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The Big Three-Five

I’ve just celebrated a major birthday. Turning 35 really bugged me and I don’t know why. It kind of felt like New Years, when I tend to reflect on what I have/haven’t done etc. I really feel ancient because now, the 80s are officially considered retro. A shoe shop had a big display of its new line of retro shoes—which meant hot pink stilettos and the shade of bright green that will only go with one or two outfits. But, RETRO! 80s! OK, I’m getting off on a tangeant here.

But as far as birthdays go, it was alright. My son was nice to me, I got to sleep in til 6:30 AM (luxury!) and it was a pretty typical morning. G had the day off. I didn’t get any pressies but that was totally OK as I buy myself litttle treats during the year, and I don’t go out anymore so don’t need a lot of clothes, and I have books that I haven’t read yet so didn’t feel like buying any books so it wasn’t a big deal to not get any pressies. I could be really cheeky and put together an Amazon wishlist for people to buy me presents but does that really work anyway?—and I just couldn’t be that crass. We decided to go to Manchester by train, as G needed to go to the jeweller where we got our wedding rings from to see if his could be repaired so we thought we’d better do that while we had the chance. So we went after J’s nap and after we had lunch. J was a bit shell shocked on the train but seemed to relax when he discovered that he wasn’t strapped into his car seat :) We just had a walk around, we didn’t buy much at all which proves that we’re more “browsers” than “shoppers”. But to be honest Manchester felt really grubby; it had the really posh stores like Harvey Nichols and suchlike but walking down by the Oxford Road train station it just felt like Manchester consisted of grubby takeaways and pubs. We haven’t been to Manchester for ages but we don’t really feel the need to go back for a while if you know what I mean. A few hours there was enough, J was starting to get grumpy. We went to Marks and Spencer in Warrington to buy some nibbles (spring rolls, chicken wings, that sort of thing) instead of going out to eat which was nice and I felt relaxed by doing that, and just hanging out. I fed J, gave him a bath and put him to bed then we sat and nibbled and watched a bit of telly. I didn’t get a cake but we bought some chocolate mousse and some pannacotta (which is like a thick vanilla custard dessert topped with rasp. sauce) from M and S which was a treat so that was a good compromise.

So now it’s been back to reality. I haven’t been able to get out in my garden much because of the rain but it appears that the slugs and snails haven’t ravaged it—yet!