Birthday Bash

It has been a fun few days in London.  It started on Thurs with Mum and Dad having a stop over in Heathrow for 3hrs before flying onto Ireland.  I got to have a whirlwind catch up with them and exchange birthday presents with Dad.  Tessa also arrived back in town on Thursday so it was all action. 
On Friday my birthday started with Nathan waking me up early as he had to go to work!  Tessa came round and checked out my pad before we lunched in Finchley.  We headed to central London and straight to the M&Ms store.  Loud and bright and kids everywhere! I was like a kid in a candy store.  Tessa went a bit crazy with shopping - buying a t-shirt and other souvenirs.  I was good and only spent £2.20 on a selection of chocolates. We then headed to Marble Arch and Selfridges. 

After it was time for a pre-dinner drink.  The pub was super cheap with only £10 jugs of Pimms.  I do question the strength of the drink though,  it tasted more like lemonade. 
We headed to Brick Lane for a curry - where the curry is never really that good but a cheap night is guaranteed.  Anna bought me a Camilla face mask as a fun birthday present so we had fun taking photos and drinking loads of wine.  Each of us was carrying a bottle of wine, plus we negotiated two free drinks with our meal.  Needless to say we had far too much wine at the table and a big night was had by most.  Anna was keen to take the party to Elephant and Castle to go clubbing but as 1) I had too many clothes on so I was not revealing enough flesh and 2) I didn't have my stab proof vest we turned down the offer.

We struggled to rise early the next morning to take Tessa and Gavin on sight seeing tour of the English country side.  We missioned to Stonehenge where Nath and I paid to go in again.  Why?  What a waste of money.  The first time was never that exciting so Im not sure where the impulse came from to pay to see it again. We then headed to the most picturesque town in England as described by the Lonely Planet, Castle Combe, with a stop off at Devizes for a traditional pub lunch.  The final stop of the day was to Bath, home of the Sally Lunn bun, where again Tessa did some souvenir shopping with a bit of sight seeing thrown in.  The only English tradition we missed showing Tessa was a castle!

Nath and I are gearing up for two months of exciting travel adventures.  The next two months look a little like this:

• Scotland - with my parents - late July
• Amsterdam - Anna, Boz, Nath and I - mid August
• Egypt - Nath and I - late Aug, begining of Sept
• Munich for Oktoberfest - 8+ friends from Uni - mid Sept

Somewhere between Egypt and Munich I have to be back at work :(  Work is far from my mind, living in the moment and loving it.