My Birthday - Part One

My internet has been down for a while hence the break from blogging. I'm also going through something very stressful at the minute (which I'll blog about soon, when I know the outcome myself).

I'll just go ahead & blog about my Birthday, which was back on the 2nd September. Dave surprised me by telling me that we were going out to dinner (the two of us) to my favourite chinese restaurant, but it turned out he had invited 5 more! It was a really, really good night & I was spoilt with lots of presents too!

 

Above, a new bag from Elin & below, a georgous necklace from Hannah :)

 

The next morning, we got up early & started packing for our weekend away, camping! We'd wanted to go all summer but the weather hasn't been too great towards the end of it so we didn't get a chance. I told Dave that no matter what weather, we were going camping for my birthday.

Another place I decided I wanted to go to was Chatsworth House.. I've wanted to go since I was like, 13. I'm a sucker for Romantic novels & I've always been obsessed with Jane Austen, especially Sense & Sensibility & Pride & Prejudice. Some people might not know this, but Austen based Mr Darcy's house in Pride & Prejudice on Chatsworth house - it was actually the location for his house in the Hollywood version of the story with Kiera Knightley. Just for the record - I will always, always prefer the 1995 BBC adaption with Colin Firth =P

 

Anyway, I logged onto the website to book the tickets & realised that on that weekend, it was the Country Fair! On the Friday, the Red Arrows were going to be there along with other shows/events, stalls, fairground etc. I decided that we just had to go that weekend. It was the Friday that the Red Arrows were going to be there & I've seen their displays twice before & loved them, so it was that day we decided to go to the Country fair - (you had to book the country fair tickets seperately).

We had an easy 3 hour drive there & arrived there about 1.30pm. However, I was NOT a happy bunny when I arrived. If you know me, you'll know that I never go anywhere without my camera.. The night before, I had gone to put my small camera on charge but couldn't (& still can't) find the charger for it, so I decided on taking the SLR - besides, I'd obviously get much better shots with that one anyway. I went ahead & put it on charge. When I got there, I went into the back & my heart dropped. I had packed the camera, case, XD cards, but the battery.. well, that was back at home charging!! I was nearly crying, lol - a little over the top I know, but if your anything like me, you'll know how I felt! Dave reassured me that I still had my phone camera & it is after all the pictures in our heads that are important. Hmph -_-

 

First view of the house - it is set in 1000 acres, the garden itself is 150 acres. Below is the 'White Helmets Motorcycle Display Team' - volunteers from the Corps that do crazy things, on bikes basically.

 

They rode the bikes backwards - above you can see them holding on to the bars but afterward, they were riding backwards whilst juggling or reading a book - steering somehow with their buttcheeks, lol.

 

They also did other crazy stuff like ride through fire & jumping over cars - it was definitely worth watching! Next we went on the Ferris Wheel, where Dave kept scaring me by rocking the car! We kept pausing at the top too while other people were getting off.. I don't mind heights, but being stuck on a man-made thing quite high up makes me very uneasy - we did get a great view though!

 

Next up (after the bestest, biggest hot dog ever) we went to watch the Knights of the Damned. Jousting, which was fun - they got us to chant We Will Rock You, like the scene from The Knight's Tale where they all sing it. I went on their website (click the highlighted link) & found out later they've appeared in the Harry Potter movies, Star Wars, Batman - The Dark Knight & lots of others. By the time we were watching these the temparature must have been in the high 20's (hottest since at least a month ago) & I was just glad the weather was nice & that we were both having such a great time.

 

I was really missing my SLR by now =(  I would have been able to get some pretty awesome shots with it. I only took these two above because I was saving my battery for the rest of the day. Since we were camping, we were only able to charge our phones in the car, while it was running, lol - so yeah, our phones were pretty much running on empty half the time!

 

I am actually really proud of these pictures - I think they are pretty decent for a 5 megapixel phone camera - although, again - I really wish I hadn't of forgotten the battery for the camera, grrr. I will never get over that. The weird thing is when we got back home on the Sunday - I found the charger was unplugged - so I must have unplugged it but then got distracted by something..

That isn't the only thing I forgot.. oh no. Never ever leave me to do the packing. When we arrived on the campsite that night, Dave asked me where the airbeds were, to which I answered "back at home". Yup, that night we had to lay down two of the sleeping bags & have the duvet over us. We also had some help from some fellow campers setting up our tent - because we had no idea how to get it up & it was getting dark, lol. It turned out to be pretty big (a four man tent with two compartments & a living space in the middle). Oh & I'd also forgotten the pillows, lol. So we had to use clothes or something that night.. The next morning at stupid AM, I was woken up by a cow making the weirdest noise ever & I was sooo c-c-c-cold!

The next morning, we went to the shower blocks.. I nearly had a heart attack when I walked in the first time. There was just a school gym type shower room (yep, where everyone sees you naked)! But luckily we found the other showers.. The heated shower block had a queue outside & we thought we were being smart when we found some others around the corner - but when we got in, the water was just about tolerable! I was pretty cold for the rest of the day - but hey that's camping, huh. The one thing I am fussy about though, is my hair. When I saw that the only hairdryers they hardly had any air coming out & they only had those international (shaving adapter?) sockets - I took my hairdryer & straighteners into the Games Room, lol.

This post is getting pretty long so I'll post our visit to the house & gardens in the next one! :)