Surprise party when you’ve only met three of the people there (not including the birthday boy): success!!!!!

I arrived in Manchester around 2:30 in the afternoon and was met with a rose (aww) and trifle (awwwww) and we then headed back to the apartment so I could take a much-needed shower. Champagne, bubble bath, and one very wiggley girl later, I actually felt normal for the first time in weeks (for those that didn’t know, I’ve been a bit under the weather after a seasonal allergy attack).

Friday evening was the carefully orchestrated surprise birthday party for Neil, so I whisked him out of the house after briefly meeting his roommate Mike (with whom I’d been corresponding for weeks in order to plan the birthday party) and we went off to dinner at a restaurant called “Duk” which had Peruvian food. Let me just say for my first-non Turkish meal in four months: WOW. Potatoes with rosemary and goat cheese, a salad with fresh berries on top, a sweet beef stew, and the topper: chorizo cooked in cider… I was so full at the end and so so so happy. And then… time for the birthday party! I was so excited that I kept bouncing, and in order to keep Neil from suspecting I just kept repeating how happy I was. Pretty sure he thought I was totally mental but that’s ok. We went to a bar called Forum to “meet his roommate Mike and his girlfriend Rachel for drinks…” and SURPRISE! There was a ton of his work friends and friends from highschool. He actually stopped in the bar when he saw them, his face an ashy-white color, and stood there for a solid five minutes, not understanding what was going on until I explicitly said “Happy Birthday!” He asked, “did you do this?” and I bounced up and down a few times (hoping he wasn’t about to kill me or even worse, that he wasn’t about to have a heart attack and die himself).

When the shock finally subsided, we all had a great time. I met all his friends who were all super sweet and we had a great night out. A birthday to remember, for sure 🙂

We slept in the next morning (9 am! That’s a miracle for me!) and then got up for some breakfast. After being lazy for a bit, and a trip to the post office and drugstore (I forgot a brush), it was suddenly time to leave for a football game between Blackburn and Chelsea. Blackburn is near the bottom of their league and Chelsea is really good, so the game wasn’t even close.. both teams were playing somewhat haphazardly but Chelsea put in the slightest bit of effort which allowed them to win 1-0. The most exciting part of the game was when the Chelsea goalkeeper broke his nose mid-game. Ouch! Also, there was a small plane flying around the stadium with a sign reading “Steave Kean Out!” He’s the manager for Blackburn (who is doing awful) and all the fans have been protesting him. Apparently you’re not allowed to protest inside Ewoods, so fans decided to hire a small plane. Hysterical!!!

After the game, we headed out for Leyland and my first bonfire night! In case you don’t know what bonfire night is, it’s a celebration of the time Guy Fawkes unsuccessfully tried to blow up Parliament… On November 5th, 1605, members of the Gunpowder Plot were found with explosives. They wanted to kill the king and replace him with a Catholic leader instead. In celebration of the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and several months later it became a public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure. (Thank you Wikipedia!)

We arrived in Leyland and met up with Mike and Rachel and headed to a huge park. Apparently, this location is the site of the biggest bonfire night in Northwest England, with something like 10,000 people there. We stood watching the bonfire for a while, soaking up the lovely heat while sinking into the lovely mud (gross). We also got a few burgers and I got a toffee-covered apple (of which I could only eat 1/4th but it was awesome!) and Neil got a chocolate-covered one. We perused the rides (it was like a small fair and I tried to convince Neil to win me a stuffed animal) and then headed over to watch the fireworks display. I love fireworks and these did not disappoint!

After that, we headed home and I fell asleep approximately three minutes into Clueless. 🙂

Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to Blackpool where Neil had his usually Sunday morning football/soccer game. It was a PERFECT fall day in the upper 50s. The sun was shining and kept me warm while I (silently) cheered from the sidelines as Neil’s team won 5-3 (with two lovely assists-to-goal from Neil!). After the game, we went to Bonds for Cinders and Sherry Trifle ice cream (my favorite since last summer. I’ve been craving it since July!) and then headed back to Preston. We went to the grocery store, where I remembered what a real grocery store was like with aisles and aisles of food and it was SO exciting. I bought dijon mustard and tea to take back to Turkey, both of which I’m super excited for.

Sunday night, Neil made enchiladas and we finished Clueless and looked at travel books for next year. There was also clotted cream ice cream involved… YUM. Lovely, lazy, Sunday evening… 🙂

Monday morning, Neil headed off to work while I curled into my sweatpants and a sweatshirt. After making breakfast, organizing Neil’s room (my stuff was kind of everywhere after such a busy weekend), and writing the first part of this post, I studied Turkish for a while and then headed into town… and by town, I mean five minutes at the Tesco express and then back to the warm apartment where I settled myself into doing… nothing. Actually, it was sort of impressive how little I did. 5 pm rolled around, and all I’d accomplished was a quick run to the grocery store, a shower, a bit of tidying, and pasta dough and homemade bolognese sauce. Yum. I love vacation days. Neil finished off the night by making sticky toffee pudding from scratch while I took a nap from 9-9:45 (apparently I was exhausted from all the doing-nothing?) and then it was off to bed around 10:30. I’m so lame. Love it!

Tuesday was more of the same. I did manage to walk around Church Street for a while (the main shopping street) but I can’t get that whole British-Pounds-are-like-little-pieces-of-gold information out of my head (it’s $2 for every 1lb and 3TL for every 1lb… which means that a 3lb coffee is 9TL. RIDICULOUS) so I wouldn’t let myself go into any stores (window shopping is not in my vocabulary). I did do a bit of cooking though… Actually, a lot of cooking. I made a full Thanksgiving!! Note to remember: treacle is NOT the same as light or dark corn syrup and is not a proper substitution while making pumpkin pie. But there was Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and pie, and packing afterwards was kind of painful. 🙂

All in all, a wonderful weekend and not too terribly cold. That being said, my next trip in January should be interesting… Here’s hoping I can find uggs in Turkey!!