Another Birthday

I've had a super weekend. First I took trains to stay with friends near Eastbourne, and it was good to catch up with them as I haven't seen them since they came to George's funeral in September 14. On Sunday morning I was back on the train, hoping to get to Worthing, but had to change onto a bus at Brighton because of the dreaded engineering works.

I arrived in time to be met my family so we could go to the Angmering Manor Hotel for another birthday celebration. My first husband's sister, Hazel, aunt to my two offspring, will be 70 tomorrow, so my daughter colluded with a friend to organise the surprise lunch party at the weekend at this heavenly venue.

Heavenly it was, built in the 16th century and still has lots of original features. We had a room to ourselves that comfortably fitted the 15 of us. The food was good, and so was the conversation. Afterwards we looked around the garden and peeped in the windows of the indoor swimming pool that has been added at the back. One lucky couple who came all the way from Wales had booked in for a 2 night stay.

We had all chipped in for Hazel's present - a helicopter flight over the coast and the South Downs that she can now cross off her bucket list. She was quite overcome as you can see in the photo.

Birthday Celebrations

On Friday, we celebrated my daughter's birthday in style at the Rancho American Steakhouse at Poole Quay. The food was great and everyone had a good time.

It was my third outing of the day, following a lovely morning walk in the winter sunshine on Sandbanks Beach, and an afternoon of singing at Hamworthy library. I loved it all but I'm still so tired, and I can't get my head around work this weekend.

Another Birthday Present

My trip to Venice was a birthday present from my daughter and her friend, and, although I contributed the Avios miles for the flights, it wouldn't have happened otherwise. I didn't expect to get another birthday present from my girl, but one arrived with the postman on Saturday.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember the photo above. My lovely daughter had it blown up and reproduced on canvas on a frame.  Now it sits on the wall above my VDU in the office and when I'm sitting in front of it, as I am now, I only have to lift my eyes to see it.

Birthday Bash at Cockington

This was supposed to be posted here a week ago, but I just discovered it still in draft. So sorry folks. Anyway I don't think it needs much updating, except to say we had a great meal with family and friends - even saw my nephew who lives in Germany, which doesn't happen often. And we did get back home to Jade the same evening.

Here's what I wrote last week.

I'm excited about tomorrow. My sister is having a big birthday do. We have to drive about  100 miles to get there, so it will be quite early when I drop Jade with the dog minder. She has said we can stay overnight if we want and just ring to let her know, but we plan to come home. I suppose it depends if we are both tempted by the alcohol that will be flowing over lunch. Can't drive home if we're over the limit.

We'll be having lunch at the Drum Inn in Cockington, shown below. We'll be indoors to eat though as it will be too cold to be outside at this time of year.

pic by Paul Anderson

The birthday cake will be saved till later when my 5 year old great nephew can join us at my sister's house. I hope we'll be able to stay for that.

A Happy Birthday

My youngest granddaughter, Eryn, is 10 today and some of the family clubbed together to buy her a BMX bike. I went with my daughter to collect and pay for it at Wimbledon on Tuesday before driving home to Poole.

During my morning walk with Jade today I called Eryn to say Happy Birthday before she went to school. I've never known her to be so speechless before. All she seemed able to say was, "Thank you for my present," several times. Apparently she is over the moon with the bike and had been outside riding it alongside her Mum and dog well before 8 am.

I'm still creeping towards payout at Helium. Only $1.80 to go, so it shouldn't be long now. Every time I post an excerpt  here, I get page clicks that add up, so I'm really grateful; to all of you. Here's a rather more personal account of a holiday adventure.

This pic by flickrtickr2009
Pic below by killer_queen1

both found at Wikimedia Commons

My husband and I celebrated his last birthday at the top of a mountain. For his present, I'd treated him to a holiday in Majorca. We knew the island quite well as we'd been to stay in a friend's apartment several times before. Each time we'd hired a car and had often driven past the 822 metre high mountain, and seen the castle - Castell d'Alaro - seemingly growing out of its summit.

But we'd never discussed the idea of climbing to the top. I don't suppose he'd imagined it had even crossed my mind.

In fact, I'd done my homework and I knew that you could walk to the top from two sides, either from the town of Alaro or from the road to the village of Orient, well known as a walking centre on the island. Of course you could go up from one side and back to the other. But then you'd have a long trek back over or around to get back to your car.

It was only March but the birthday was blessed with sunshine and just a few clouds that were whisked along by a light breeze - perfect weather for what I had in mind. I packed a generous picnic in our rucksacks, with our light rain wear just in case. And we set off on the mystery tour. As usual, he was driving and I was navigating - both of us doing what we do best.

I'd chosen to go up the side that was the shortest walk so I directed him to turn off the road we knew at the signpost to the castle. That way, you can drive a fair way up the lower slopes to the final car park where the two paths converge. This is at Es Verger, a popular farmhouse restaurant famous for its succulent roast lamb cooked traditionally in a wood-fired oven.  

At that point, I guess the birthday boy might have thought he was just getting a slap up lunch, although it was bit early for that. But no, it was into our rucksacks and best foot forward.

