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...