So here I sit, on a cold Monday morning, thinking about my birthday weekend. And I think it's safe to say that it was one (if not TOP) for the Best-Birthdays-Ever list.
Where to begin? Well, we may as well start with Friday.
Woke up to a flurry of texts, including a rather insightful one from Anne.
Things I have learnt, Part 1: When your birthday matches your age (ie: I was 23 on the 23rd) - this is considered your "lucky" birthday in Malta.
Festivities began at half 10 when Joe arrived, bearing a gorgeous bunch of red roses and a hug the size of Manchester. After a little showing off of received presents, we drove down to the block of flats, where our friendly estate agent (how grown up does THAT sound??) was waiting to show us around. After meeting the concierge (!), taking the lift up to the courtyard (!!) and another lift to our flat (!!!), we were in. Nothing much to tell really. There's not much of a view, but it's big enough for two, unfurnished (but we can provide the furniture between us anyway) with an AMAZING wardrobe in the bedroom, DISHWASHER (was NOT expecting that!), a lovely little bathroom, and (which was, in my opinion, the dealbreaker) a combination WASHING AND DRYING MACHINE. Not to mention the thick-as-a-tank front door and INDIVIDUAL ALARM SYSTEM.
Believe me, I tried so hard to follow Joe's lead in being professional, exuding an air of Bond-like neutraility and enquiring about proper stuff, but all I really wanted to do was yell "SOLD!!" and start unpacking kitchen utensils. Instead, I contended myself with mentally arranging furniture placement, touching the walls and visualizing living there.
After we left, we drove up to Mum's cafe, nattering all the way about Pros and Cons, etc.... Turns out Joe's air of casual "oh-we've-already-looked-at-3-other-places" indifference was all just a big act, and he was pretty much as excited as I was. Nice!Once at the shop, we settled in for a free breakfast, after the girls serenaded me with "Happy Birthday" and presented a tray of home-made cupcakes. Awwwww!! The watching customers cheered as I went bright red, and Yvonne forced Joe into telling her where he was taking me.
And then we were off! I'd agreed (at Joe's request) to wear a blindfold to keep the location hidden till the last minute, which, after 45 minutes, was starting to feel like a really shitty idea. After an hour of itchy, blurry eyes, I started trying to guess where we were going. Going off previous clues, the best I could come up with was a day trip to somewhere cold - maybe walking, or snowboarding, followed by a meal somewhere, and then back to his for a weekend. Oh, was I wrong......
After a good 2 hour journey, I was finally told to take the blindfold off. And what was the sight before me? Well, momentarily, blurry eyes and a strange white mist. But after THAT came a very familiar childhood sight..... that of BLACKPOOL TOWER! We were in BLACKPOOL!!! Let's just say my reaction was something similar to this.
So we drove down the front, me getting increasingly excited as we passed so many fond childhood memories.... the sea, the sand, the 3 main piers, the 18,000 candyfloss (and other treats) stalls, every single woman trying to convince pavement walkers that SHE was the real Gypsy Rose-Lee (as opposed to all the other 75 who were doing the same thing). I was overjoyed. A day trip to Blackpool! That was gonna be sweet - we'd spend all day on the piers, maybe have fish and chips, take photos and walk along the beach. "Just need to find somewhere to park," Joe mumbled, as we neared the end of the Illuminations stretch. And then, I swear to god, this is what happened next:
J: "OK, should be a parking space somewhere....."
K: "Seriously, just take the first one you can find, I wanna start walking!"
J: "No problem!" (*swings car into the Savoy Hotel carpark*)
K: "Um..... when I said ANYWHERE, I didn't mean.... I don't think we can park here."
J: "Why not?"
K: "It's a HOTEL! Isn't it reserved for guests or something?"
J: "Hmmmm....... Nah, it'll be fine. No-one'll know!"
K: "Yeah, but don't people monitor stuff like that?"
J: "Good point. Well, we'd best check in then."
...............................................................
K: "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??????!!!!"
