'Tempus Fugit' & All that....

Well - talk about 'Time Flies'!!! It seems I've only just turned around & we've been & come back & celebrated two birthdays & a wedding to boot!!

Since I last posted, we have been to what was supposed to be a surprise 40th birthday party, but turned out to be a surprise wedding party instead!! Talk about turning the tables, a most excellent double bluff, only the bride & groom knew until minutes before the civil ceremony & all of us party guests were in the dark until the evening!! This was Friday evening & a good time was had by all!

On Saturday we set off for Hereford in glorious sunshine & arrived late afternoon. Lee spent the evening setting up his Mums new PC in readiness for the man coming to install Broadband on Monday morning. We sat on her balcony in the evening sunshine & as the sun went down the sky was lit up with a fabulous fireworks display! The three choirs festival is taking place in Hereford this year & we think these fireworks were part of the celebrations!

On Sunday I took the boys to visit my Dad, since we lost Mum in '94 I've kept in contact with him, but don't see him very often. We all just seemed to move on in different directions, distance & family politics have both played their part! He's not seen my boys since they were very small, so it was nice for them to put a face to 'Gramps'!! He has since remarried but I've not met his wife - families can be strange things can't they?!! Anyway after we'd spent an hour or so there we visited my Mums grave, she is buried at the church that Lee & I were married in, so it's a happy place - my only regret is she never knew my boys!

Monday, I spent with Rosemary - we had quality girlie time!! We went into town & stopped for coffee & a gossip, then we drove to Malvern for some retail therapy. We took her VW Beetle convertible & had the top down - I love this!! On our way back though we only just managed to get the top (electric thankfully!!) back up in time to miss a torrential downpour!!

We would have looked like a pair of drowned rats & definitely uncool!!
Tuesday was the BIG day!! My birthday AND Alex's birthday! He became a teenager & I.........well, I did not!!!!!

We had booked to visit Cadbury World & we set off on another sunny day to Bournville, Birmingham. I have never been, although I love Cadbury chocolate & remember that as a child at primary school, I would compete for academic prizes of Cadbury chocolate biscuits in commemorative tins! They must have sponsored some kind of educational programme. Anyway, back to the present!!

On arrival, we were immediately given free chocolate buttons & Curly Wurlys (How great is that!!) & as we progressed around the exhibits & factory tour more samples came our way! Lee & Alex stashed theirs away, but Nathan & I (like Mother like Son!!) munched away on ours as we walked around ooohing & aaahing at the displays & mountains of boxes of chocolate products stacked in the packing plant!!


My favourite bits were the historic exhibits - about the Cadbury family & how it all started. A close second was the final 'experience' where we got to choose whatever sweet we wanted & had it given to us in a small cup of liquid 'Dairy Milk' chocolate - pure heaven!!

The boys loved the outdoor playground and the 'Purple Planet' zone, which had loads of interactive stuff. They could design wrappers, check out facts about where in the world ingredients were sourced, plant (digitally) & nurture a cocoa tree to harvest, have a photo of themselves as chocolate statues, play 'maze' games, jump on moving cream egg images to try & splatter them, and their absolute favourite - using their shadows to catch, bounce & collect falling 'chocolate buttons' on a white screen!

Once all these activities had been done, we got to visit the factory shop - Oh yes!! It was magic! We resisted all the tat (although I did buy a fridge magnet!) & concentrated instead on stocking up on chocolate supplies!! We came away with a box of no less than SIXTY - yes 60!!! Curly Wurly's & various other Cadbury products, all at great discounts!!

Needless to say my weight loss plan has taken a back seat for the moment!!

The boys were disgusted that they weren't allowed to rip open the boxes on the way back to Hereford in the car!! But we really had, all of us, had enough chocolate for one day!!

Well maybe not quite enough!! As at teatime we lit the candles on Alex's chocolate birthday cake!! Ah well it just has to be done!! This was when we both got to open up our cards & presents & all I can say is that we were both thoroughly spoiled!

In the evening we went out for a pub meal with family & as there was supposed to be a meteor shower visible in the night sky at 10.30pm, we sat out in the pub garden with our coffee's but we didn't see anything! Too cloudy maybe?!!

Anyway, home again, and we have unpacked our goodies & dirty laundry & each of us has spent the afternoon in our favourite spots - for me in my scrap space, catching up with emails, blogs etc!!

And of course it's Wednesday... so here is my WOYWW photo - my desk is so untidy where things have just been dumped since we came in!! You can see the punch & edging scissors the boys gave me as birthday gifts & some cards that were on the doormat as we came in, still waiting to be opened - lovely, it just makes the birthday last that little bit longer!!