Last week I celebrated turning 26… A birthday I wasn’t really looking forward too because in my head, I was going to be the wrong side of 25. But as it got closer it hit me that I’m incredibly lucky to be turning 26… it’s a privilege to grow up and grow old that is not afforded to everybody and sometimes I need to remind myself of that.
After having all my hair chopped off on the Wednesday night I woke up on my birthday not knowing what to expect. I knew Adam had a surprise trip lined up but had absolutely no idea where. I couldn’t sleep and ended up waking him up at around half 6 to tell me. After giving him an extra hour in bed he finally presented me with my presents and told me where we were going: London for an overnight stay and he was taking me to the theatre to see Les Miserables – a show I’ve been dying to see for years and years. After wiping away tears of shear joy he also pulled out a few extra presents, a frozen birthday cake and a card with Cinderella on – he knows me so well!
When we arrived in London we first checked into our hotel – The Kingsway Hall Hotel -which was right in Covent Garden. After dropping our bags, we had a little wander and headed to a pub to have a drink and stand on the balcony and watch the street performers. For an early dinner, we went to the very first place we’d ever eaten in London when we came down for a day out in February – Homeslice. Adam is so adventurous with his pizza and ended up having the goats shoulder with cabbage and yoghurt (whurrrrt?) but I’m a margarita girl through and through and Homeslice is one of my favourites of all time. The relaxed vibes and the 20 inch pizza are so me!
After quick shower and change of clothes we headed to the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue for the performance. I cried when we got there as we were two rows from the front and I had the most perfect view. All through the performance (and between the verges of tears) I had the biggest grin on my face – like a Cheshire cat. I managed to hold myself together until **SPOILER ALERT** Eponine dies in Marius’ arms – I kinda lost my shit and started to silently ball.
The following day we were booked into Duck and Waffle for lunch so we spent our morning having breakfast at Bills, wandering around the Natural History Museum so I could read all about Earthquakes and Volcanos and soaking up a bit of sun in Hyde Park. We also made the trip up to King’s Cross so we could see the Harry Potter trolley – Adam’s idea, not mine – not bad for somebody who up until eight months ago, had not even watched a Harry Potter film.
Duck and Waffle was something else entirely and I’m so glad Adam booked us in. It’s the highest restaurant in the UK and stands on the 40th floor with amazing panoramic views of London – it really is quite spectacular, especially on a sunny day! We started with cocktails – I had a red pepper bellini – sounds weird but tasted so good, before moving onto food, bread to start then onto the mains. Now I know it’s weird but I didn’t have the duck and waffle as I’m not a huge duck fan; instead we had a whole roast chicken between us which was a juiciest and tastiest chicken I’ve eaten in my life – serious how are my ‘famous’ Sunday dinners going to compare?
I cried so many tears on Thursday – mostly out of happiness and being overwhelmed by how thoughtful Adam was. I wrote about him in my 26. post on Sunday but I honestly feel so lucky to have met somebody who is kind and loving and is just a nice person – that’s all I want from life – somebody kind. He went out of his way to make my day special and I had a beautiful birthday. The celebrations carried on right into the weekend with more dinners and seeing more friends and family – next year I’m going for a full week of celebrations – too much?
If you watch my weekly vlogs – be sure to catch my birthday week HERE:
