On Turning 40

A few weeks ago I turned 40. Those of you who read the blog regularly will know that I had my birthday celebration in September – The Bloke and I went to London for a few days and did lots of eating and exploring. (In case you missed it, you can find the post here). Rather than sending me a present in November, my family and friends had very generously gifted me some birthday money towards it – it was very reminiscent of our honeymoon in New York four years ago in which we did as much as possible, took photos of what the money was spent on (which were predominantly glorious meals in random places all around the city) and sent them to everyone with a thank you message.

Consequently, my plan for the day of my actual birthday was to do nothing. My Out of Office was switched on, my social media clients were informed that I was on annual leave and I told The Bloke that I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything other than watch my favourite films and have food brought to me. It was definitely the right decision – it was freezing cold and we had an unexpected and rather large amount of snow (yes, I can hear my Canadian friends laughing at what we term as a large amount) which would have made a trip anywhere difficult. 

It’s a birthday guinea pig. In a birthday hat. I had to share.

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A Pre-40th Birthday Trip to London

I turn 40 at the end of November. I’m not phased by the prospect of it, but instead of my usual birthday request of taking the day off and doing nothing except watching my favourite films and eating my favourite food I wanted to do something special to actually acknowledge it. 

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A Lockdown Birthday and Terry the Christmas Tree

With less than a week to go until Christmas, The Bloke and I have taken to adulting to get everything prepared in advance. I was determined (especially after a such a crazy year), Christmas would be a period in which we could actually relax, do something positive for others and then take some time for ourselves without worrying about last-minute things, and we’ve managed most of it (although the found myself on a mad dash to the postbox yesterday to send off a whole bunch of Christmas cards. 

The last quarter of the year is always the busiest. Between October and December there are five birthdays within our family including mine and The Bloke’s and we had our third wedding anniversary at the end of October. Normally we would take a trip somewhere to celebrate at least one of these (last year we went to London for the weekend with my sister and her boyfriend to see the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi and the year before we fed giraffes at West Midlands Safari Park and went to the Harry Potter Studios Tour) but most of the last few months have been spent trying to stay safe and well at home. Instead I have created almost mini staycations and celebrations indoors, finding interesting things to watch and trying to support local businesses by ordering from them rather than going through the giants that now monopolise the online shopping world (except Lego of course, because The Bloke loves it).  Continue reading

Giraffes, Lego and the Big Five-0 for The Bloke

The West Midland Safari Park Giraffe Experience

Last year The Bloke didn’t really have much of a birthday celebration – we were getting married a few days afterwards and still dealing with flowers and centrepieces and general wedding nonsense, so this year I made a promise to myself that I would make a huge effort. 

Today he turned 50. The big Five-0. He’s not a fan of birthdays and let’s just say that he is far from pleased about reaching this particular milestone, so I did what I usually do… I completely ignored his bah humbug birthday attitude and have spent several weeks planning an epic ‘The-Bloke-is-50-and-not-happy-about-it’ celebration with the help of my sister-in-law.  Continue reading

Family Birthday Celebrations

imageIt’s been a really lovely weekend.

I received a package from the lovely Hugh in the mail. He had put a picture of his Christmas ducks up on Facebook and I left a comment that asked where I could get some Christmas ducks of my own. A few days later, some arrived in the mail! Thanks Hugh!

After setting off at ridiculous o’clock yesterday morning, The Bloke and I travelled up north. It was my mum’s 60th birthday and I was also meeting up with some old friends from my college years, so we were staying at my sister and brother-in-laws house. It was a good opportunity to spend some time with my sister before Baby Squidge arrives next month. Continue reading

Birthday Shopping, an Engagement and Blogmas!

It was my birthday the other day. The Bloke and my friends were at work and I had already been spoilt with lots of lovely presents and cards (personalised notebook, Mojito lollipops, money, lovely meal, the new Caitlin Moran book, voucher, TICKETS TO SEE RENT IN LONDON), so I decided that rather than attempting to organise a get-together, I would have a day to myself. I was in Birmingham city centre by 8am, munching my way through a McDonalds breakfast, armed with a voucher and birthday money and braced myself for the chaos that descends daily in the city around this time of year.

