April 29: My Birthday Weekend

As I wrote on Thursday, my birthday weekend kicked off with going to the theatre to see The Pantaloon’s touring production of Sherlock Holmes.

Friday
On Friday Chris surprised me by collecting me from work. I left via the pedestrian gate and was putting my music on. I’d been virtually wearing out the MP3 files of the WWRY Soundtrack ready for Saturday’s adventure. I saw a car in my peripheral vision but just put it down to the number of people who were leaving at that time on a Friday afternoon. Then when I ignored him Chris beeped the horn which made me jump a mile! We went to the local builders’ merchant for some filler to patch the walls where Chris had been stripping the wallpaper. We then headed home and got started on the nursery, Chris patched the walls then we primed and treated them. We then started on the colour. The nursery has two darker walls and two lighter blue walls. One of the darker walls is going to be behind the cot so trying to decide on whether to paint clouds or stars for decoration (or maybe there could be stars on the darker walls and clouds on the lighter walls) Minus stopping for me to deliver my Sister in Law’s Gerbil to his new home, collecting tea and eating tea we worked for something like 4 or 5 hours on various bits in the nursery.

Saturday
On Saturday, Chris got up to go to work, I then watched Fringe and worked on my entries for My Details and journaling our adventures while on holiday. Mum and Dad came to collect me to go to the train station. Dad then went back to my house to make sure Our Sidekick was collected for contact okay. We caught the 1047 East Midlands service to St Pancras – it wasn’t the first train out but it would have been faster than the First Capital Connect service to London. Mum and I stood on the platform putting the world to rights until the train arrived. My Mum made a joke that if I got in a strop because people wouldn’t give up their seat for me then she was going to disown me (or at least pretend she didn’t know me!). Fortunately for her when we got on there were spare seats. The train stopped at Luton and shortly after the conductor came to check tickets – we heard her announce “tickets please!” and then we waited but she didn’t appear. Shortly after four or five passengers appeared, they had got on at Luton and had sat in the First Class bit with normal tickets as there were enough chairs in the standard section of the carriage. When the conductor had then checked their tickets, she’d kicked them out of the First Class bit. They then stood at the end of the standard bit near us complaining about the lack of seats and why didn’t they declassify the First Class bit of the carriage given that it was empty and the standard section was full. I get where they were coming from especially as Luton was the last stop before St Pancras however a risk of taking the train to and from London (without reserving seats) is that you don’t get a seat. In the past I’ve been on a First Capital Connect “all stop” service and stood from London all the way to Bedford stopping at every stop which I think is something like 8 or 9 stops.

We arrived at St. Pancras and headed to the Underground. We took the Victoria line to Oxford Circus. Originally I was standing then when we got to Euston, Mum spotted a spare seat (Test 1 – badge didn’t work and neither did my “Mummy to Be” shirt) so I shuffled my way along the carriage and sat down between Euston and Oxford Circus.

After attempting to work out which exit we needed from the tube station (And attempting not to get bashed into!) We found our way onto Oxford Street and then headed for Liberty. We took the lift up to the Yarn and Haberdashery departments. We looked at a lot of the yarn, Mum bought be a ball of handknit cotton yarn – we went to ask an assistant for help about where to pay and we were both trying out best not to have a nerd moment when we realised that it was Trudy who had been on the Channel 4 documentary about Liberty. Both Trudy and one of the other assistants were knitting between customers – now that’s my kind of job! We then came down via the stairs as it was easier than finding the lift again! We came down through women’s fashion (ouch! £800 for a dress???) and then through the Children’s department. I nearly fell over when Mum told me there was a onesie for like £50! I could get like 25 onesies for that price and probably still have change for lunch lol.

We left Liberty’s by the same door that we came in and the plan was that we were going to head towards the theatre. We wandered along Carnaby Street to see if we could get some lunch, we nipped into Pret A Manger but it was heaving and there were no seats (and no seats out in the street either). I hadn’t quite got the geography quite right when we left the end of Carnaby Street and ended up turning left instead of right – it was probably the slightly longer way round but we ended up in Golden Square, we went into Eat and got sandwiches and a drink each with the idea that we’d sit in the park and enjoy the sunshine. I got a coughing fit and thought I was going to throw up so charged for the door (thankfully Mum had already paid for the food when I ran out the shop with the bag lol). Thankfully it was just a coughing fit and once I’d downed half my bottle of water that I’d taken with me I felt better albeit a bit shaken.

We sat in the park and ate our sandwiches while chatting about all the family stuff that’s going to happen in the next few months including my brother getting married and buying a house with his new wifey and also about Blueberry arriving on the scene before the wedding.

After lunch, we walked to the theatre and ended up walking through Soho. We passed Snog which is Chris’s favourite frozen yoghurt place and then past Wok to Walk. Chris and I originally found Wok to Walk in Amsterdam when we were on our honeymoon. We ended up virtually living on noodles from there as we couldn’t really find any other choices that we liked (or were good for our budget!). To get to the theatre you have to do a massive loop around the engineering works where the CrossRail is being built, We had left extra time to get to the theatre because my speed of walking is more a waddle than a walk but actually although we didn’t need that extra time it was good to have that time to get round the works.

