My last personal blog left you all on a bit of a cliffhanger didn't it? For that I apologise but I didn't want to go on all night about my highly exciting social life and make you all jealous! I am of course kidding! I didn't want to bore you more like. But as I had already planned to write these particular personal blogs you'll just have to endure the boredom, or not read them and watch some paint dry instead! ;0P
So, where was I? Ah yes, the beginning of my birthday weekend. Which actually sort of lasted about 10 days. But then it was a big birthday. My 30th to be precise. Which is sort of depressing if I linger on it so let's not. Let's talk instead of my best friend of the north coming down to stay with me and bringing her step daughter and a close friend of ours with her. As the step daughter and friend had not been to Brighton before we had to make the most of our limited time and do as many fun things as possible.
The show we decided to see was Wicked, literally. I had seen it before, but around 5 years ago, and the other girls had never seen it and all wanted to. I remembered liking it first time around and thought it was just as Wicked this time. It had me singing along to 'Popular' (which is still in my head now) and 'Defying Gravity' for weeks to come. After the train ride back to Brighton, I took the girls on a brief tour around my flat as they'd never seen it before. It was a very brief tour as my flat only has 4 rooms, but they all seemed to like the flat which was a relief as I'd been cleaning it for weeks in anticipation of their arrival! Then we walked through the Pavillion Gardens and on to the Pier where we stopped for a drink, had a play on the games and posed for some silly photos, as you do.
From there we headed home for a quick change and then did something I've wanted to do for the last 6 years of living in Brighton, but never had done. We went on the Ghost Walk of the Lanes http://www.ghostwalkbrighton.co.uk/. It was as fabulously kitsch and over acted as I'd thought it would be, with only the slightest hint of fact thrown in for good measure. The only downside to the walk was that it was a typical Brighton summers evening, meaning it was windy as hell and bloody freezing. But lots of fun. As you can see...
At the end of the walk we made a quick dash to Charles Street for a slice of the gay club scene. A great night was had by all, perhaps with the acception of my bff's step daughter who seemed to think there would be plenty of nice men for her in the club. She didn't seem to understand that the men in gay clubs wouldn't be looking for a nice girl to take home! A fun night nonetheless. 
The next day brought much sunshine and the invitation to a BBQ hosted by my cinema buddy. We quickly headed into town for a last minute look around the north lanes as we'd not had time to have a proper look around the day before. I took the girls to Shake-Away for a milkshake and Cyber Candy for some american style sweets, and then we headed to the BBQ. The weather held all day until it was eventually time to take the girls back to Brighton station to board their trains home. It was a sad farewell but I hope they'll be back soon!
My birthday week continued with my actual birthday falling on the Tuesday after my friends had gone home. One friend made me home made bread and a lemon drizzle cake (you know who you are and how fabulous everything you make is!), another friend got me 31 birthday cards (just to throw me off the scent) and one of my work friends made me these bad boys...
And let me tell you, they were as good as they looked! And yes, that is my future husband sitting on top looking up adoringly at me. Err, sorry, lost my train of thought there...Jake cakes have a way of doing that to me! ;0P
Where was I? Ah yes, my birthday, apart from having to go into work on the morning of my birthday (boooooooooo), I went for a birthday cupcake with my best friend of the south, to my favourite cupcake shop in the laines (they put a 30th candle on my cake at the request of my friend!) and then had a birthday movie double bill of Cars 2 and Horrible Bosses (reviews for which are on the other blog). So another jam packed day was had there.
I barely had time to recover from my busy birthday week when Thursday was fast approaching. The day my brother was arriving for his weekend in Brighton. But yet again I have rambled for too long and must pick up my Big Brother's Brighton Adventure another time.
*Special thanks to Damian Whelan for the use of his funky picture '30' as my headline photo for this blog.*
The next day we decided the only thing to do was be a tourist. So I took the girls on a walking tour of Brighton. We did some shopping, had lunch at the delicious Foodilic, walked through both the south laines, I showed the girls the Banksy which is currently still on the side of the Prince Albert Pub.
We decided that as the girls would be arriving by train, and would need to swap trains in London, that we should see a show on the day they arrived. We didn't want them to just pass through London without seeing a bit of London and doing something while we were there. I suggested we have something to eat at my favourite London diner, Ed's, and then take in a show. When we'd taken our seats in the diner
we realised we were eating in front of PG Tips funny man Johnny Vegas who was sitting at the table behind us. So dinner turned out to be a fun little adventure of it's own.