I had a plan to race round and finish off my Christmas shopping by 10.00am. I did quite well, managing most of it by 10.30am without being run over by a baby buggy or one of those really annoying wheeled suitcases (seriously, don’t even get me started on those…) and then got myself back home armed with lots of bags and bubble tea. I plonked myself under a warm duvet in front of the TV, where me and the cat (who was tired after running around, singing the songs of his people and attacking my face at 3am) caught up on some programmes we missed last week and had a snooze. Continue reading

Lego, Steak and Waiting for the Mailman

It’s The Bloke’s birthday today, and before midday I had a bit of a bad start to the morning. While he isn’t particularly bothered about his own birthday, I like to make a fuss because he looks after me all year and I was a bit frustrated because his presents hadn’t arrived in the mail yet. I also managed to forget my purse when I went to the shop and then I burnt his birthday bacon butty, so combined with the fact that I was looking out of the window every five seconds for the postman it wasn’t exactly the day that I had planned. Continue reading

Back To Reality After a Wonderful Weekend

imageIt was difficult getting motivated this morning. I sat at my desk this morning, turned on my laptop and almost instantly a reminder popped up: data analysis due tomorrow. Eurgh. I like my job and I work at a good school, but after having such a brilliant weekend I was suddenly brought back down to reality with a big bump.

It was my birthday last Friday, and I’ve had a wonderful weekend of celebrations. My lovely colleagues treated me to Crispy Cremes, chocolate and cinema vouchers and they found it hilarious to all sign a One Direction card when they know how much I dislike them, which made me and my students roar with laughter when I opened it. On Friday night The Bloke and a large group of friends from all different areas of my life joined me for drinks at my local pub. It can be sometimes quite awkward when introducing groups of friends to each other, but everyone instantly connected and there was lots of laughter, some dancing and the odd spillage. I had a warm and fuzzy moment where I sat back and watched everyone as they were talking – I’m lucky to know lots of wonderful people…

Suffice to say, my hangover was of epic proportions on Saturday morning. I had woken up early as The Bloke left for the day to visit his family and couldn’t get back to sleep, so instead of wallowing in my own alcohol – laden filth I decided to make the short journey into Birmingham City Centre and attempt to make a decent start on my Christmas shopping.

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Tip: When attempting to shop in the second biggest city in the country, do so with a raging hangover. I was feeling so awful that I was in no mood for politeness and taking things easy. My headphones were in, my heavy metal music was on, my elbows were out and I was like a woman possessed. I knew exactly what I wanted and where to obtain it from, and I was in and out within two hours. I returned home with everything on my list, and had even managed to buy myself an ‘it’s my birthday and I’m brilliant so I’m going to treat myself’ present in the form of a shiny new iPhone 6, which replaced my old faithful iPhone 4 that went to the electronic heaven in the sky last week.

The Bloke returned home later that day to find me in my jammies and lying on the couch under a quilt. The hangover had subsided a little by that point, and so we spent the evening watching ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and eating pizza.

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Sunday was the day I had been looking forward to all week: The Good Food Show at the NEC. It has become a yearly tradition for The Bloke and I as it always falls on the weekend after my birthday and I love it. We’ve established a routine – The Bloke stands back and pretends that he doesn’t know me as I run around and grab all the free samples that I possibly can, we buy lots of cheese, chutney and products by Crimbles, we watch a show and then go home before it gets too busy to move. This year was no exception – we arrived just as it opened and almost immediately I had a potato on a stick in one hand, some cocktail sticks that had been skewered with different flavours of cheese in another and was attempting to munch my way through different olives laced with beautiful oils, herbs and garlic without dribbling them down the front of myself. Classy.

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We went to see the Hairy Bikers show (who, if you haven’t seen or heard of them before, are essentially two northern and heavily bearded chefs that ride motorbikes and create brilliant cookery programmes for British television), and I was delighted that The Bloke had managed to get tickets right on the front row. They didn’t disappoint, and even brought Louis, a contestant from the recent Great British Bake Off, to help them on stage. The food they created smelled beautiful, they entertained with their usual warmth and cheeky jokes, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In my infinite wisdom I decided to finish off the last of my shopping after we left. It was early in the afternoon by the time I arrived, and it was utter chaos. I managed two stores and came home. Never. Again. I’ve decided to avoid town at all costs from now on unless I can get in early. However, my shopping is now nearly completed, most of my cards are written and all I need to do is put up the tree, torture the cats with their little Santa hats that I force them to wear every year and I’m all set. My weekly Twitter party, #SundayBlogShare was being guest hosted by Gene’O @sourcererblog and he did a wonderful job, and I checked it sporadically to see lots of new participants and hundreds of posts being shared. Brilliant. Thanks Gene’O, you’re a star.

