On getting older...

Yes, this weekend I had a birthday, and not for the first time either!! My mother has taken to telling people I'm younger than I am, which is either because she is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's or because she doesn't think she's old enough to have a 23 year old daughter...

Thankfully my birthday fell on a weekend, since there can be little more depressing than working on your birthday. Unfortunately, it also fell on the same day as the first England match in the World Cup. Now, not being a football fan (in fact, I would describe myself as the opposite), this was more than slightly irritating. To combat football fever, I decided to organise the opposite of hot sweaty men in a pub: an afternoon in a spa! Anne Marie and I went off up to London to the Athenaeum Hotel & Apartments on Picadilly, and had a lovely afternoon being pampered! I found a cheapy deal on lastminute.com so for about £32 each we had a massage, a manicure and full use of the spa facilites! We skipped the gym, it being somewhat too hot, and lounged around in our bikinis and dressing gowns, mooching between the jacuzzi, the massage room and the very posh dressing room. It was a glorious way to spend the afternoon, and not a football hooligan in sight!

After lovely dinner with Phil at the Inn on the Lake in Godalming, on the Sunday I held a barbecue at my house. Little did I know how stressful hosting stuff is! So much running around and mingling! It was fun, although far too hot, and I got lots of lovely presents. There is a definite "travelling" theme in my presents, in that I got an Italy DK guide, a "Europe by Rail" book and a Greek Phrasebook (kalispera!), so I'm all set for my travels in Europe in August. The money from the aborted Kenya trip has just reached my account, so I'm almost back to where I started...Just need to hassle the flight people into giving me my money back and I'll be done. Quite weird really, but I'm really excited about going to Italy and Greece with AM and Caroline. Although, if it continues to be this hot..... definitely going to purchase a floppy straw hat!