We actually arrived far too early and ended up sat on the stairs outside the auditorium in the queue to get in to the theatre itself. We were in the Circle and had a really good view of the stage We had to lean forward for some bits as the barrier got in the way but overall it was all within eye line. I’ve had the We Will Rock You soundtrack on my MP3 player for years and so knew a lot of the lines (Also meant I could tell when they’d changed bits lol). On the soundtrack I have Sharon D. Clarke plays Killer Queen along side Alexander Hanson as Khashoggi. Brenda Edwards is currently playing Killer Queen but for the performance yesterday Sarah the understudy played Killer Queen. Now from how I understand it Khashoggi is supposed to be quite scared of Killer Queen – after all she’s his boss and can beat him up lol. In the performance they just seemed a bit too pally – but maybe that was just my interpretation. It was still really good and I’m so glad that I did get to see it again (and take Mum this time) before it closes at the end of May. I said to Mum as we waited at the end, if I was Brian May I’d be talking to the director to be at the closing night and play the solo in We Are The Champions and/or the encore of Bohemian Rhapsody. In the past he has made special appearance on Freddie’s birthday and various other occasions.

Following the theatre we headed along Tottenham Court Road to the flagship Paperchase store. It’s huge lol. I’m used to the tiny crammed store in Milton Keynes and this one in London is across three floors. I got Our Sidekick a present in the sale. It was an A3 folder which I think he could use for Graphics at school. We headed up to Goodge Street to catch the tube back to St Pancras. We ended up standing right next to the door as the world and his wife seemed to be on the Northern Line. Around Warren Street a group of very loud lads got on the train – one guy had a red and green Mohican and another had his hair all in spikes. Mum and I didn’t quite know what to say. I think my response “well they were colourful!”

My brother and his fiancé got me this epic cookie jar for my birthday. I’m a massive Doctor Who fan so it’s perfect for me. I’ve decided that I need to make gluten free biscuits to put in it so that I get the joy or using it and Chris gets the joy of eating the biscuits.

While Mum and I ate our dinner, Mum and my sister in law to be talked through the guest list for the wedding. Even Blueberry is on there (made me laugh).

We walked home as our car was at home. Don’t think Our Sidekick wasn’t too impressed about it but it was nice to have a little longer to potter and chat rather than jump in the car and sort of rush home.

Sunday
Due to us working on the nursery there isn’t a curtain in the window at the moment which means once it’s light enough I’ve been waking up or waking up shortly after when Chris’s radio kicks in.

I was awake enough to hear a feature about celebrities birthdays. There were a whole bunch that I didn’t even know shared my birthday. (Back to Doctor Who. Turns out I share my exact birthday including the year with Jenna Louise Coleman who plays the companion Clara Oswald).

The feature ended with a general wish of happy birthday to anyone celebrating. Chris said “did you hear that, they wished you happy birthday!”

At some point Our Sidekick asked for help and then asked me if I’d like fried or scrambled eggs and would I like the fat on my bacon (bacon is okay on Slimming World without the fat on it). We either chop it off before cooking or in some cases have to chop it off after (at which point I give it to Chris or Our Sidekick). He was on a mission. Chris got up and went to help him and I heard them chattering away sorting out bits and pieces. They both then arrived with the tray and the cup of Earl Grey tea.

It was so good! I couldn’t drink all the tea but the breakfast was so good. While I tucked in, Chris went to get the presents that I had received. After breakfast, I opened my presents.

There was a bath/pampering set from my in laws, a VW Beetle snow globe from my Sister in Law, a reusable coffee mug from my Auntie, Uncle and Cousins and Call The Midwife box set and book from my Grandparents. The book is The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian.

We got ourselves all organised for our day out and set off for Chris’s Aunt’s house. We stopped to rescue a stranded motorist then got on our way.

We stopped on the way so that we could get some flowers for Chris’s Aunt and for her housemate. I decided to go for these gerberas. I knew we’d get told off and told how “we didn’t need to do that”. But they both make us feel so loved and cared for when we visit that it’s nice to get them flowers or something like that when we go to visit.

We spent a lot of the day catching up as we haven’t seen each other since Christmas. The housemate J was a midwife and trained midwives so told us all sorts of stories. Auntie K kept telling her off for telling me horror stories (well not horror stories but things like breach births and other things). Chris and I went for a look in the pond as J told us about the frogs and newts that had been narrowly avoiding the cats. We had a roast dinner for lunch around the dining room table. Auntie had especially done me sweetcorn – it sounds really silly but one of the first times I went for dinner at her house I didn’t have any veg as I didn’t like what had been made – I think I had a little of something so I wasn’t rude but every time since Auntie had a done sweetcorn especially for me. It makes me feel so cared for.

We went for a walk around The Mere at Diss then came back to play board games. Following tea, we headed home as it was a school night. All in all, it was a lovely birthday. Can’t believe that my birthday next year will have an almost 1-year-old running around too.