#6 – Buy roasted chestnuts from a street vendor

There was a queue of people around the roasted chestnuts stand, we had waited all day to return there to enjoy them and the delicious smell of Christmas chestnuts was filling the air.  It was all set to be a successful addition to the birthday list!  With my little paper bag filled with hot freshly roasted chestnuts I posed for a photo beside the stand and then we excitedly bit in.  Having never experienced roasted chestnuts before I had no real idea what to expect… what a disappointment!  They tasted like strangely cooked, or un-cooked, potatoes and despite my determination to at least eat the whole of one of them the last bit ‘accidentally’ fell out of my hand… it did NOT get replaced!  Oh well, at least I now know that I do not like roasted chestnuts, but sad to have had that Christmas illusion popped!

#5 – Visit a Christmas market

The Christmas market in Bath city centre is spread across a few different areas around and about the Abbey and the main shopping area.  We started off the day with the stalls along Bath Street before getting ‘distracted’ with the carousel and Sally Lunns.  All the different stalls were so interesting and sold some lovely stuff.  It all had a wonderful Christmas feel to it and this was probably my first time of starting to feel festive this year.

But, if I’m really truly honest my main motivation was FREE samples of food.  Basically, if it was on offer we tasted! J  Amongst the tastes enjoyed was a wonderfully rich fudge – where Ann got ‘caught’ going for the biggest piece but I got away with squeezing 2 pieces together to make a better chunk; Yorkshire punch – non alcoholic and sugar free!; and various mayonnaisey type dips with bread sticks or nik naks – some with definite chilli attitude to them.  I did draw the line at the chilli chocolate though since I already knew I was not a fan... but Ann and Emily both tasted it so it did still get a tasting. 

 

The market was very very crowded and normally I get pretty stressed with that sort of crowd, but I was too busy having fun and eating lots and lots of unhealthy yummy foods without spending any money to care!

#4 – Eat a Sally Lunns bun

Sally Lunn’s is a famous tea house in the centre of Bath and is home to the famous speciality Bath bun... http://www.sallylunns.co.uk/.  Sally Lunn was a young French refugee who arrived in England over 300 years ago. She found work at what is now known as Sally Lunn's House and began to bake a bread bun now known as the Sally Lunn Bun. This bun became a very popular delicacy in Georgian England as its special taste and lightness allowed it to be enjoyed with either sweet or savoury accompaniments.  

 

Despite living in Bath for 4 years I had never actually eaten there so we decided it was time to give it a try.  It was a busy December Saturday in Bath and we were worried that the queues would be too long but we were lucky and when we arrived we only had to wait a few minutes to be seated.  Much to my excitement we were seated upstairs in the Jane Austen room.  As we waited to be seated I noticed a quote on the wall from Russell Grant that the Cinnamon Butter bun was the best he had ever tasted…  Despite who the recommendation came from it was still the most appealing menu item as I am a sucker for all things cinnamon, and so it was the bun which I chose and a tea to go with it.  It was delicious!!!  The tea was even loose leaf rather than tea bag... just wish I’d noticed that tea strainer on the side before I poured!  On top of the good food and tea the company was also excellent. 

 

After a successful eat and drink it was wonderful as we left to see the now much, MUCH longer queue of people waiting for a seat.  A wonderfully smug feeling knowing they were waiting far longer than we did on top of a wonderfully satisfied stomach.

#3 – Ride a carousel

Walking through Bath city centre and there was a big carousel.  As we walked past it, my friend Ann suddenly decided that this should be on my 40 things list, and that I should ride the carousel.  It took no convincing whatsoever.  I don’t actually remember the last time I rode a carousel and the skirt was perhaps not the best item of clothing to be wearing but, none the less, with leggings on to keep me decent, I paid my £2 and climbed on to a fancy looking horse with a big cheesy grin on my face.  Amusingly I think there were more adults riding than children!  As the ride got moving the grin just kept growing.  Not only did I enjoy feeling like a big kid and pretending to do giddy up with the horse but I had an amazing view up and down a packed Bath High Street. I normally get quite stressed in busy areas so it was wonderful to feel like I was still in the middle of it and yet moving without a fight – even if I was just moving round and round.  It was so much fun and it felt like such a shame when the horse began to slow and I had to climb off.  But the great feeling from it definitely stuck with me!

