The Big Four-Oh!

 

I turned 40 last Saturday.

Had a lovely day. 

I'm really not one for birthday celebrations, so I'd just planned to go sit in Jo's garden with cupcakes and a bottle of bubbly.

Little did I know that my mum had been covertly calling round all my friends to arrange a special surprise!

Jo said she'd pick me up at 11 a.m. to get lunch and go to her place. Only, due to cat issues, I was awake all night with Howl. I texted Jo around 5 a.m. telling her I didn't think I'd be ready by 11, then turned over and went back to sleep. I woke around 10:30 to a message from her saying, 'Um, I have a rather time-specific gift, you really need to get ready,' so I crawled out of bed and texted her updates from the shower, the wardrobe, and eventually the kitchen. She was waiting outside with her daughter and they whisked me off to KBC for 'coffee.' 

I started to get a bit suspicious when she took a detour round a furnishing department, making small talk about pillow cases and rugs for way longer than seemed natural. 

She was just waiting for my friends to arrive and set up the cupcakes and flowers, before leading me upstairs to the salon. It was so lovely. A really nice place called Muci. We just sat there getting manis and pedis, chatting away. So relaxing. I never paint my nails, but I let Zuba choose the colour and went for it. We scoffed the most delightful chocolate cupcakes and sipped coffee.

Muci Advertising Picture

Chantal, Solvejg, Jo & Zuba

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed on back to Jo's place for lunch,  joined by Jan and Gerry, who brought beautiful flowers from their garden. A wonderful Indonesian spread from Borneo, one of my favourite restaurants. Plenty of bubbly, and such a lovely cake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was just such a lovely day, spent with the loveliest ladies I know. Just sad that Maia wasn't able to be there as she's in Spain, but she did help my mum to organise things. Harris and Rob also called in to raise a glass via Zoom.

Got home just before the 7 p.m. curfew for a lovely Zoom with mum, dad, Marilyn, Merrick and Aunty Jean up in Carlisle.

 

Then rounded up with a glass of wine and a nice long natter to Maia, planning my round-the-world trip to see everyone once normality is finally reinstalled and everything returns to factory settings.

Really unexpected and lovely day - worth getting out of bed for.

We're having round three on Wednesday as the restaurants are reopening and we're going out for a meal.