Birthday Round-Up

This time last week I was celebrating my 26^th birthday and as I said in my previous post, I had an awesome time. As I wait for tomorrow evening to conclude my birthday celebrations by having a meal out with my friend Vicky, I thought I would recount some highlights.

On the Tuesday, along with my mum and my brother Oli, we travelled to Bournemouth to see my Great Aunt as it was also her birthday. She was expecting a leisurely walk around some gardens and a nice lunch somewhere, but as Oli and I hadn’t been down to visit in such a long time, we had other plans.

Every year when we were little, we used to spend a week in August with her and our trip would never be complete without going to the quay and doing some crabbing. Yes you guessed it, on my birthday, we took a walk down memory lane and with our lines in one hand and a bucket and net in the other, we sat on the quay with some cheese and pickle sandwiches from the nearby beach café and went crabbing.

We caught 28 crabs in total, not quite beating our record of 100, but we had a lot of competition that day, including a couple of swans that took a shine to us.

We followed up our crabbing session with a delicious ice cream before heading back to have a buffet tea with two cakes! It was a lovely day and one I hope can be recreated again soon.

The next day was fairly chilled out with the exception of dashing to Street to buy a pair of nude court shoes to complete my look for dinner that evening. I knew my boyfriend was taking me out somewhere for a meal but I had no idea where. All I knew was that the dress code was smart casual, trainers were not allowed and if I took his teasing seriously, I could have been extremely overdressed for McDonalds.

We pulled up outside the Ston Easton Park Hotel and I was totally amazed, not only by the house and grounds surrounding me, but by what I was hearing about the chef, Martin Baker, who has worked with top chefs including Gordon Ramsay!

As we entered the lobby we were taken through to the lounge where we perused the menu. I ordered the ricotta gnocchi while Tom went for the roasted pork belly. The waiter then took our drinks through to the dining area.

The round table was dressed with a white table cloth with a candle and a bell jar covering some beautiful white alstroemerias. The waiter then proceeded to take the napkin and placed it over my lap.

As we waited for the mains to come out, we were presented with a slab of slate with three different kinds of bread still warm from the oven and when the main came out, so did my camera. It tasted just as delicious as it looked! I’m quite a quick eater, generally finishing before whoever I’m dining with, but I saved each and every mouthful.

When the plates were cleared, we ordered dessert and I chose the expresso coffee and roasted hazelnut bavarois with coffee ice cream and chocolate soil and when it came out, an even bigger smile appeared on my face as I saw the words happy birthday written in a white chocolate sauce – definitely Instagram worthy!

After our meal, we walked around the hotel admiring the art on the walls, the perfectly placed flowers and possibly my favourite room, the library, which was full of old books and had that romantic charm of a library you read about in the classic novels. We were even asked if we could find the secret compartments which we did with almost no help.

The evening ended with a stroll round the grounds and we even made a new friend, a fluffy, totally gorgeous cat, who could have quite easily come home with us.

I had a fabulous birthday full of surprises and I would like to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes. Also I would recommend both crabbing as it really is great fun for all the family and also a meal at Ston Easton Park Hotel as the property is absolutely stunning as well as the delicious food!