Operation "Bognor Regis"
It's Adrian (london1952 )'s birthday on Monday and I'm taking him away on a surprise week-end trip (leaving tomorrow and coming back on Monday night).
I told him that we're going to Bognor Regis but of course we could be going somewhere completely different (bluff) or indeed there (double bluff) [and the writing of this post has now made it into a triple/quadruple bluff].
This will be the 12th time he spends his birthday with me. He loves going away but if we don't, I always try to make his day a bit special, and there is often an element of surprise.
Looking back...
1999: Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Putney, London (Buongustaio). He later found a wristwatch hidden in a chocolate box.
2000: This one is a bit fuzzy. Dinner out but then I flew to Italy the following morning (Adrian joined me in Turin a few days later, and then we went to Bergamo, Mantua and the Monferrato).
He had a belated birthday surprise trip to Paris in November.
2001: Tuscany. I believe that we were in beautiful and romantic San Gimignano for his birthday
2002: 50th birthday!! Dinner out with family and friends on the evening of his birthday and then we went away for a week the following day to a mystery destination.
It was Taormina, Sicily.
2003: Rome and Umbria. We were in Rome on the evening of his birthday. We went to see "La Traviata" performed in San Paolo dentro Le Mura (an Anglican church). It was also the night of the big blackout in Italy
2004:Sitges
2005: London. We had a full day out. The Freda Khalo exhibition at Tate Modern, lunch at "Fish!" near Borough Market.
Then an afternoon wandering around and casually ending up on Old Compton Street. As we walked past the Prince Edward theatre, Adrian mentioned that he would have loved to go and see "Mary Poppins" some time... I said "Let's go now!" and produced the tickets out of my pocket! [That's a hard act to follow!]
2006: London, again.
Another full day out.
Lunch at the Quirinale Restaurant in Westminster (and during that meal we decided to get officially married), followed by a recording of the "Paul O'Grady Show" at the BBC, cocktail at the Waldorf and surprise show at the Peacock Theatre ("Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo" in "Swan Lake")
2007: Day trip to Dublin, for afternoon tea at Shelbourne hotel
2008: Toronto. We were staying with the lovely bobalone and paulintoronto and had a great meal out with some other fabulous LJers: 2fruition , brunorepublic , jeffbriggs (and 'Tall Paul')
2009: Krakow (surprise week-end trip). But we spent most of Adrian's actual birthday in Auschwitz.
2010: Bognor Regis?!?
I told him that we're going to Bognor Regis but of course we could be going somewhere completely different (bluff) or indeed there (double bluff) [and the writing of this post has now made it into a triple/quadruple bluff].
This will be the 12th time he spends his birthday with me. He loves going away but if we don't, I always try to make his day a bit special, and there is often an element of surprise.
Looking back...
1999: Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Putney, London (Buongustaio). He later found a wristwatch hidden in a chocolate box.
2000: This one is a bit fuzzy. Dinner out but then I flew to Italy the following morning (Adrian joined me in Turin a few days later, and then we went to Bergamo, Mantua and the Monferrato).
He had a belated birthday surprise trip to Paris in November.
2001: Tuscany. I believe that we were in beautiful and romantic San Gimignano for his birthday
2002: 50th birthday!! Dinner out with family and friends on the evening of his birthday and then we went away for a week the following day to a mystery destination.
It was Taormina, Sicily.
2003: Rome and Umbria. We were in Rome on the evening of his birthday. We went to see "La Traviata" performed in San Paolo dentro Le Mura (an Anglican church). It was also the night of the big blackout in Italy
2004:Sitges
2005: London. We had a full day out. The Freda Khalo exhibition at Tate Modern, lunch at "Fish!" near Borough Market.
Then an afternoon wandering around and casually ending up on Old Compton Street. As we walked past the Prince Edward theatre, Adrian mentioned that he would have loved to go and see "Mary Poppins" some time... I said "Let's go now!" and produced the tickets out of my pocket! [That's a hard act to follow!]
2006: London, again.
Another full day out.
Lunch at the Quirinale Restaurant in Westminster (and during that meal we decided to get officially married), followed by a recording of the "Paul O'Grady Show" at the BBC, cocktail at the Waldorf and surprise show at the Peacock Theatre ("Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo" in "Swan Lake")
2007: Day trip to Dublin, for afternoon tea at Shelbourne hotel
2008: Toronto. We were staying with the lovely bobalone and paulintoronto and had a great meal out with some other fabulous LJers: 2fruition , brunorepublic , jeffbriggs (and 'Tall Paul')
2009: Krakow (surprise week-end trip). But we spent most of Adrian's actual birthday in Auschwitz.
2010: Bognor Regis?!?