Birthday Weekend Continues . . .

So, following our quesadillas we went out dancing for a bit before I came home and literally crashed after a 4a.m. skype convo with the familia.  

Saturday morning = sleep, glorious sleep.  While I did have to get up to personally inform Santi and Carly of the goings (due to a minuteless phone), I spent a good amount of time on Saturday just jogging and cleaning the flat with sunshine streaming through the windows and the songs of birds mixing with my rather ecclectic itunes library as I scrubbed and straightened away.  

Mid clean Patrick surprised me with some lovely pink roses.  He then sat himself down in the sunlight and absorbed my frenzied activity and rapid-fire speech with a patronizing smile on his face.  I finally finished just in time to receive a call from Santi and Javs asking about meeting for dinner.  So off to Trafalgar it was.  

After a bit of conferencing it was decided I would take Santi, Javs and Maeve to see the South Bank of the Thames while the rest of the ladies headed back to Kamen-Minerva for some dinner.  

I love the south bank.  It's a touristy place but in a perfectly charming way.  Mimes, street musicians, an old fashioned book market, a merry go round, blue and white sparkling lights (which Javier apparently dislikes) and plenty of quaint eateries where one can stop to get a bite to eat.  

We wandered through the delightful sights, sounds and smells of the Thames before ducking into a small market area to play on some of the most brilliant hand-carved rocking horses (or cars/ducks/random other animals) one has ever seen.  While rocking away on our "transport" of choice, our eyes lit upon a pleasant little restaurant tucked in a corner of the small square we were in.  Our stomachs suddenly remembered how hungry we were and we quickly abandoned our play in search of some supper.  

And there (at a restaurant I can't recall the name of) Maeve, Javs, Santi and I found some fantastic fare indeed.  Though it is possible my steak was made infinitely more delicious by the friendly, familiar chatter of my long-lost friends that accompanied its consumption. Mmmm Mmm good!  With our bellies full and our wallets a bit lighter we meandered along the bank to the globe, over the Millenium bridge, past St. Paul's, through the financial district back to Farringdon just in time to catch everyone else headed out to Three Kings.  

Out to three kings it was with a lively group of fifteen or so.  Turns out Three King's was hosting a private party downstairs so, after a large group of us stood in the middle of the private party looking REALLY confused for at least a minute, we realized the stairs leading to the second floor were hidden in the corner and hurriedly scurried up them to the safety of our own private room of sorts.  There I greatly enjoyed my "Coke with Lemon" to our own selection of songs from the jukebox and the ridiculous banter of my lovely friends.  When the pub closed we headed back to our hang out, Minerva Eight, the cream of the crop as far as views are concerned.   

I was close to dosing off and Javs kept demanding sweet food and hinting that they should probably head out, much to the chagrin of everyone else who knew that my darling girlfriends were putting the finishing touches on some surprise cake!  MMMMM homemade buttercream frosting with fresh strawberries on a dark chocolate cake.  Sigh.  Heaven.  I was definitely surprised.  Almost as surprised as Javier :) 

Once the bowl licking had stopped the ladies planned out a picnic in hyde park for the next afternoon and I headed off to bed already quite content with the way my birthday had progressed.