Celebrations for John's 60th

We spent John's actual birthday back at Luton Hoo, where we had our wedding. I think it has to be one of my most favourite places in the whole world and naturally it has such happy and romantic associations that I can't help but love being there. They made a tremendous fuss of us, Marje, the wedding organizer came out to great us and they brought us champagne to have with our sandwiches when we arrived and upgraded our room. Everyone kept wishing us a happy anniversary so we gave up explaining that it was still a month away and this was actually John's birthday. We stayed in a room we'd been in before, when we were organizing the wedding which has a beautiful view of the formal garden and a bathroom bigger than most people's living rooms. After a wonderful birthday supper, a good night's rest and a session in the pool and spa we headed to Rachel and Andrew's to be reunited with my side of the family and enjoy a curry and a catch up. We also had to admire Kirsty, who had been subjected to a professional grooming session from a lady who made her stand in a cage in the kitchen. Mum had been holding her nose to ensure there were no stray nips when combing the tricky bits and she looked very fetching!
Saturday morning we set off for Leysdown where we picked up Isobel and then made for the Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells where mum joined us for another birthday celebration. Hotel du Vin is always a bit quirky but fun too and the food is great so we all had a nice dinner, a huge breakfast and a few celebratory glasses. Our trips to the UK always seem to involve huge amounts of delicious food and drink and I return to Abu Dhabi with a distinctly tight feeling in the clothing department and need to go back to the cereal bar and fruit regime to ensure that I don't have to repair too many zips and replace too many buttons!