Despite being told by a friend that 34 is a bit of a 'nothing birthday', the fact that it's winter over in London means that I think it's all the more important to make a bit of a fuss about a birthday that you're used to spending wafting about in the glorious heat of summer.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough that the terrible weather forecast didn't really arrive (think torrential rain etc.) and was instead gifted with a beautifully sunny and crisp day. To start with, I got the coveted front seat of the bus which meant I got a stunning 360 view of the Thames from my favourite bridge in London - Waterloo. You really get a sense of how the river bends from Waterloo Bridge, and you can see nearly all of the city's most iconic structures. Here's the view looking east where you can see St Pauls, and the Gherkin hiding behind the 'Cheese Grater' (love the random names of all the buildings):
The reason I got the bus in was because I'd made an Italian apple cake and didn't want to get it all mushed up in my panniers. Here's a half-finished shot of the cake - it took six apples and it was pretty delicious if I do say so myself!
After an extremely decadent lunch of leftover lobster mac'n'cheese from Christmas (which, when separated from all the other rich food we had at Christmas, was discovered to be insanely cheesy), it was time for a quick birthday visit to the bees. Fortunately our remaining hive is doing fine (no further sign of varroa which is great) and we're looking forward to seeing the entries to the beehive painting competition, due next Friday. Here's a birthday selfie I took from the roof looking south over the Thames where you can see the Shard in the background:
And then to top it all off, Adrian took me out for a fabulously fancy dinner at Roux at the Landau (in the Langham hotel in central London). We had a glass of champagne, delicious bread, an amuse bouche (cheesy choux buns), starter, main, dessert and petit fours (quince jelly, rum and raisin macaron and handmade chocolate). It was excellent and I would highly recommend it.
The final photo above includes a shot of Broadcasting House, the main BBC building on Regent Street. I've gone past it so many times but never really stopped to look. It looks great all lit up at night I thought.
So there you have it, a chronicle of a birthday. As I said to Adrian, hopefully by the time my next birthday rolls around I'll be a Dr! Viva timing dependent obviously, but here's hoping!
Fortunately, I was lucky enough that the terrible weather forecast didn't really arrive (think torrential rain etc.) and was instead gifted with a beautifully sunny and crisp day. To start with, I got the coveted front seat of the bus which meant I got a stunning 360 view of the Thames from my favourite bridge in London - Waterloo. You really get a sense of how the river bends from Waterloo Bridge, and you can see nearly all of the city's most iconic structures. Here's the view looking east where you can see St Pauls, and the Gherkin hiding behind the 'Cheese Grater' (love the random names of all the buildings):
The reason I got the bus in was because I'd made an Italian apple cake and didn't want to get it all mushed up in my panniers. Here's a half-finished shot of the cake - it took six apples and it was pretty delicious if I do say so myself!
After an extremely decadent lunch of leftover lobster mac'n'cheese from Christmas (which, when separated from all the other rich food we had at Christmas, was discovered to be insanely cheesy), it was time for a quick birthday visit to the bees. Fortunately our remaining hive is doing fine (no further sign of varroa which is great) and we're looking forward to seeing the entries to the beehive painting competition, due next Friday. Here's a birthday selfie I took from the roof looking south over the Thames where you can see the Shard in the background:
And then to top it all off, Adrian took me out for a fabulously fancy dinner at Roux at the Landau (in the Langham hotel in central London). We had a glass of champagne, delicious bread, an amuse bouche (cheesy choux buns), starter, main, dessert and petit fours (quince jelly, rum and raisin macaron and handmade chocolate). It was excellent and I would highly recommend it.
So there you have it, a chronicle of a birthday. As I said to Adrian, hopefully by the time my next birthday rolls around I'll be a Dr! Viva timing dependent obviously, but here's hoping!
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