You can read the rest of this story at Helium

My Life by Jade: Holidays, Birthdays and Weather

I got really wet going out today. This is me afterwards when Mummy bundled me up with a dry towel  before she fetched the hairdryer. She gets especially worried about my ears because they stay wet for a long time even if she does try and blow them dry.

But last week was different. We were on holiday at Jules and Eryn’s house and I met lots of different people, especially children. 

Last Thursday we were at Eryn’s 9^th birthday party in the park and there were 14 children there and some of their Mummys as well. I had a ball because they all wanted to pet me and play with me, and they fed me with chicken nuggets from the birthday picnic. But they wouldn’t let me have any birthday cake because it was a chocolate one. It would have been a bit fairer if they had made a meaty one, but that’s humans for you. Actually my Mummy said I got over-excited because I was a bit sick after eating all those chicken nuggets and running around so much, but I did have a lovely time.

The sun shone that day and it was quite hot but we had a nice shady spot under a big tree where I could lie down when I got tired. It’s amazing how the weather has changed. It’s quite chilly in the house today, so I’m glad Mummy has covered me up to have my nap. I’d better do that now and perhaps, when I wake up, all my fur will have dried off properly.

Wonderful Birthday Week

I didn't work at all last week, took the while week off, even from blogging. I had one of those landmark birthdays. In the first few days I was entertained by my beloved granddaughter who came to stay. I lost my shadow because while Jade usually follows me all the time, when Eryn is here, she's the one who gets that treatment. One wild, windy day, we took the Sandbanks ferry to Studland and walked on Shell Bay beach. The pair of them had a ball chasing around over the dunes and back to the sea.

My daughter arrived on Tuesday and my son took Wednesday off work because it was the big day. Jade went to the dog minder and I was taken on a mystery drive. We ended up at the Mariners Hotel in Lyme Regis where family had gathered for a super birthday lunch. It was a surprise party for me. Ten of us sat down, including Eryn and my three year old great nephew who was with the contingent that came up from Torquay.  The hotel was great with fab food and service and a pretty garden with a spectacular view over the town and out to sea. You can see a little of the view in this pic of me with Eryn.

Next day I went to London with daughter and grandie who live there, because another surprise was planned for Friday. Eryn went to a friend's and daughter and I high-tailed it to town, pausing only at Wimbledon on the way for a little retail therapy. To my delight, when we ended up at Claridge's for afternoon tea and a glimpse of how the other half live, one of my best friends whom I haven't seen for a couple of years was there to join us. This pic is of the little birthday cake I was given at Claridge's.

We had a fantastic time, moving on to a performance of Les Miserables to end the evening.I don't think I've ever been so spoilt. It was all engineered by my gorgeous daughter who must have spent hours contacting people and swearing them all to secrecy, not to mention the amount of money she must have spent. So I took her out to lunch at Strada on Saturday as a small thank you.

Well before they were expected yesterday morning, hubby and Jade arrived on the doorstep to drive me the 100 or so miles home. I had missed them both and it was great to see them, though it was Jade who claimed most of my attention and wouldn't let me out of her sight until we were in the car and on the way home. She was so happy to see me and the girls, she was making little crying noises as she jumped all over us.

My once in a lifetime week is over now, and I have managed to write two articles today, but it's not been easy to get back in harness.

Christmas Past, Birthdays Coming

With Christmas in the dim and distant past, I've been thinking about presents for all our grandchildren's birthdays for this coming year. I even have one great grandson. It wouldn't do to forget any of them. Including the children of my stepdaughters, there are getting to be so many now that it needs a bit of forward planning.

My youngest granddaughter has recently been moved from her small bedroom to a larger one that has been done over for her. Of course it's mostly pink and I bet she still needs more places to put things and keep the room tidy.

I found lots of children's storage solutions at Vertbaudet . I particularly like the sets of woven boxes, both the pink and multicoloured ones, but I expect she's like the pink best. That children's storage page could be the answer for my great-grandson too. He's quite a bit younger, but not too young to start to learn about putting things away.

Our other two granddaughters are older but I could still find items that would suit them. And of course the grandsons are all gathering belongings that have to be tidied away.

Be great if I could get all of it from one children's storage site all at once, and not have to worry about it for the rest of the year.

Counting My Blessings

Getting older this year has been really lucky for me. I’ve had three days of celebrations.

On Friday I drove up to south London to my daughter’s home. In the evening she took me out for dinner and we had the most delicious Chinese meal, with some of my favourites – crispy duck, followed by scallops in mango sauce and hot crispy beef.

On Saturday I had my granddaughter to myself, and we took a picnic and had loads of fun in Richmond Park. At nearly seven years old, she is such a poser, as you can see from the photo. She’s also very loving and great company for a now even older biddy like me.


Today I came home in time for lunch with my husband, plus my sister and brother-in-law who drive up from Torquay just to treat us to a slap up meal in The Baker Arms at Lychett Minster, a pub that has been named the best place to eat in Britain. And my Sunday roast was perfect, rounded off with a lemon and blueberry jelly, a scoop of ice cream, strawberries and blueberries.

Most of my presents were for the garden and I now have a beautiful four year old camellia and two lovely clematis for the planters hubby made to sit on the decking. I can’t wait to get it all finished and take some more photos to show you.

What a lot of blessings I have to count.