Birthday Week W/E 15/10/23

This week has been quite an eventful one, as it was my 57th birthday this week. As a consequence, I ate out a few times, once with some friends, as we had one of our regular meet ups on Monday evening.  

We'd not actually met up for a while, I think the last time was the end of May, but we always enjoy catching up with each other's news. I tried to be a little careful what I ate, but I ate the dish I always eat, which is a vegetarian dish with rice. I'm a creature of habit and it is so tasty. It's a Persian dish made with Okra. I did have a glass of wine or two and went a little over my calories, but hey, life's for living and I'm usually pretty disciplined.

When I got home, a job that I've wanted for a while came up, so I made an application and I'm waiting on the outcome of that.

I was working one day this week, to finish off the temporary job I'd been hired to carry out. On that day, I finished by 3pm, so I got to leave early which was nice. It felt good to be free again and to know that I'd earned a good amount of money towards Xmas presents.

I had a lovely day on my birthday this week. I went to the gym and walked the dog in the morning, as I would normally and then LB came home in the afternoon and we all headed out to the local mall later for OH to buy me a couple of things that I wanted for my birthday and then for a meal afterwards. He bought me some new trainers and my favourite perfume, which I was very happy about, in addition to flowers and a big bottle of gin earlier.

I chose to go to Pizza Express this year for my birthday meal out, as it was weightloss journey friendly and gives calorific values of all the dishes. I chose one of their Leggera Pizzas, which has the middle cut out and filled with salad leaves. It was so tasty and the perfect amount of food. I went for the Padana, which is sweet caramelised onion and goats cheese. It tasted divine and was only 700 or so calories. I had a small glass of wine too and a piece of birthday cake back at home, plus a few chocolates, so I didn't totally deprive myself of enjoyment on the day and did indulge a little. 

The best thing, of course, was having LB home for the night and catching up with all her news from Uni. The best birthday treat of all.

The next day, LB stayed home until the afternoon and then headed back to Uni. I dropped her off at the station and then popped to Lidl to do a top up shop to last us until the end of the week. I then mended a jacket of OH's which had a broken zip. I had ordered a new zip from eBay and then swapped it out, so that he could carry on wearing it. It's not a perfect job, but it should keep it in use for a while longer.

At the end of the week we headed off to Yorkshire to visit family for a long weekend. I made sure to get an extra session in at the gym before we left. I had to renew my gym membership this week, which cost me £42. I have a Pay and Play type membership, where I pay an annual fee and then pay for each class as I book it.  The sessions I book only cost £2, so it works out quite inexpensive now I'm aged over 50.

On this visit to Yorkshire, we were actually staying on the south side of the Humber Bridge in North Lincolnshire, as the best value accommodation we could find was there. The cottage was beautiful. It was pretty old, dating from the17th century, with an interesting history and was a listed building, but had been converted beautifully. We really enjoyed staying there. The village was lovely and quiet, but with everything that we needed. There was even a fish and chip shop a couple of doors down, so supper when we got there was sorted. Staying there did mean crossing the Humber Bridge a number of times at £1.50 each time, but it still worked out way cheaper than renting available accommodation we liked north of the river Humber. It made a change for us too, as it was a new to us area to explore a little.

We caught up with OH's parents and my sister and her daughter, which was lovely. It did make me realise that I really could do with a longer break from London, maybe a week if possible at some point. It's just so restful to stay somewhere that is really quiet and allows you to get back to nature a little.

We returned to London on Monday. Despite having had a lovely weekend, it felt good to get home, as the weather had turned a lot colder and I hadn't really taken suitable clothing, so I felt a little cold most of the weekend. I was glad to get back to my quilts and jumpers. When I got back, I decided that it was definitely time to sew the binding onto the navy quilt that I made for LB's room. The perk of doing that, is that I can sit with it covering me as I stitch it, which is very cosy. I'll post a picture when it's completely finished and on the bed.

So, I had a lovely week this week, doing lovely things and catching up with friends and loved ones. I hope you had a good week.