Deacon's Birthday Surprise

It's my husbands 30th Birthday this week. 30! Fantastic! He hasn't sweated about it in the slightest, infact, he has positively embraced it as an ideal opportunity to get absolutely hammered. Binge drinking will be seen in its finest form in the pubs of Southampton this weekend.

However, when you have been with your OH for the past 12 years, trying to find something bigger and better than the last birthday to enthrall the senses and raise more than a smile is getting decidedly more difficult.
Deacon has always taken life by the balls and swung it around his head in a way that I can only look on with admiration. He is one of those people that has been there and done a damn sight more than a lot of people have.

Childhood hobbies included, BMX biking (the real deal), caving, marking bird eggs for the RSPB!?, Jet skiing, paintballing, mountain biking, Being a general buff when it came to anything animal, keeping obscure pets and fishing to name but a few. I used to collect blossom when I was young... It used to die...get sludgy and I would get upset.

Since I have known Deacon, he has scuba dived, bungee jumped, parachuted and drag raced at Santa Pod. Try topping that with a budget of £200.

1. A track day was out of the questions as I couldn't afford the cars that were faster than ours.

2. Swimming with sharks - Again costs too much.

3. Whale watching - hmmm.... Not in Southampton.

4. Anything for the car - I'm a girl, I only know where the dipstick and windscreen wiper wash is!

So in my infinite wisdom and expert listening skills, I searched for clues over the past 6 months for something that would fit the bill. The one that I picked up on again and again was that he would like to experience going to the Opera. This was like finding the ball in a rugby scrum, I picked up the ball and ran with it!

By luck I found tickets to see the English National Opera in Pirates of Penzance at the London Coliseum on eBay TING! I found a 5 star Hotel offer on LastMinute.com TING! And I booked the National Express funfare coach tickets online also for a bargain deal TING!

I had found all the ingredients for a corking night out in London and one that Deacon would not have experienced before. I even managed to keep it a secret for 2 whole months.. What could go wrong....

LOTS!

Coach journey from hell - Stuck opposite stinky drunk man, apart from Deacon, with girl listing to exceeding loud pants music for the whole journey.

Tube - We really are sardines!

Hotel - 5 Stars my arse! The room was a shoebox with dirty windows and peeling paint on the ceiling (before you ask, we are English so therefore do not complain, just moan about it afterwards!)

Meal out - Deacon's steak was like leather. Service was good though. Managed to sink 2 bottles of wine in an hour...

Opera - We were pissed, nearly late, ran in and were told off my the staff, Opera is definitely way too cultured for us, even if it was in English and is a familiar story....And... Deacon fell asleep, 5 TIMES.

This was therefore my planning completely out of the window. Having said that we had a fantastic time after all that. We went to the cinema in Leicester Square and paid £23 for 2 tickets to see Bridget Jones - Edge of Reason....funny film! We went sight seeing at 11 o'clock at night, sat in the hotel bar pretending that we were posh (hardly) until we got even more drunk and bounced off of the walls back to our room.

Next day we got up early (still drunk no doubt) had breakfast and went sightseeing again on the way to the London Aquarium.

We got on the coach to come home - incidentally the coach driver got lost! Then picked up Little Man (Bless him - he is gorgeous) and Naughty Pixie from my mums then used to force to drive home and fall into bed.

All in all it was certainly a different experience for Deacon's 30th.

Moral to the story: I guess it doesn't matter what you arrange to do, we had a blast just being together. If you can look back on a day and just one moment makes you smile, it was worth it.

Big Ben, as oppose to Little Ben. 

Happy hubby. 

Morning sunrise from our hotel room. 

Needles the size of...well....big needles

For the past 3 months I have had to subject Ben to the horrors of injections, not just one, but two at a time. Thank goodness that is it for about a year or so. Next he has to have the dreaded MMR! I say 'dreaded' due to its reputation. My opinion on the matter is that Ben will have the MMR jab because I don't want him to catch nasty diseases.

Update.... If you have a baby and take them to have their jabs... Invest in some high quality ear plugs. (oh and some Calpol - The saviour of parents everywhere!)

Yay for Ben!!! Eat your heart out Irwin....see how well Ben wrestles the evil croc! 

Let them eat chips...

.. Lets be honest, there isn't a hope in hell that you're gonna get any cake on the weight watchers no count plan.

However, if you are following a healthy eating plan and like the odd chip here and there try these!

Amy's fab cajun chips (okay...potato wedges! Let's not be choosy!)

1. Put the oven onto Gas Mark 6 or equivalent
2. Cut a spud into even wedges
3. Spray oven tray with fry light
4. Put wedges on oven tray
5. Spray wedges with fry light
6. Sprinkle with cajun spice...not too much!
7. Put in oven for 10 mins
8. Turn over
9. Cook for another 10 mins.
10. Serve with hot salsa

YUMMY!!!!!

And relax

I am at my best when I am cleaning. I don't know why this is, cleaning is a pointless task, everything just gets dirty again... Life as we know it does not cave in if I haven't hoovered the stairs.

but I enjoy doing it.

Why is it then that I like cleaning but my house is never clean!?! Work that one out! I obviously am not passionate about cleaning.

or

I have 3 cats, a 3 legged dog that tramps over everything when she has been playing in the muddy garden, a baby, a husband and not forgetting me!

How do people do it? Why do people do it?

Why do I even care??????

A mans/womans home is his/her castle - House Rage....

I, like many other people make huge assumptions about a person by the state of their home. I like a home to be a home. .. It should be welcoming and warm (and if at all possible smell of home baked bread at all times!) The way that I act around a person changes depending on the state of their home. This is probably because the home is a persons identity. Take away a home and you take away a persons most valuable possessions, (apart from their car...ha ha!) you also take away the heart of a family.

My home is currently undergoing an identity crisis..It is yearning to be beautiful but is suffering from many syndromes such as:

1. Too many powertools syndrome
and
2. Unable to put its own crap away syndrome.

Currently being on maternity leave, I get to spend wayyy too much time at home and frankly it is getting me down... If I cannot express myself through my home (shallow maybe, but true) I will end up going doolally. - Maybe should try sending OH to DIY'ers anonymous - Repressed - YES...

Oh...and another thing.... homes can bite back - watch yourselves.

Thought about nothing....

I have decided, I am crap at dieting! I must know more about dieting than anyone I know: low carb, high fat, low fat, high fibre, GI index, food combining, no food at all! points, calories, green days, red days, South Beach, Atkins, F-Plan....... So why am I still overweight?

Believe it or not fantastic fact of the day 1: A staggering amount of people embark on diets and don't lose weight. If they do lose the weight then a high percentage put it back on again, and sometimes even more! I can give up cigarettes which fantastic fact of the day 2: are suppose to be more addictive than heroin, but, I cannot lose weight and keep it off.. I am destined to be a blimp forever....

So much for the Domestic Goddess in me.... 

Meet Ben!  

Baby Poke

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Baby Poke

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Baby Poke

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