Thank you everyone for a wonderful 26th Birthday. I had a wonderful time down in Birmingham and back up north with family. The celebrations kicked off on Thursday night with a trip out to Island Cocktail Bar in Birmingham with friends. We were only planning for a short night out (maybe ending around 8pm) however ended up staying out until near 11pm. We worked through quite a few cocktails that evening – with my list being: Eton Mess, Lynchburg Lemonade, Vesper, Brandy Alexander, Bon Bon, Ain’t No Don, Caphrinah, Manhattan, followed by a few Jamesons at Scruffy Murpheys Bar. Quite a few friends from work and outside of work came to join us for drinks, as Sarah passed her latest ACCA examination just before the drinks began – so a great night all round. There are quite a few pictures of the drinks on the photos section of the website.

Next celebration day was a quiet one on the Friday evening, when my people from my team at work came out for a curry at Yassers in Stirchley. We had a lovely meal (although the food seemed a little more rushed than usual at this meal) and some soft drinks and some laughter, before finishing quite early/respectably at 6:45pm – which worked out wonderful for us as we needed to head up north that evening, so we quickly headed home, picked up Mits and loaded the car with our bags before heading around to Sarah’s parents house to meet them and guide them up north. This was to be the first time Sarah’s parents came up north to meet my family (they had met my parents a few times before when they had been down in Birmingham however). The journey up was pretty unexceptional. As the sun set it became a little harder to tell which car behind me was John’s car, however we managed to keep together quite well for the journey and never got separated. When we got up north we had a few drinks before bed time. I was feeling quite shattered by this point after several days of poor sleep. John and Eileen had the spare room at parents house (which Sarah and I usually use) and Sarah and I slept downstairs on an airbed. I took the chance in the evening to check out some of the TVs I had been watching on eBuyer with a view to buying when I knew what money I had spare from my birthday – and rather typically, all the TVs I had been interested in had either sold out or their offer had ended that Friday and they had become prohibitively expensive again. However a new TV came on the offer boards that seemed very good however there was only 1 in stock. So I was aware on the Saturday morning that I would need to order it as soon as possible if I were to want to buy it. Saturday morning after opening all the cards and knowing what money I had to play with I quickly ordered the television set with free 5 working days delivery, only to receive an email that evening around 7pm to say ‘Happy Birthday from eBuyer’ and offer me free next day delivery (valid for 1 week only), so I quickly changed my order details to use this free next day delivery. The website lists the TV as due to arrive today – but we shall have to see since it doesnt list it as being posted yet, so it might not arrive until tomorrow.

Saturday was my actual birthday and I got to open all my cards and my present from Sarah’s parents. Sarah had given me a sneeky extra present on the Thursday night – a selection of bath bombs and creams from Lush These are currently in my trousers draw at home making everything smell nice. Sarah’s parents bought me a years membership to the MG Owners Club so we’re entitled to go on the rallys and special events that they hold for members. We also get access and discounts from the MGOC spares store – however most of the prices of items on there are much higher than other internet sources anyway – so unfortunately there is no real bonus there. I’m going to be looking through the members club website soon though to see what upcoming events there are and any Sarah and I might like to attend.

We went out for a meal with grandparents, both parents, and Andy and Gem on the Saturday evening at a pub called the Maypole in Warley. It was a lovely meal out and we had a great catch up with Andy and Gem, which was wonderful as we don’t get to see them very often, and a lot has been going on lately – particuarly in Andy’s life. Earlier on the Saturday before the meal we took advantage of the glorious sunny day and went out to Howarth and Skipton to have a look around the two towns with John and Eileen. I also passed the MGF keys across to mum and dad for the weekend to let them enjoy it whilst we were up. Sunday was a similar day with us heading across to Holmfirth to look around ‘The Last of the Summer Wine’ country, before heading home for the evening and a quick trip out to mum and dad’s regular Sunday night bar to finish the weekend.

We managed to get home just before midnight on the Sunday evening, and get straight to bed to try to catch up on a little bit of sleep – which seems to have worked a bit as I don’t feel too bad today. As to whether the new 32″ 1080p HD TV will arrive today or not remains to be seen.