Yes folks, there you have it. I'd been tricked - AGAIN - in what was quite blatantly a hotel setting. How could I have fallen for it twice??!! Anyway, I practically jumped on the poor guy, shrieking and laughing, despite the niggling guilty feeling in my head that wondered how the hell he'd managed to afford this, since redundancy. Oh well, a lady never asks! Even though I kinda did (He booked it AGES ago, apparently). The hotel was SO nice, all pink and cosy, and just the right side of posh (ie: a little bit, but not too) - whilst our room had a TV and a WHIRPOOL BATH!! Sadly with only room for one person, but still - WHIRLPOOL BATH!!
After a quick room-christening (at least things seem to be back on board in THAT department after last week's events!) we walked down to the central pier, all the better for me to spend a good quarter of my money on those ball-rolling Derby games (I can't help it, THEY'RE SO ADDICTIVE!!) Afterwards we went for a walk along the beach, generally looking round and soaking in the rain and wind lashed surroundings. Good times!
And things were still to get better. We went back to the room (where I took full advantage of the whirlpool bath....!) to get changed, and went down for dinner. Felt a little too dressed up, considering I was in a purple silky top, pencil skirt, fishnets and heels and everyone else was in.... well, normal clothes..... but as Joe ordered a celebratory bottle of champagne and we dug into the amazing 3 course meals, my worries faded away (along with any fears that 23 is seen as: "getting old"). Afterwards we took our drinks into the lounge to join in a huge Bingo game (I won the 2nd one!) before retiring upstairs with another bottle. Tell you what, it doesn't half sound fancier than it is when you put it like that!
Upstairs, we drank the rest of the champers whilst watching "Peep Show" (genius, as always) and unwrapped my presents (although why he'd brought presents AS WELL was beyond me). He got me The Mitchell and Webb book (yesssss!), a "Me-to-You" little bear holding some roses, and some beautiful white gold earrings, which I immediately put in. We went for a walk along the front to get out of our ever-so-slightly boiling room for a while, me tottering along in heels, slightly tipsy from the champagne. We looked at the sea for a while before heading back for sexy rest-of-the-eveing in the room. A pretty sweet birthday indeed!
Saturday - Wow, what can I say? What felt like the longest day in the WORLD surely should not have been so much fun. But it was. Just your typical "doing Blackpool" really, up at half 9 (curse going out with a morning person!) followed by sexy hotel breakfast and a quick trip to nearby town centre for toothbrush and memory card - all the better to hold all 3000 photos I eventually took. Was rather strange seeing the Blackpool AWAY from the tourist-y well-known part, I have to say.
Afterwards I introduced him to the wonders of Harry Ramsden's fish and chips - amazingly, he'd never even heard of them! However, 20 minutes of queueing and a big fat portion later, and Mr. H.R had a brand new fan in Joe. After that we did the main pier, which involved 3 main things:
Consumption of 12 doughnuts (I had a craving! You can't get 'em like you do in Blackpool anywhere else!!)
Wind and rain so extreme, it had it's own MTV channel.
Me dragging Joe onto the Big Wheel (and then finding out afterwards he was afraid of heights)
After another whirlpool bath (I MUST get one installed when I win the Lottery) and an incredible dinner, we had a lovely drive along the front for my ever-so-nostalgic-illuminations-viewing. Took about a billion photos while Joe stressed about petrol. Good times. Back in our room there was one last minor sex-related tiff (ie: I want it too much, all the time, and he doesn't) before bed. I really am thinking that if modern relationships are supposedly all about compromise, I'm gonna have to sit on my needs for a while, or at least try and train myself into wanting it less. What is WRONG with me??
Sunday - whilst starting off as slightly awkward, soon cheered up after a fry-up and a quickie (maybe I was just being paranoid!), upon which we realised just how thin the walls are, not to mention how squeaky the bed was. Shit! Suddenly felt very guilty about the baby I could hear next door...... Anyway, we checked out, all back to normal, and drove along the front, off on our merry way. We talked about the flat all the way home.
Upon reaching town, we realised there was no reason for the weekend to end just yet, and therefore went for a Pizza Hut, followed by "Saw 6" - which, can I point out, was simply fucking fantastic. And SO gory!! (Just how I like 'em!) After being dropped at home, I unwrapped more presents in front of X Factor, before promptly passing out. Why DOES sea air make you so damn sleepy??!
But all in all, possibly one of the best birthdays ever. Corny, but 1000% true.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Lady Gaga - "Poker Face"
No comments:
Post a Comment