Blimey where to start?!

Ah well let's go back to the big birthday... I spent the day at Champneys spa in Forest Mere which was bloody ruddy fantastic. Just pure luxury all day. We arrived in the morning and immediatly were handed white, fluffy robes which we then wore for the rest of the day. We swam, steamed, jacuzzied, cycled (not in the robe for that part!), sunbathed, got massaged, listened to talks and gorged ourselves on healthy-but-very-tasty buffet food.

I went with Den because it really wasn't Nick's cup of tea and it was just brilliant. Guess which celeb we saw there? Only Helen Mirren! The Queen no less. In the evening I went out with Nick for a thai meal to Mango's, a really cute little restaurant in Southampton. So a good 30th birthday and just what I fancied after weeks of grotty DIY.

Then it was back to working on the house, work work work blah blah for a couple of days before a weekend up in Berwick Upon Tweed with our friends Bob & Miles. There were about 17 of us in their huge, regal house all there to have a great time and they didn't disappoint. They cooked for all of us on the first night in true formal dinner party style, we played croquet at a manor house on the second day and finally all went to see Re-Take That. It was Bob's 30th and Miles had booked the band to play at the local theatre where he's the artistic director, all for her benefit. What a guy! Steve came with us in the Enema (new car) thank God to share the 9 hour drive there and back. So anyway a great weeked with such lovely people. There was much drinking, clubbing in dodgy clubs and eating of toast and cake.

Following that it was back to the grind of daily DIY, dust and plaster yada yada. Then the weekend following that one was again another cracker with a trip up to London to see James & Donna and stay with them in their lovely house. I managed to get to the Royal Academy to see the opening of their Waterhouse retrospective which was wonderful and magical in equal parts, and I also went on an afternoon hen party for my friend SJ who is getting married next month. We met up at a Pottery Cafe in Fulham to paint jugs then went back to Tania's flat for afternoon tea and a game of All Star Mr & Mrs featuring SJ & Mike on video! After a lovely afternoon I met up with James & Donna again and the 4 of us had a barbecue. It was swelteringly hot and the tube was unbearable which was the only downer.. I just could not handle London every day.

On Sunday afternoon we left them and drove up to Suffolk to see Leni, Dom & Huckleberry at their cottage in the countryside. Dom had built a homemade hot tub in the garden which involved a fire, pump, pipes and a large water tank. It worked really well! They are so clever at that sort of thing. Little Huck had grown up loads and was brilliant fun, and even Squeak the cat kind of behaved. He wasn't quite as wild as last time we saw him. We stayed with them for 2 nights and now we're back in Southampton after the WORST M25 drive I have ever experienced. Some big accident with a lorry on fire and 3 hours extra added on to our journey on one of the hottest days of the year. Cheers.

I've spent the last couple of days bagging up loads of rubble and taking them down to the recycling centre. Lots of patio slabs and bricks as well. Hot, tiring, sweltering work if I'm honest. The good news is that while we were away a guy called Dave has taken down the wall between our kitchen and our dining room and put in a very neat, boxed in steel beam to keep the ceiling from falling down. Also a guy called Toby has dug up our entire driveway with a mini digger, put in a soil pipe and filled it in again. The driveway now looks like shit but it means we will be able to have a shit under the stairs with a proper drainpipe. Hurrah!

It's Nick's birthday on Saturday so I'm looking forward to that, we're going up to Salibury for a party at Alex & Jess's house which is in fact for Alex's 30th (2 days after Nick's) so we are going to totally gatecrash and make it a joint party. I might even sneak in a cake...