Birthdayweek

I am a big believer in eeking out birthday celebrations to their maximum potential as a single day is just never enough!  And so I like to have not just ‘birthday’ but ‘birthweek’.  This year my birthday fell on a Monday so I had a whole weekend to enjoy celebrations ahead of the big day!  …and quite a few days afterwards as well…

Celebrations began on Friday evening when I met up with two good friends for a meal in Uxbridge – a vaguely midway meeting point.  We had been talking about meeting for some time and the chances of coinciding diaries was looking slim so it was exciting that we managed to get our dates to coincide for my birthday weekend.  Since none of us knew the area we had looked online and gone with the recommendations there.  Finding parking was our first adventure after the road suddenly became pedestrianised with no clear signs of other options.  Then, finding our way out of the parking to the High Street proved to be more of a challenge than expected.  But we managed and got to the restaurant to discover it wasn’t exactly what we had expected.  Slightly more burger joint than restaurant, but…  the food was good and we enjoyed ourselves catching up with each other both there and at a pub afterwards, and it was a great start to my weekend.

Saturday was to be a lunch meal with my family which would also see the Brazilian churrascaria marked off on my celebrations list.  I woke up feeling tired and groggy but I’m never exactly a morning person(!!!) so I just figured that given time I would wake up.  I was wrong!  And by 11.30am I was being sick with a terrible migraine.  Somehow I still managed to get myself into London and to the restaurant, though later than our arranged meet time, but was sadly unable to eat more than a few chips and a bit of chicken.  So as a listed celebration this is a do-over.  A Churrascaria without eating a sizeable quantity of meat just isn’t an acceptable Churrascarian experience!  But as a definite highlight my nephew was delightful and very excited about Aunty Faith’s party.  He had me grinning when he suddenly ran round to me and declared “kiss, kiss, happy birthday Aunty Faith”, and let me kiss the top of his head before he was off again.

It was great to get back to my brother’s flat and be able to relax a bit more on the sofa and work on feeling a little more human.  Nathaniel had agreed to help Aunty Faith open her gifts, and a very good helper he was too.  Though it didn’t stop my jaw seriously hitting the floor when faced with the generosity of my amazing family for my birthday!  Of course for Nathaniel there is only one real ingredient to any serious birthday celebration… cake!  And there he was kind enough to help me too! :)

On Sunday I got to celebrate with my church.  Unfortunately I was still feeling really bad in the morning but after a lunch time visit from my soon to be neighbour Corinna I began to perk up.  And by the time of dinner at the end of Church I was actually able to eat something! Yay!  It was lovely to share my birthday with my friends and special to be sharing my celebration with Lucy who is sadly moving away and us.  By the end of the evening I was feeling that ‘project birthday celebrations’ was definitely back on track.

Monday, my actual birthday, and I finally felt totally well again.  So I celebrated by having a non-forced duvet day.  I finally had the energy to work on setting up my new gifts and enjoying them.  It was a lovely chilled day ahead of going out for dinner with the ‘Chestnut’ girls in the evening.  After more than a year of living in the area we finally got to check out the Chinese restaurant which I have driven / run / walked past sooo many times and wondered what it was like.  Not the chicest joint perhaps but the food was great and I got to wish happy birthday to another girl celebrating there who was lucky enough to have the same great birthday as me!

