly describing places for what felt like hours. She decided that maybe she should give up. The answer would come of its own accord. Besides she had another question. She interrupted the Doctor midstream.

"Doctor what's the date today?"

Rory, who'd been sitting beside the console twiddling his thumbs, started to listen at this point. The Doctor fiddled with a few knobs and Earth came up on the monitor. Beneath it was the daet.

"It's Thursday the 2nd of June 2011." he stated.

"Brilliant!" Rory moaned.

"Brilliant!" Amy squeaked. "It's my birthday in a few weeks time!"

"Where am I supposed to get you a present?"

"Ah Rory you've got the whole universe to choose from!" the Doctor reminded.

"Exactly." said Rory in a sour tone.

It would've been easier with the small selection of shops Leadworth contained.

"Doctor when's your birthday?" Amy asked.

"That's not important." he replied.

"Of course it is!"

"At least tell us the month." Rory suggested.

"No. I'm very old Amy, I'm not sure if I can even remember."

She doubted that he'd forgotten.

"Go on!"

"Let's go on to – hmm how about somewhere closer to home? Jupiter maybe?" he decided, ignoring Amy's persistent questioning.

"Close to home; where's the fun in that?" she argued, irritated with the subject change.

"What about Mars?" asked Rory.

Amy glared at him.

"Well that might not be such a good idea, I still Jalia's father a rabbit's foot and his daughter has such a short temper…"

"Can we go to Venus?" asked Rory.

"Brilliant! Next stop Venus." the Doctor exclaimed.

He raced round the console pulling levers. A bout of turbulence threw them all to the ground. Amy had been first to get to the comfy chair and grinned smugly. Rory however was experiencing painful bruising. As for the Doctor, his body was pretty used to it by now. That didn't stop it from hurting; it just meant that he sprang back up faster. After a few minutes the wheezy TARDIS brakes sounded and they got to their feet exchanging the usual excited glances.

"Wait, I thought there wasn't any oxygen on Venus?" said Rory.

"It's fine I've extended the TARDIS' field."

He had no idea what this meant but decided to accept it.

As one, the trio ran towards the door.

The landscape was gorgeous but that wasn't what Amy was staring at. In fact she barely noticed their surroundings. As her feet stepped onto the cream coloured ground she couldn't help but notice the words engraved on it like a welcome mat.

Hello sweetie!

The Doctor had noticed it too. A box lay on the floor in front of them wrapped in sparkly blue paper to match the TARDIS walls. It had his name on it. He picked it up and wandered back inside. Amy picked up the letter underneath that the Doctor had failed to notice. It had been camouflaged well against the cloudy atmosphere but she'd spotted it as soon as he'd taken the box away. Her name was written on it.

"Pond! Are you coming?"

"I want to explore a bit first!" Amy lied.

"You've got twenty minutes max."

She wandered around to the back of the TARDIS and sat down. Rory joined her.

"What's that?

"Let's find out."

She carefully opened the letter and began to read.

Dear Amy and Rory

No doubt you are reading this by now. Today is a very special day. It's the Doctor's birthday. Naturally he deserves a good party so consider this your invite. He won't tell you anything about his birthday and there's little point asking why. Just make sure you get him to take you to the location below. Don't make him suspicious if possible. We all want this to be a surprise.

Restaurant Quantonia

Clom

Fiddle Pludder Lane

6:00pm

Try not to be late.

Good luck!

"River! It must be! Look at that signature." Amy realised.

Rory opened his mouth to reply and the letter exploded.

The Doctor took great care in unwrapping his present; The blue paper sparkled like the crystals of the rare Kebob tree, which probably meant it was. You never knew with River, he thought to himself. Slowly the gift was revealed as bit by the bit the wrapper peeled away. It took him several minutes to work out what it was. At first glance it appeared to be a blinding array of colours but on closer inspection the Doctor realised it was a rather large bow tie. Its middle section was a dull grey and as he reached out to touch it a screen appeared on the grey surface. The Doctor grinned, he had a cool new gadget and he was going to love figuring out its purpose. For the moment he decided to clip it on.

"Oi! You two! Come and look at my pressie!" he yelled.

Amy rushed inside shortly followed by Rory who had a rather mucky face. After all, the letter had exploded on him pretty much. She stared at the Doctor's neck.

"What is that!?" Rory exclaimed.

"I don't know." the Doctor chirped.

"It's a crime against fashion!"

"It's a thingy. Thingies are cool."

"It's garish." Amy snorted. "What does it do? River would only get you something like that if it did something that would make up for it vulgarness."

"It'd better be pretty impressive." Rory murmured.

"I'm not entirely sure." the Doctor admitted. "But I will figure it out. Now where do you want to go?"

"Doctor what's the time? Back on Earth I mean."

He glanced at his watch.

"3:00pm." He looked back up at Amy with a perplexed expression on his face. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm hungry. Let's time travel to 6:00 and see what restaurants are open on…" she trailed off unable to remember the planet name.

"Clom!" blurted Rory. "You're always talking about that place."

"Okay then. Clom – " the Doctor pulled a face. "- it is. You two are very specific tonight." He commented.