Anybody who has had a birthday this year will know that it's practically impossible to have a good one. It was sons birthday last week and to make matters worse he had his secondary school induction day on his birthday. Fortunately it was only a half day.
I was wracking my brain about what we could do - not much it turns out. Then I had a chance conversation with somebody who reminded me about Oliver's Brighton. From the outside it looks very much as if you would find it in Diagon Alley (Harry Potter for those of you who are lost). Inside is equally fitting and they have a selection of Harry Potter items that you can buy. What's great is they have something for every pocket.
I went onto the website and discovered something even better. Because of COVID they're doing things differently. The shop is now closed and only opens for private viewings. Easily done, just go to the website to book. There's a small booking fee, but this is then reduced from any purchases you make in the shop.
So very quickly the trip to Oliver's had gone from a nice trip - to a private viewing. Even better. Shortly after booking I received a second mail so I could pre-purchase a Butterbeer, an ice-cream and a small gift. I forget the exact amount, but it was £10 or thereabouts. Obviously this is entirely optional, but in this instance because it was for a birthday treat it was absolutely perfect.
We kept it secret from my son. My husband dropped us off near Oliver's - by a Tattoo artists as it turns out. I turned to my son and said 'So this is your surprise, now you're 12 we think you are old enough for a tattoo - so I've arranged for you to have one across your back saying "I love my mummy" '. At which point son gave me a withering look and said 'It's not going to happen - you know that!".
At this we moved back to the original plan and I took him to Oliver's Brighton. He was absolutely thrilled. It was wonderful being able to go into a shop without worrying about other people breathing all over you. With careful hand sanitizing on entry we were also able to pick up items to look more carefully. Fortunately son had received a bit of birthday money in the morning and he came out with quite a hoard. Including an amazing Harry Potter pop up book (grown up version), one of the pages from this is the photo in this post.
I cannot hesitate to recommend a similar visit if you have a Harry Potter fan in the family - whatever their age. We'll definitely be back.
In evening son wanted to go to an American Diner. Turns out a LOT of these have closed down. Not a big loss to me normally as eating a slab of red meat between two pieces of carbohydrate would not be number one on my list of food choices. However, in a strange year it was good to be able to give son something that was on his wish list.
So that was his birthday 'proper', this Sunday we did his birthday party. Again somewhat strange because of COVID. Because school has started one thing was easier, we invited 9 kids and apart from 2 of them they are in the same 'bubble' at school. So social distancing wasn't as much of a nightmare as usual. Basically if one of them has got the virus we're going to get it anyway!
I managed to get some giant inflatable footballs, we got all the kids to meet us in the local recreation ground that is surrounded by woodland. We started with a game of giant football, then provided hotdogs. Following this we sent the kids into the woods to have a team competition about who could make the most waterproof den.
There were a number of adults who stayed, things were remarkably quiet in the woods, then we started to see some of them filter out of the woods looking around. I thought it best to investigate. Turns out that rather than making dens the kids decided that they were going to wage war against each other. Whilst all seemed quiet from the outside, inside the wood was absolute bedlam - but very quiet because they were stalking each other with sticks as weapons.
It's amazing how quickly a group of 11 and 12 year old boys fall into a Lord of the Flies situation isn't it.
Needless to say I got them back on track - due to the very short amount of time they had to build a den they were all rubbish and not one of the dens was remotely waterproof. One person from each team had to go into the den and a bottle of water was pored over it. I thought none of them would want to be 'that' person. But turns out I was wrong as they ended up having another war about who it would be!
After this we walked back to our house, where a friend was waiting with her amazing crepe and waffle business The Tea Pod. Friend had got in touch with son during the week to take his order. She does do savoury, but it will come as no surprise that son's order was sugar + sugar + sugar. All the kids then queued up and put their order in for waffle, crepe and milkshake. Some coming back more than once.
Needless to say - excitement and sugar fueled the party went from chaos to bedlam. I think I owe my neighbours a lot - not one of them complained and some even came to try out the food (thank you, thank you, thank you for being so nice!).
At end of session I asked son how his birthday had been. Response was 'EPIC' - I honestly couldn't have asked for more.
Chuffed to bits! To top it off I didn't even open a bottle when it was all over. Very proud about how growed up I am.
Comments
Post a Comment