Back to work on Tuesday and one of my colleagues had been talking about doing something at lunch.  But that morning she was very quiet about the subject and others in the office were behaving EVEN stranger than normal!  I knew something was going on and guessed why so I obediently sat quietly at my desk patiently waiting for all to be revealed...  I was blindfolded, led into my boss’s office and asked to identify the smell… instant answer… CHOCOLATE!!!  No chance I’m not recognising that smell!  And what an amazing sight as the blindfold came off - a chocolate fountain and bowls of strawberries, bananas and giant marshmallows!  That was one delicious lunch, even if I did feel a little bit queasy afterwards.  Definitely a happy queasy!!!  I felt truly spoiled!

I didn’t feel quite ready to be done with birthday and after the Tuesday chocolate fountain I didn’t feel quite ready for birthday cakes for the office that day either.  So the birthday had to run into Wednesday when that became cake day.  So I managed 6 consecutive days of birthday celebrations.  But with a list of 40 things to complete, and only 2 completed so far, my celebrations are most certainly not over yet!!!

#2 – Tennis match

It seems to have become a bit of a birthday tradition that my brother and Louise get me tickets to something for my birthday.  This was the second year that it was a tennis match at the O2 for the ATP Masters final event and I was really looking forward to it.  We had our tickets but you only find out the line up a few days ahead of the match.  I was checking each day in an attempt to find out hoping it would be Federer or Murray.  So in all honesty I was a little disappointed when I found out that our singles match was Ferrer v Del Potro.  I knew of both of them but wasn’t especially a fan of either.  But this is the Master’s final after all so, of course, they are both great tennis players and we were in for a greater match than I anticipated.

I made it through a day at work and for once left the office with incredible punctuality and headed to the tube full of excitement for the evening ahead.  After meeting the others under the baubles we headed on the long trek to the other end past the practice courts, which were sadly empty, and went through to our seats.  Throughout the doubles match the atmosphere was building as the seats filled up around the arena.  Victory to Paes and Stepanek and on to the big singles match.  Out came Ferrer and Del Potro both in slightly bright fluorescent shirts which was quite a stress to the eyes as I made the continual criss cross along the court as they pounded the ball between them.  Even though I was not an especial fan of either I had decided to cheer for Ferrer throughout the match.  But that became harder to stick to throughout the match.  Not because Ferrer wasn’t playing well – not at all!  But because both players were playing so well and it was hard to see either of them lose after such incredible play.  In the end Ferrer won through but Del Potro had also managed to make me a fan. 

 

What a great evening - tennis at the O2 never fails to please!  And I’m so pleased to hear that they have extended the contract for the ATP Masters final staying in England...  here’s to repeating the experience next year!

#1 – Bumper Cars

My first celebration to be checked off on the list …although technically speaking this celebration was completed before the 40 things list was written and before I had even had the idea to do this.  But I still wanted to include it in my list as it was a significant celebration for me.  It was during my holiday back home in Brazil this September and, well, Brazil was a fairly significant part of my life up to reaching 40 years and the Thomas family are pretty significant for me too! 

At Iguatemi shopping centre one afternoon with Peter, Selma, Danny and Isabella after eating a nice lunch we headed towards Candy Play supposedly for the benefit of the children.  Peter and the kids had gone on ahead.  As Selma and I slowly walked over Danny came rushing back to find me and asked me if I wanted to go on the bumper cars with him.  Now I know how much Danny loves doing that kind of thing with his dad so I was quite surprised and asked Danny did his dad not want to go on with him?  Danny responded: “But I want to go on with you”.  Well, like I was going to say no to an invitation like that from my gorgeous Danny!!!

I don’t remember the last time I went on bumper cars and as I sat in the little car I realised that I had no clue how to drive the thing.  But with directions being thrown at me from Peter on the side and from Danny as he repeatedly crashed into me giggling loudly I soon got the hang of it, and bumper war was declared between me and Danny.  Many bumps and much laughter later we were both disappointed when the cars slowed to a stop.  But we certainly had a lot of fun while it lasted.  My legs felt a bit like jelly and my arms ached for a short while afterwards but they were scars that brought a smile to my face.  They reminded me how much fun I had had and what a special moment it had been for me when Danny asked me to go on the bumper cars with him.  Can’t help but love that boy!