You can bet there were many places Gordon Brown would rather be on his 57th birthday than in the chamber for prime minister's questions.
There was little evidence of Brown letting his hair down - apart from cracking a joke about asking the prime minister of China about Wigan - but at least the leader of the Opposition took the time to wish him many happy returns.
And, reflecting on some of the PM's disastrous early performances at the despatch box at noon on a Wednesday, it is hard not to conclude that he has got a lot better at the weekly joust.
He still lacks the easy off-the-cuff manner of Tony Blair, but he has developed a strategy for blunting David Cameron's attacks by asking him a question on a similar subject in return - until at times it sounds like the two men are having a conversation with someone in another room.
Brown often deals with the thorniest issues with the help of a handy early question from a Labour MP, and this week Anne Begg was on hand to ask him to confirm that the benefits of the eventual sale of Northern Rock would go to the taxpayer.
Cameron, who departed from recent practice by splitting his six available questions into two sets of three, started by wishing the prime minister happy birthday while his MPs shouted "smile!" across the chamber.
The Conservative leader picked over the government's latest problems with missing data, namely the DNA relating to 4,000 serious crimes which went astray after being sent by the Dutch police in January last year.
The government was guilty of a "catastrophic failure to protect the public", said Cameron, showing his usual knack for a decent soundbite.
Brown countered that it was only possible for the Dutch to ask to check the records against the UK database "because we are keeping full DNA records" - something he said the Tories opposed.
"The prime minister is somehow pretending that the fact 4,000 details were left on a civil servant's desk for a year was somehow a triumph of government policy," said Cameron, before recalling that the first DNA legislation was passed under the last Conservative government - when he was working for Michael Howard at the Home Office.
Brown is always reminding us of Cameron's junior jobs for the Tory party at PMQs - usually his role as adviser to chancellor Norman Lamont during Black Wednesday - but it was strange to hear Cameron himself hark back to earlier times.
Cameron likes to compile lists of government failings, and in this case he linked the missing DNA disc to the government's failure to deport foreign nationals finishing their prison terms, and the lengthy delay in processing details of foreign convictions of British citizens.
Brown continued to ask Cameron if he no longer supported the DNA database. This led to the confusing situation where neither man was responding to the other's questions, as though they both had a hearing problem.
This might be a bit unfair on Cameron - it is not called 'leader of the Opposition's questions' after all - but it does correct Brown's old habit of trying to engage seriously in what is primarily knock-about political theatre.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg also noted it was the PM's birthday, and said he welcomed the government's adoption of his party's policy on Northern Rock.
Hard to dispute his point - although it is Commons showman and Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable who has been making most of the running on the issue - and Clegg's questions were as usual well-scripted and firmly delivered.
His second question, on the "scandalous profiteering" of the energy companies when many old people are dying from cold, went on a bit - but he stuck out the kind of jeering from MPs that did for his predecessor Sir Menzies Campbell, and managed a convincing impression of a politician with his thoughts on things higher than the weekly bear pit.
This is a sensible strategy for the Lib Dem leader, who is expected to make big waves with only one more question than a backbencher.
Cameron's second set of questions were on Northern Rock, much to the delight of Labour and Lib Dem MPs - who think the Tories have struggled to find a consistent position.
The Opposition has not been doing the damage in the chamber they hoped for on this, and Cameron wisely decided to focus on the bank's exemption from freedom of information laws.
Brown cited commercial confidentiality, arguing the bank could not compete if its competitors could FoI its inner workings - an answer Cameron called "feeble".
Brown wondered if the Tories might like to open up the accounts on the Midlands Industrial Council, an organisation of businessmen which donates money to the party.
With something of a flourish Cameron said that when it came to this government and FoI "they would make Fidel Castro proud", while Brown countered by accusing the Opposition of reducing Northern Rock to the level of "student politics".
Brown's growing ability to rebuff attacks by the nimbler Cameron may be good for Labour morale, but it is also making their weekly clash duller.
The Verdict
Gordon Brown - 5/10 - Better at soaking up the attacks, like a giant used tea bag
David Cameron - 6/10 - Looked genuinely angry about the government's failings
Nick Clegg - 6/10 - Managed to give the impression that PMQs is the least important part of his week
