Happy birthday to me!!!!!!

Hello, there are a million things going on in our home at the moment, mostly good, some that we will wait and see what happens. But one thing that happened this week was it was my birthday on Sunday...... (This could be a long post, best go and get some coffee, tea, water, wine? and get comfy!) So, because my fella (that is an official alternative title to "partner", hes not my husband, he says he is too old to be "boy" friend, and he also says "partner" makes him feel like a cowboy!) is completely AMAZING he took me to Carcassone in France for 3 nights! The castle is huge - huge enough to form the outer walls of the old city, people actually still live inside the walls - can you imagine that? they have to be really good drivers to get up and down the streets that were made for knights on horses! There are so many stories and so many photos to show, i'm not sure where to start or finish! we started our journey by driving to Dublin, we had dinner at The Porthouse which is a Tapas bar (thanks Cathy for introducing me to it!) but something strange happened there - I had never tasted calamary or the particular wine we had, I didn't like either and only had a bare taste but I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic. I was convinced that I couldnt' go to France for the silliest reasons, I am claustrophobic and thought that I would suffocate on the plane, also that my children couldnt be on their own while I was gone ( the eldest is 20!) In general it was a total panic that I can only put down to the food........... a horrible feeling, poor Tim, I woke him up at 4am to say he would have to go alone!!!! Still in the morning, all was calm again and off we went. I didn't suffocate - I have alot of visualisation techniques for plane travel, its not the flying it sharing that space with so many others! Also, this is sooooooo stupid - I got a copy of Cloth, paper, scissors in Dublin. I've never found it at home, I was so excited and decided to not even open the cover untill I was on the plane. On the plane I opened my bag to find.... that i'd left it in the hotel!!! but the trip was far too good for that to matter... Anyway, we spent 3 days travelling from Chateaux to castles to Abbeys, taking hundreds of photos and eating delicious food. The whole thing was fabulous!!!!!! But there is more!......... Look at this!!! no not the Gorge or the mountains or the sunshine..... look what is around my neck! Once, ages ago I mentioned to Tim that Gwynnie B had this necklace that I was going to treat myself to..... guess what he had for me on my birthday????! I know, reading this you may be thinking I am thoroughly spoilt, I think I am too! but I honestly totally appreciate everything that I have, I am one very happy 42 year old!!!! xxxxx