This is why getting out of bed this morning was so tough. I needed another day or two to recover.

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I also wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday across my social media sites. It was indeed a happy birthday, filled with lots of lovely people and experiences, and I have been thoroughly spoilt with cards and unbelievably thoughtful gifts.

So, back to reality. Anyone got a time machine they would like to lend me so I can go and do it again?

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog and don’t forget to check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks

33 Thoughts For My 33rd Birthday

imageIt’s my birthday tomorrow, and in light of the fact that I am going to be busy I wanted to leave you with some thoughts and ideas that may amuse you.

1. If it doesn’t matter, get rid of it. If you can’t get rid of it, it matters.

2. Getting no message can sometimes be a message in itself.

3. Life is not a fairytale. If you lose your shoe at midnight, you’re probably drunk.

4. Don’t regret knowing the people that come into your life – good people give you happiness, bad ones give you experience, the worst ones give you lessons and the best ones give you memories.

5. You can’t throw spaghetti at wall and expect it to spell something.

6. No good apology usually contains the word ‘but.’

7. It’s good to be informed instead of just being opinionated.

8. Normal seems to be getting dressed in clothes that are bought for work, driving through traffic in a car that is not yet paid off in order to get to the job that is needed to pay for the clothes and the car and the house that is left vacant all day so it is possible to afford to live in it.

9. There comes a time where you need to stop crossing oceans for people who wouldn’t jump puddles for you.

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10. There may be two sides to every story. Unfortunately, there are some people who look like complete douchebags in both of them.

11. Tom Hanks is probably the only man that will ever make you cry over a lost volleyball.

12. It’s important to follow your heart, but equally important to take your brain with you.

13. The first five days after the weekend are always the hardest.

14. It is impossible to make the same mistake twice, because the second time is a choice.

15. It is better to be unique that trying to be perfect.

16. Life is too short to be serious all the time. If you can’t laugh at yourself, call someone who will laugh at you.

17. Don’t forget to post on Facebook every time you are going to the gym, otherwise the entire workout will be a complete waste of time.

18. That tingly feeling that is experienced when you like someone is often common sense leaving the body.

19. It’s better to have loved and lost than to do thirty pounds of laundry a week.

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20. Take the opportunity to smile while you still have teeth.

21. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

22. To succeed in life, you need three things – a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.

23. After a game of chess, the king and the pawn go in the same box.

24. It’s often said that you are what you eat. I clearly ate a sexy beast this morning.

25. You can’t completely open your mouth and stick you tongue out past your lips.

26. You just tried it.

27. You’ve just realised that I was lying.

28. Of your 99 problems, 83 of them will be completely made up nonsense and will result in unnecessary stress for no logical reason. These will undoubtedly surface at 3am when you have to be up early that day…

29. There’s a difference between being anti-social and anti-stupid.

30. Life is too short not to get drunk in a costume.

31. Nothing is more serious than turning on the caps lock during a public fight on the Internet.

32. Moving on is much easier to accept when you realise the other person was batsh*t crazy.

33. This: image

If anybody needs me, I’ll be in the pub…

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog and don’t forget to check out my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks.

 

 

That Friday Feeling…

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It’s Friday night and for the first time in quite a while I don’t have anything to do or anywhere to be. Of course, there’s always school and housework that needs working on, but tonight I am safe in the knowledge that the next 24 hours are my own. I haven’t got many plans – with my sister’s wedding, The Bloke’s birthday in a few weeks and continuing diabetic cat expenses, money is a little tight this month, so I think that I’ll take myself out for a run, wrap up The Bloke’s birthday presents, edit some wedding pics, have a good sleep and catch up with some much needed reading of some of my favourite blogs. I’m quite excited – I’ve been collecting a few bits and pieces for The Bloke for a while now, and while he hates the fact that he is getting older I always try and make a fuss, quite simply because he deserves it. I wish I had the finances to to be able to take him out for a fancy meal, but I will have to wait until I next get paid. He doesn’t know it yet, (and I’m ok to write about it on here are he doesn’t read it), but I’m going to try and get us tickets to see a show and then take him to a nice restaurant with a group of his friends from work as a surprise. It’s the little things…

It’s been quite an emotional few weeks, and I’m pleased that everything is beginning to calm down so I get the chance to regroup and relax a little. The plan for tonight is to watch Season 9 of Bones, cuddle up with the cats in my fluffy socks and take lots of deep breaths.

Hope you’re enjoying your Friday!