I wouldn’t normally post about my birthday week, but I had such a gloriously varied one that I thought it was worth recording.
So, my birthday was on Tuesday the 20th of January — my 64th. I woke up to some lovely presents and cards from friends and family (although cards continued to arrive for the next five days). Sue then went off volunteering, and I prepped the car for our trip to Wales to see Ben. Ben had mistakenly sent some plastic jerry cans to us, and they were a bit of a trial to get into the boot. However, we managed, and we set off on a well-travelled route to Wales.
We went via Uptons, where I had a birthday sausage roll for breakfast, and we took pork pie, salad, and cake to Ben’s for lunch. (Sue did try to get a gluten-free option for Sam (the Fungi Folks Production Manager), but they had nothing appropriate.) After gorging on an outrageous caramel shortbread and enjoying a good chat with Ben, we saw his recently tidied study, which was looking great.
We then set off to see Ant at The Sustain Theatre in The Wentwood. It’s always a fascinating place to visit, as we had another look around and a good chat about his website that I am doing … here. He is a fascinating guy to talk to and is planning to get a café set up soon. The Goshawk Coffee … another website coming soon!
We then retired to the warmth of a pub in Chepstow and recharged the car. After that, we nipped back to the farm to give Ben a lift to collect his car, which had been in for a service at a garage in Caldicot. We then headed straight to Bristol, as Ben was treating us to a special meal out. Sue had planned ahead and booked an Airbnb in Bristol, just 130 yards from the restaurant, so we could all relax rather than drive back into Wales.
We checked in, chilled for a bit, and then went for a quick glass of Crémant in the wine bar very close to the restaurant. It was lucky everything was so close, as Ben was a bit unprepared for staying away and was still in his work clothes — including his Crocs … lovely!
We went to a Korean restaurant called Dongnae. I have to say this is probably up there with the best two restaurants I have ever eaten in. We went for the set menu and also the wine flight. I have to say it’s the best wine flight I’ve ever had (I’ve only ever had three), and it was perfectly matched with the food — in particular, the orange wine (a first for me) with the chicken wings. The sommelier was great: very unpretentious and enthusiastic. Ben mentioned he’d had the wagyu beef last time, and it was an option on the menu, so we opted for that — not noticing it was £25 per head extra 
. Oops, sorry Ben. It was fantastic though; every mouthful had to be savoured!!
Here are a few images from the restaurant.
We got up the next morning , after a poor nights sleep (I’m blaming the flight of wine), Ben left first closely followed by Sue and I. We needed a bit more charge on the car so we stopped at a service station to grab a coffee. By the time we got back in the car it was charged enough to set off for Southampton.
We had, outrageously, decided to stop at Uptons to have a breakfast… as if we needed more food.
We chilled out the rest of the day ready for our next adventure.
Thursday was the day of Sam and Harriet’s graduation for their Diploma of Psychology from Sussex University. We had booked into The Grand on Brighton seafront. The ceremony was 4pm and so we arrived at the hotel just before 2pm so we could suss the hotel out a bit.
We went for valet parking, which worked a treat. We just arrived at the hotel, unpacked, handed the keys over and “Bob’s your Uncle”, the car was driven away. It was only about £8 more than parking it ourselves at the nearest NCP.
We were also rather pleased to learn that the ceremony was in the Brighton Centre…. right next door to the hotel. Perfect!
We went in and met Sam, Harriet and her Dad at about 3pm, grabbed a coffee and had a chat and then we went into the auditorium in good time for the ceremony. Sam and Harriet went and grabbed our tickets ( which they had kindly paid for). Unbeknown to us, Sanjeev Bhaskar (of Goodness Gracious Me fame) is the Chancellor of the University, so his speeches at the beginning and the end of the occasion were quite entertaining. Everything ran pretty much like clockwork. Sam and Harriet collected their degrees and moved from being a graduand to graduates ( they obviously were already but …. ). We got lots of good photos, Sue’s is the best !
After the ceremony we grabbed a large taxi with an even larger driver and got a lift to the pub , Busby and Wilds, where we were to have a celebration meal. Catherine joined us with the dog and we had a lovely meal.
