21 February 2017 (Tuesday) - Happy Birthday to Me !!!

I decided not to take my birthday off work on my nineteenth birthday. The first birthday I had whilst at work was a Saturday, and the second was a Sunday. However my nineteenth birthday (21 February 1983) was a Monday. I didn’t think to book a day’s leave, and I can remember that day; it sucked. I have booked a day (or week)’s leave for the subsequent thirty-four birthdays.
However the trouble with having a birthday in mid-February is trying to do anything to celebrate that birthday. I always do all sorts of things around my birthday but finding stuff to do on the day itself can be problematical; most local places are closed, and it is usually rather cold and everyone else is at work. Looking back at my last ten birthdays I see I did the following:

2007: Went to The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum
2008: Went to the Shepherd Neame brewery
2009: Went to the London Dungeon
2010: Went out for dinner with friends from Brighton
2011: Went to see my mum
2012: Went for an interview
2013: Went to the zoo
2014: Had fish and chips in Rye
2015: Had a serious booze-up
2016: Had a rather good pub lunch

There’s no denying that I was probably going to be at a loose end today. "er indoors TM" couldn’t get the day off work, and with her step-father having died we weren’t really feeling like doing much anyway. "My Boy TM" was similarly rather down in the dumps with the local news carrying the sad story of the demise of the firm where he works. But he was off work today, and so we decided to go fishing. We both like fishing.

We started off at Rocky’s cafĂ© for a fry-up; we were there before they opened. It was a good fry-up and once it was scoffed we set off to Shirkoak. Not only had the car park been opened before we got there, the chap who owns the place let me fish for free as It was my birthday.
It was a rather good day to be out; we saw a woodpecker doing his thing. It was a tad cold, but not *too* cold, and the rain didn’t last for long. I got to try out my new fishing chair (that I rescued from the tip) and I was pleased to find it was ideal. I even got to use my new net too.
Fishing-wise we had a good day, but (to be honest) we both had the quietest day at Shirkoak we’ve ever had. I suppose that isn’t really surprising bearing in mind it is mid-February. But because the days are now longer than they are in December we got to stay out for a couple of hours longer than we did last time.
You can see what we did by clicking here.

We came home shortly after 5pm; I out my tackle away and walked the dogs round the road. As always Fudge was raring to go on his walk, and Treacle didn’t seem fussed whether she went out or not.
"er indoors TM" came home, and we went to the local Wetherspoons for a bit of birthday dinner. Compared to previous birthday dinners tonight was a rather quiet do, but what with what’s on the cards tomorrow a quiet do was ideal. Ten of us had a rather good dinner.
Must do steak night more often…


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