Birthday surprises

It's about 3 in the afternoon and I've got the day off work to entertain the carpet fitters. The middle room, stairs and landing were all successfully sorted this morning and now they're fitting the front room. It's so lovely and soft and bouncy - which I'm sure has plenty to do with the v expensive underlay which we've also got!! Smalls good too, but leaves a lot of mess. Also, as you might expect, all the furniture from the front room is crammed into the middle room, and most of the middle room's contents have been distributed about the rest of the house so it's going to be a fun evening putting everything back together...but worth it.

So I'm taking the opportunity to catch up on my emails and blogging, and to read some others that have been sadly neglected for too long. Have had a wonderful second weekend of birthday treats, and a meal out with my friends in Nottingham beckons for nest weekend so there's still that to look forward to.

My birthday was actually on Saturday - finally reaching that dreaded threshold of 30. I don't feel too depressed about it - hopefully that's a sign that I'm accepting of my moving on in life and not denial (BTW watched the Fraiser episode "Denial" this morning - hilarious!)! Several of my birthday cards welcomed me to the 30s club - but in my heart I'll always be 25!

Weekend started early on Friday with a personal shopper appointment at Debenhams. Spent a happy couple of hours with Caroline trying on numerous articles of clothing, loving most, rejecting some and being able to share my trouser problem with someone else! No, this isn't some kind of nasty rash, but that fact that my waist appears to be a size 12, whereas hips and bum are squarely in the size 14 camp. Which usually means that my trouser choices are 1) far too big round the waist but comfy on the hips, or 2), nicely fitting at the waist but far too tight on the hips (as in very VPL). But somehow a low riding pair of trousers she found solved the problem and look great! Was also looking for boots, but that's another of my bug bears with clothing and sadly no success. A bit of a long shot really as it appears to no longer be boot season! Then if that were not enough I also went to M&S for some new undies - lovely - although L had to ferret down the back of my trousers to check the size of the pants I had on!!

Then quick lunch at Cafe Nero and off to the hairdressers for a cut and colour in the afternoon. Brilliant. Home for the evening, a dvd-fest and Ugly Betty. Not to mention the 3-course spectacular served up by L - the best bit? Homemade baked Alaska. What a feat!

Saturday saw a bundle of cards and presents, muchly appreciated. Then off to London for shopping and a show. Only we were staying at the Covent Garden hotel. Very posh (as evidenced by the Concierge racing to take our bags as we entered, and the drawing room complete with log fire and honesty bar!) and very expensive, but oh so lovely. Gorgeous room, wonderful food in the restaurant and bathrobes!!! Not to forget the hour long all-over body massage L had arranged...or in fact that he had brought my Murder She Wrote dvds along so we could enjoy (although that's perhaps a little strong for L's view of it!!) an episode with a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit - although sadly due to some unfortunate event, no tea and coffee making facilities in the bedroom - perhaps another indicator of high class???? And a fantastic breakfast - there was a huge choice for the continental breakfast, and I think L almost regretted having the full English! There was a lovely yoghurty granola plummy mix and I nearly went back for seconds (after the bagel, muffin, fruit...)

The show in the evening was Wicked - quite literally! The two principals were being played by the standby actresses, who clearly had all their family and friends in! It was a brilliant show - great music, set, costumes, and storyline...really made you look at the witches in a different way. We avoided the merchandise stalls with great skill but got caught in the melee at Leicester Square tube station. Fortunately we were arriving there, not trying to leave - there was a lot of crowd control going on!!

After a leisurely start on Sunday we trekked forth to the Science Museum which was packed (well certain areas anyway... notably not the history of agriculture exhibit!) with hoards of children, screaming and otherwise. Spent an hour and a half in the Game On exhibit, bemoaned the fact that their Spy Skills exhibit wouldn't be operational until 10th Feb and vowed to come back then, particularly as half the space exhibit was under wraps as well. But a good day and with mucho aching feet returned to Ipswich on the half 6 train, only to have the fun of clearing the middle room of furniture before being released to bed.

And it was all a surprise - L, thank you and I love you.

And now back to reality - well, that was a good idea - the men have just finished! Out comes the vac...

Wii Boxing

Beat Leigh at this last night - will probably be the first and only time, so hurrah! Hurt my arms though...

Skating on thin ice

It's my birthday next weekend, but somehow I've managed to get 3 weekends of stuff organised - brilliant. This weekend was the family one - went to see my sister and her fiancee in Norwich on Saturday. I wanted to go ice skating because they've just opened a new permanent rink there - the first one in Norfolk! I love ice skating - am really crap, but can stay upright for long enough to pretend I can manage it! It was pretty good, although the rink was a bit smaller that we'd been expecting - L managed to get round without holding on the the sides by the end of the session, but sadly Becks had a vice-like grip on the edge for basically the entire time we were there (it was because her boots were too big... oh yeah...)

Then went out for a lovely meal with them and Mum and Chris at Loch Fyne, which included a bottle of champers care of L. Delicious. Went back to the house and drank too much rum and coke, but fortunately sobered up enough to see Dad and Chrissie today. Whew! Back home now and even had time to squeeze in a bit of Scrubs and Jessica this afternoon.

Ironing still to do, but who cares!! This week sees the removal of the old sofa in preparation for new carpets on the 29th and new sofa on 6th Feb. Ace.

Foolish girl

It's been a while since this happened, but L thought it was worth blogging. Took a can of coke with us in the car to the supermarket last week to drink on the way. I opened the can and then tried to wedge it between my legs whilst I put my seatbelt on. Sadly the can was not quite as well fixed as I thought, and as I turned back from grabbing the belt, saw the can slowly tilt over and spill coke all over my skirt. Which then dripped down the side of my leg and to the back of my bum where I was sitting. It was everywhere - and I still went to the supermarket in my coke-covered knickers. My sister tried to suggest today that I should have removed the offending article of clothing and go to the shop like that. What?! My whole shopping would have been tainted by that experience. No way.

As you may expect, mucho mocking from L.

Decorating times

Had a bit of a decorating frenzy over the weekend. Ages ago, a big hole "appeared" in Leigh's end of the sofa so we started looking for a new one. Saw one in Debenhams which we loved but sadly due our usual faffing/titting about, the sale had ended by the time we actually got round to being brave enough to order it. Brilliantly though it was in the Christmas sale...even cheaper! So ordered that in the new year. I thought it would be a good chance to recarpet downstairs before the new sofa arrives - easier to move furniture etc. Okay, but if we're going to do downstairs, may as well do the stairs and landing as well. And if we're going to do those, need to paint the landing first (which has been covered in fresh new plaster waiting for paint for a good few months now).

So weekend devoted to painting and ripping up old carpet, which was quite fun, but now our bin is full of old carpet and they're not coming for that bin for another fortnight!!!! Still can't seem to get photos into my blog so can't show you the end result yet but have a look on Flickr...

Also went and ordered lovely carpet which will be here in a couple of weeks - hurrah! Was surprisingly easy even after the half hour wait for an assistant and toing and froing between 3 colours!! Sadly however made a bit of a fool of myself - offered to pay for the carpet on my credit card and amidst joking with the sales lady about not knowing my credit limit on the card, it was refused! Then I remembered that it expired at the end of December - my new card is sitting at home waiting for me to put it in my purse. Whooops.

Fingers crossed...

...the washing machine appears to be fixed!! Hurrah! appears to have been a cracked clip which broke with the water pressure on the first wash. Clip has been replaced and wash on for about 20 minutes now with no water apparent under the machine.

Took today off work anyway to use up my last bit of holiday from last year - just updating my iPod and then time for a bit of Diagnosis Murder. Brilliant.