Birthday outings

[shewhomust]

Since yesterday was my birthday, we went out for the day. We didn't exactly stick a pin in the map, but in much that spirit we took the advice of an advertising flier which had recently dropped onto the dormat, and went to Saltholme RSPB reserve. It was a grey day, not rainy as forecast, but very windy, and the reserve is flat wetland, very exposed, rather atmospheric, with the industrial silhouette of Teesside on the horizon, and some fine views of the Transporter Bridge. A short walk around the lake provided us with as much fresh air as we could manage, and we took ourselves to Hartlepool in search of seaside and lunch. Lunch in Hartlepool was never going to be easy, and we were pleased to stumble across Mary Rowntree's, a charming converted church. It has (as far as I can discover) no website, but some great reviews on TripAdvisor, so maybe we were just unlucky, but we had a very long wait for our mussels, and the staff didn't handle it well: instead of explaining or apologising, they started avoiding catching our eyes. We decided not to risk dessert, but came home and had biscuits with our cup of tea and Countdown - and later a very nice bottle of Corsican wine and a DVD.

All very pleasant, if not as spectacular as my birthday last year, which I spent in Santa Cruz. Nor the year before, when we spent the day walking along the Antrim coast to the Giant's Causeway, but I still haven't written about that (I should; I really should)...

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Belated many happy returns.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! If you decide you want to spend your birthday in Santa Cruz again, let us know.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? YOU MINX YOU NEVER SAID.

Does this mean that you'd rather not be wished a happy day on the Day? Because I have ways of remembering...

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

Nine

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thankyou!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you: you may recall that one of my birthday presents was a book of weekend trips from San Francisco - so I have lots of ideas for new places to visit next time!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't mind people remembering, and I don't mind people forgetting (I have completely blanked your birthday so far), but I'm not comfortable about issuing reminders...

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[cellio]

Happy birthday!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

It never rains in the summer here, and sometimes not even for most of the winter (we have dry and rainy seasons instead of the four regular ones), so almost any time the weather will be great. (Unless you like rain....)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I'm English: which means that I reserve the right to grumble about the rain (and everything else), but feel that there's something very wrong with not having any.

Nonetheless, thank you - we will take you up on this!