Hello! I'm Back!

How’ve you been this last week?

I’m back after a lovely week off over my birthday. I’m older, but sadly not any wiser and not really enjoying the 1500 emails I have to wade through now I’ve got back!

I started my break with a few days in a small cottage in Suffolk. I watched Eurovision and drank lots beer, read books, ate cream teas and watched an entire series of The Walking Dead.

In those few days was also my birthday, which I share with Mr Chick. Last week I looked back over the last 5 years of birthday outfits, so lets start with this years.

As a sort of bonus, this year you get two snapped outfits for my birthday! In the morning we went to Carr Taylor Vineyard, where seconds after this photo was taken the heavens opened and we had to hide under a tree for some time until it passed! We then tasted a lot of wine, bought some of it, then took it all back to the cottage to watch yet more episodes of The Walking Dead whilst drinking a few glasses of it.

In the evening our birthday celebrations involved a trip to Hastings for dinner with my Mum & Dad, Sister and her husband, and, of course, Mr Chick. We went for dinner at Whites Bar, which served beautiful food, and we had champagne and sparkles on the table. I felt very spoilt, but got a bit over excited and drank far too much wine! I took absolutely no photos, which I’m a bit sad about now, but I was too busy having a lovely time as it’s not often my whole family is in one place together!

I did get an outfit photo before I went out though!

The brooch I am wearing was a birthday present from Mr Chick from an antique shop in Hastings. It’s the most adorable frog!

My birthday present from my Mum & Dad was considerably less attractive, but very practical and much needed. A new helmet for Roller Derby so I don’t get concussion when someone hits me and I slide head first into a wall.

I have considerably more photos of the day after our birthday, when, slightly groggy, but probably not as groggy as I deserved, we decided to head to the seaside to blow away the cobwebs, eat fish and chips and drink slush puppies.

And the day after was time to return to Norwich, but I don’t let being at home put an end to my holiday, oh no.

I confess I’ve been very poor at taking pretty photos, so I shall update you on my last few holiday days through the medium of Instagram! Oh, by the way, according to the Editor of V&Oak magazine I am one of their Top 10 Instagram accounts to follow and I “live life very much to the full” I was quite touched to read that, though I’m not sure if that’s code for “drinks a lot of cocktails and eats too much”

Friday we had a picnic and a couple of pints outside of a local pub in the sunshine. My instagram tells the story with a duck and some beer.

On Saturday it was time to celebrate with The Norfolk Brawds Roller Derby. Lots of us have birthdays around now, so we went out for a few cocktails. I got an amazing little package of derby goodies from my wives Wild Honey, Rayner Terror and Chip Vicious, and in return it was also Wild Honey’s birthday, so we got her a customised Ref dress as she is training. My instagram represents the evening with some rum shots that Revolucion De Cuba treated us to when they found out it was our birthdays, and a photo of me with the AMAZING T shirt that was part of my present.

And finally, Sunday, I could feel my holiday slipping sadly away, but I clung onto it a little longer by running Race for Life with the Norfolk Brawds (you can donate by texting NBRD £1 to 70070) and then heading down to La Tasca with the free Cava voucher I’d been sent for my birthday (always sign up to the newsletter!) to make the most of the sunshine, then on for a few more beers before heading home.

Congratulations!

That’s my holiday snaps sat through! You deserve a prize, so you should make sure you pop over and enter the Bettylicious Swimwear giveaway. Then when you’ve done that you can vote for me in the National Vintage Awards blog category as I’m FOURTH, and that means no pretty frocks at awards ceremonies *sob*. The category is near the bottom of the list!