I had intended to update about my birthday on Friday but unfortunately I wasn't well. I wasn't better until Sunday, but I spent that day catching up on the MOOC so this is the first chance I've had to post about it.
The Celebration
Special birthday breakfast was not the usual pancakes this year! Ordinarily we'd go out for a birthday tea but my sister had the day off so it was decided to go out for dinner instead. That meant if we had pancakes for breakfast, we'd not be hungry enough for dinner because they really are very filling. So birthday breakfast was a croissant which was nice but I did miss my birthday pancakes. I spent the morning playing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on my PS2. I've almost finished it, I'm doing the second part of the battle with Voldemort but I can't work out how I'm supposed to kill him. Well, I checked a walkthrough for help so I know what I'm supposed to do, I just can't figure out the process for doing it. Very frustrating!
Then there was birthday dinner at
Frankie & Benny's. It's one of our favourite restaurants and they have a gluten-free menu now which is a bonus; they also have a birthday club where the birthday person gets a free main course so double bonus! It's been a while since we last went - we'd gone so often that we got fed up of the place - but they've changed the menu since so there were some new options. We got there a little after 12.30 but it was horrendously busy and there were only two waiters so we had to wait ages for everything. I think it took half an hour before we ordered and another half an hour before our food came. I decided to have the barbecue chicken skewers which were really yummy. Apple and I then debated over whether we wanted a sundae or not. Correction, we knew we wanted a sundae, we just weren't sure if we had room! It took so long for someone to come and see if we wanted to order any pudding though; it was about 2.15 by this point and was looking like we'd be there till 3 at this rate! When the waiter came back, we said we'd changed our mind and just wanted the bill. He sounded incredibly disappointed but went off to get the bill anyway. We started to get our things together when suddenly the music went really loud and then started playing Happy Birthday. The waiter came back bearing a small dish of ice cream with a candle in it and I promptly died of mortification. The restaurant had quietened down by this point but when I looked round, no one was paying a blind bit of notice to the birthdayness going on. I was terribly embarrassed to be made the centre of attention like that and yet incredibly annoyed that nobody even noticed! Anyway, Apple and I got to have ice cream, even if it wasn't a sundae. And was just vanilla.
Apple and I in Frankie & Benny's
After that, my mother and Apple wanted to have a look at some of the shops that were at the retail park so I got dragged round them. I tried to drag them into Pets at Home to look at the cute little fluffballs but neither of them were interested. So I went in on my own and admired the adorable bunnies, including one who came over from the back of the cage just to say hello to me, and the tiniest little hamster I have ever seen. It couldn't have been more than two inches long, although it was sat all scrunched up so it was hard to say. Eventually we went back home where Apple and I watched
Jonathan Creek from last week and were both disappointed with how un-Jonathan-like the show has become. It's not Jonathan Creek without magic, creepiness and a windmill! Damn you, David Renwick.
Finally it was time for birthday tea which was sandwiches and crisps and cake! And then there were presents. I think it was getting on for 8 o'clock once all that was done but unfortunately I was starting to get a headache so that cut short any further partying. Not that there were plans for any! I spent the night playing Avengers Assemble on Facebook instead and that was pretty much it.
The Food
Special birthday dinner at Frankie & Benny's:
barbecue chicken skewers and surprise ice cream
Special birthday cake:
Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and gold sparkle sugar stuff
It looks much redder than this inside, the photo does not do it justice at all
Apple's slice of cake which still doesn't look red in the slightest
The Presents
Marvel and Iron Man sweatshirts from my mother
Wolverine t-shirt from Apple
Apple also got me
The Beatles Rockband game which I have been after for AGES. Now I need to get a guitar controller for it!