Surprises.

This weekend signalled a very special birthday for my mum, so at half past one on Friday afternoon I set off home in order to surprise her. I bought a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts at London Bridge and the Times plus free book at Euston. The train was somewhat delayed in setting off due to the 'adverse weather conditions', but eventually we made it out of the station. I spent the London - Chester train in the depths of my Thomas Hardy book and some serious snow admiration as the train whizzed through the blanketed countryside. At Chester I paid the city centre a brief visit, where I bought an extra birthday present in our favourite shop, Liberty Bell. The salesman and I had a very nice conversation; apparently his daughter completed her MA degree at London School of Publishing and absolutely hated it.
I arrived back in Colwyn Bay around half five and Nathan met me at the station. We went back to his house for a while, where we played with his new puppy Pepe/Dexter and watched an episode of Scrubs.
Eventually I decided it was high time that I carried out Operation Surprise! to the full, so we set off for my house. Nathan rang the doorbell and I hid behind him, making the most of his height. Just as my mum was saying, "Hello Nathan! It's nice to see you!" I popped out and gave her the shock of her life. :) A large amount of stunned silence followed and eventually we were ushered into the house. (Rest of the evening = shock continuation, catching up, more guests and party tea #1)

On Saturday my mum and I woke up early and after a Krispy Kreme breakfast we drove to Manchester to collect my dad from the airport. The journey was quick and we arrived back in Colwyn Bay before twelve. At 2 the rest of the family went and played tennis and I waited for Hannah and Vicki to arrive. When they did, we walked into Rhos-on-Sea on an unsuccessful gift hunt. It was very, very cold and we were glad when we finally arrived back at the house. We spent an hour or so in the kitchen, amusing ourselves with an orange, plastic ball, some cake and a fancy dress pipe♥. Later, after H+V had left, we went out for a birthday meal at the Bistro in Conwy. I had a lot of fun giggling around with Josh and attempting to take pretty pictures of the birthday girl with my camera. AND the food was delicious.

Sunday was my mum's birthday proper, so I woke early to make her a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, I was beaten to it by my dad, so I was reassigned to hot-water bottle filling and breakfast arranging. We had a party lunch (#3) and my mum opened some presents, then we went ten-pin bowling in Llandudno. Usually I hate bowling, but this time it wasn't so bad - probably because I was actually hitting the pins for once! I was even in the lead, until Ian knocked me back with exuberance in the final set. Oh well. Back at home my mum opened some more presents (she got some lovely necklaces, EIGHT bunches of flowers (!), some books, a pretty china set from the Japanese Shop in Chester, theatre vouchers, a Keane CD and from me, the colourful plates from Whittards, the Snowballs and Gravy from IKEA :) and a memory box from Liberty Bell.) We had drinks and an amazingly amazing birthday cake (courtesy of my auntie and Oxford's finest bakery), then my auntie and Ian left and we watched the BAFTAs with tea before bed.

I came back at 9:47 this morning, but I'm not so sad, because we're all going to Denmark next week and that will be just as lovely.
It is now 8:42 and I need to return a book to the library. It's cold and raining outside so this could take a lot of preparation. I am also excited about this like nobody's business.