Happy Birthday, me!

It was my birthday on Friday 24th November and I couldn’t have had a better day…or weekend! I took the day off work (that’s a great start!), got Liddi off to school, made a cup of tea and went back to bed to open all my cards. Sheer indulgence. Thanks everyone!

My friend, Jim took me out for a delicious lunch of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, etc. at a cosy local restaurant. After that, we went for a look around Burton Agnes Hall which had been fantastically decorated for Christmas in a range of traditional and modern styles. It was a delight and a fun way to spend the afternoon. I got a great DAB digital radio which I have been enjoying ever since. Don’t you just love technology?

By 6pm Toni arrived at my house and Liddi was back from school, so we piled ourselves and our weekend bags into the car and took the 1 hour journey to Whitby where dad & Jacqui had hired an apartment for the weekend as a birthday treat for Toni & me. I hadn’t been to Whitby before and neither had dad & Jacqui. Toni had been for a couple of hours a few weeks before, so we were all excited about exploring the joys of Whitby, despite the fact that the weather reports were not good.

Luckily, the weathermen didn’t get it quite right and despite a bit of drizzle on Saturday morning, it soon cleared up to give us a sunny and mild afternoon. We explored the quaint, narrow, cobbled streets with interesting shops and then took the 199 steps up to the Abbey, which looked spectacular in the winter sun. I had been given a fantastic Lumix digital camera with a Leica lens which has all manor of wonderful features (most of which I am still trying to figure out…and possibly never will!). Luckily, Lydia decided to take over as chief photographer for the weekend. She worked out how to taken photos in colour, black & white, sepia, sports mode, short video, long shots, close ups, self photos, and managed to compile a lovely reminder in a mere 250 photos (!!) of the weekend. Thankfully, I will not put them ALL on this blog…..but I will publish a few of my favourites!

The apartment was lovely, smart and modern and ideally situated overlooking the harbour on the River Ouse. We had a fantastic view of Whitby, including the Abbey and St Mary’s Church on the top of the hill. Jacqui cooked a lovely birthday dinner on the Friday evening rounded off by Liddi’s home baked birthday cake (successfully made in the roasting pan as the cake tins had gone missing!). Toni, Liddi and I were then in charge of dinner on Saturday night, which we all enjoyed. We had bought fresh smoked Whitby kippers which we had for breakfast on Sunday morning, together with scrambled eggs using fresh eggs that dad & Jacqui had picked up along the way.

After breakfast, we packed up everything and reluctantly left the lovely apartment and headed for Robin Hood’s Bay which is always a delight, especially as the tide was right out allowing us the chance to walk amongst the seaweed and rock pools on the beach. A bright, sunny day made it a great day for exploring, so we then headed for a lovely long drive following the River Ouse and across the picturesque North Yorkshire Moors, stopping for Sunday lunch along the way at a lovely pub where the food was fantastic and cheap too! All in all, it was a really great weekend and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. How will I top that for next year’s birthday??