We have had the loveliest of birthday celebration weekends.

We went down to Cambridge on Friday after I had finished work and made such good time that we were there for 6:30!! We expected Gareth to be there. But not Tabitha, who works late on Friday evenings. We had gone armed with copious quantities of wine, and plans for a visit to one of the city pubs for dinner.

To our great pleasure (though I suspect not hers at the time) the store manager had rung her at about 9:00 in the morning and said there was a training emergency (how, I ponder, can you have a training emergency!) and pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeez could she go in. So she scrambled out of bed, threw some clothes on, commandeered Gareth’s bicycle and hot-pedalled it to her store. This meant that she was free to come home early (I suspect this bit did please her) and come to the Boathouse for dinner with us.

I love the Boathouse. It doesn’t pretend to do anything other than pub food – but the pub food it does is very good indeed. I’m trying to work out a way of getting it closer to me. Only that would involve moving the Cam as well. Which seems a trifle beyond my engineering capabilities. And may also slightly annoy the good folk of Cambridge who are probably quite fond of their river.

Not too late for bed, for we needed to be up fairly early on the Saturday. The four of us were going to London for the day.

The plan was to drive to Redbridge station in Ilford and take the tube into central London. Sadly, I had noticed some time ago that I had lost my Oyster card*. I had intended to buy a new one, but Gareth had a spare which he said I could have. Somehow, I managed to misplace that even before we had gone to the Boathouse. Not sure I’m a fit guardian for an oyster card! Fortunately, Gaz found it again (it had fallen down the side of the settee) and we set off for London Town.

First stop, Starbucks so Taffa could have a latte. Next stop, the Black Horse pub off Oxford Street, where they do fabulantastic fish and chips. And then on to the British Museum, where I had tickets for us all to go to the Moctezuma Aztec exhibition. I really enjoyed the exhibition (although it was still a bit crowded for me – must remember when we go to the next extravaganza to go mid-week!). Roger points out to me that the Aztec regime was reprehensible and rather gruesome. There is no arguing with that. But so were many medieval regimes. They may not have been quite as big on human sacrifice, but they had lots of other good reasons for dedding people! Anyway. I though the exhibition was great.

We had a quick side trip to Covent Garden so Tabitha could look for a necklace, then made our way back through the hideously crowded underground back to Redbridge and on back to Cambridge.

But what, as we were walking from Bloomsbury to Covent Garden, was causing all the bubbles we could see floating about in the air? Couldn’t see any source for the bubbles. Until we walked around a traffic jam, and found a van advertising a handy company – which had a bubble machine attached and was attracting attention to itself by churning out loads and loads and loads of bubbles. It was ever so cute.

I wonder if I could have a bubble machine for The Vixen?

You may remember that when we were last in Cambridge we tried to book a table at The Plough in Fen Ditton for Sunday lunch, and the earliest we could book was into the evening. I was determined that we were going to have my Birthday Lunch at The Plough and had booked a table earlier in the week (although even then I couldn’t have it until 1:30). I won’t describe the meal here (you’ll find a description on the food blog http://iansfoodies.blogspot.com/) but it was certainly worth making the effort to get a table. We had a long, leisurely birthday lunch, then made our way to Taffa’s Sainsbury’s to get a few things. And it was raining, and windy and cold and dark – so we decided not to head home that evening. I am on the evening shift at work today, so there was no hurry to get back home. We repaired to the Carlton so Gareth could practise his darts skills. I practised too. I’m not very good, I fear. I don’t think I’d be allowed to play with the team that Gaz plays with.

So all in all, it was a very celebratory weekend. And today I have had lots of text messages and birthday cards and messages on Facebook. A good birthday :-)

* Similar to the forthcoming Myki card system in Melbourne

In the Carlton, Sunday evening:







And in the Plough, on Sunday afternoon: