Well this week it was my time for a birthday. I'd been looking forward to it for ages.
Months ago I booked us into Gingerman for lunch and then when I went to Rocky Horror I saw this amazing paint throwing place, but knew I'd never get to go there because nobody would go with me. I knew my only chance was on my birthday, so for my present husband paid for himself, me and son to go. I'd been planning my creation for weeks.
A lot has happened since we booked all of that. In a very sad Instagram post the Gingerman announced that due to rising costs it would be closing. It would still be open for my birthday, but there would be a hint of sadness that it would be the last time. Then I sprained my ankle.
Historically family doesn't always remember to get treats for my birthday, this is part of why I pre-booked things. This doesn't mean they are terrible people, it's just not the sort of thing that crosses their mind. So when the shop was delivered the night before my birthday. I'd planned to have lots of yummy things delivered, including a budget (but nice) birthday cake. The shop arrived and pretty much everything I'd ordered - except the cake - had not been available.
Husband saw cake and informed me that he'd got me one as well. So my emergency cake went into the freezer. Not wanting to have to do stuff on my birthday I then drove to the nearest supermarket to get the things that had been missing from the shop. Because of the heat none of it was available so as I walked around I was having to readjust and be creative about what I'd actually want for my birthday 'light' supper. I'd intended some party food, in the end we ended up with Pitta, hummus and taramasalata. Then for Saturday night I wanted to do salmon in tomato and dill - but no salmon was available so for son and me I purchased mussels and for husband kiev (he'd never eat mussels). The idea was that these would all be nice and easy so I'd not have to get involved with cooking for once.
My birthday dawned, the tides were on my side and so I strapped up my ankle and drove to Peacehaven because the walk from Peacehaven to the rockpools is shorter than from my local seafront. All went quite well, except I'd misjudged the tides. It was lower than I'd normally expect and as a result there were no rockpools. There was however one channel of water through the reef, so I headed to this with dog to throw stones for her to chase.
Even though it wasn't what I'd planned, let's say it was...... sufficient.... an ok start to the day.
There wasn't much to open when I got home because my main present was the paint throwing. But husband had bought a gift for son to give me. A T-shirt. It was a great T-shirt, but too small for me, so it's gone into the pile of clothes I'll never wear, but can't get rid of for various reasons. I'd also asked brother for some wind catchers for the garden, I'd selected these online and he'd duly purchased them. Unfortunately they weren't what I expected them to be and quite small, in the way you can only mispurchase online. In the end I hung 2 of them as a double spiral, which meant that I had a hanging hook with no wind catcher. So I got in the car and drove to the garden centre to purchase another one - that was what I'd expected.
It was an unusual shop at the garden centre because I kept stopping off at different areas. My purchase was 1 x wind catcher, 1 x bottle of prosecco and 1 x Wierd Fish jumper. They actually had some really nice clothes up there, but for once I was sensible and read the label - they were all handwash - HANDWASH!!! Not a chance, so none of those were purchased (jumper was machine wash). Not a single plant was purchased, but hey ho who goes to a garden centre for plants.
On my return we headed to Gingerman, it's not a long walk from the car park, but long enough that by the time we got there my sprained ankle was in tatters. The meal was a wonderful as you'd expect and brother joined us, which was wonderful. However, the whole thing was just incredibly sad. We paid our bill in good time to get to the paint throwing, but they then came over to us to thank us for being good customers and we couldn't just say - well bye then gotta go. So we chatted as long as we felt we could before heading off.
The walk to the paint throwing place was a nightmare. We could make it if we put a bit of pace on the walk, but no matter what I tried I couldn't walk fast with my sprained ankle. By the time we arrived we were 8 minutes late. The person running it told us that we'd missed our chance and we couldn't join the group session. I was literally gutted. I explained about my sprained ankle, but they were adamanat.
So that was that - no paint throwing. My only chance to do it - out the window. I was so disappionted. I know that I wouldn't do it again and I'm pissed off with the place so wouldn't want to go back anyway.
I'm not going to lie, with the sadness of Gingerman closing and then this I actually shed a few tears as we headed back to the car. Happy FUCKING birthday.
Back home I rested my ankle for a bit and then family and I went back to Peacehaven with dog to say sorry that it had been on it's own for a few hours during the day. Son asked what I wanted to do next and so with a bottle of prosecco and the pitta and hummus kindly prepared by husband we sat down for a game of trivial pursuit.
And that was it - a long awaited and not what I'd hoped for birthday. Next year no planning - then nothing can go wrong.
Oh, and my lovely husband knew I was upset about the t-shirt being too small, the day after my birthday amazon arrived with package for husband. He handed it to me explaining he'd purchased another one of the t-shirts because he knew the other one was too small. I was thrilled. I went upstairs and tried it on........ still not right.... looked at the label, he'd replicated exactly the same size as his first purchase. Now I have two identical t-shirts that are both too small!
... and Oh again, apart from the Pitta, all the weekends cooking was still me as normal!
#FML.
This week's photo is my cheapy birthday cake sitting in the freezer - no idea what I'll use it for, but it's too big to sit in their for long!
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