Birthday tea

Today was blissful! 

I started off with a meeting at Charnock Richard, which I thought might be a bit of a drag but ended up being both interesting and enjoyable. Then I picked up the Minx and we drove up to Skipton. (I've probably mentioned before that driving around with the Minx is one of my favourite things.)

I jumped out of the car at Café Campo for my next meeting while the Minx headed off to park up and have a mooch around the town. The chap I was meeting, Neil, is someone I first met in 1997 when I did a short contract at Asda. (I even had a 'Happy to help' badge.) We're looking at doing a project together, so I had a couple of hours with him, which left me feeling quite excited about the possibilities. After that I went to find the Minx who'd settled herself down in a nice little café with her book.

From there, we drove over to York to see Izzy, as it's her 21st birthday, today. Had it been a little less chilly, I think we might have been inclined to wander for a while and find some idiosyncratic little place to have tea but as it was we spotted a warm looking Patisserie Valerie and ducked in there. We had tea and scones (for Izzy) and ice cream (for me), and Izzy opened her presents. She's such a lovely girl: smart, intense, funny, and compassionate, too. I'm very proud of her. We had a lovely hour or so with her before dropping her back at her house so she could get ready for her big birthday night out (she had bought a glittery jumpsuit!).

And then it was back across to Manchester for supper with my daughter, Hannah, who is off to Columbia at the weekend to see her boyfriend, Chris. I avoid prying into my girls' love lives but this one must be fairly serious for Hannah to make the trip; she's not the most adventurous of my daughters! 

So, a busy day, yes, with lots of driving around but I loved every minute.