Eastbourne - Another Year

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm now twenty-nine... my last year in my twenties... hard to believe. I remember not too long ago when I thought twenty-nine was old. Thankfully I don't feel old, except when I see kids I used to babysit and they're married and having babies - then I feel really old. No, you don't need to tell me I don't look twenty-nine - I hear that fact on a regular basis but I don't think it'll be flattering for at least another ten years. Helping out at youth groups where the young guys coyly ask me what grade I'm in, only to see their jaws drop when I tell them I graduated ten years ago, doesn't make me feel good (no, I didn't make that up - it has actually happened more than once).

This morning I got a phone call from Robyn at 7:45 a.m. as I was in the middle of slowly waking up. I picked up my phone and heard her cheerful voice call out, "Good morning! Happy birthday! We're coming up to your room to give you your birthday present!" In my charming morning-voice I croaked, "Right now?" "Yes, we're right outside the door of the farm house!" A few minutes later and I was opening my present and getting hugs before they rushed off to work. Definitely a good start to my day!

My mom passed along the farm's mailing address to a bunch of family and friends, so after breakfast I had a great time opening a stack of birthday cards.
Thank you to:
Mom & Dad; Mark, Cori, & snuggly Steve; Jon & Ann; Rachel & her boys; David & Keri; Sherri; Grandma; Carol; Anne-Marie; Marsha, Andy, Melinda, Andrew, & Daniel; Christa; Len & Glenda

At noon I went and took care of feeding the lambs. I could have claimed "birthday princess" status and avoided it, but I actually think it's fun to pull on my wellies and muck around in the barn.

At 2:00 I met Sarah in Eastbourne - she took the day off work to hang out with me. How great is that, eh? When I walked into her room she said, "Oh - I found something that we have to watch!" When we were in Switzerland we started joking about an episode of the TV show, "Friends", where Phoebe and Monica's friend is in town but they can't stand her because she lived in London for a little while and puts on a ridiculous, fake English accent. The character and plot are hilarious, but it's even better because the girl's name is "Amanda". We continually quote lines to each other, and when I visited Canada for my brother's wedding the word "mobile" occasionally escaped my lips (sans accent) and people mocked me every time. For your viewing pleasure, here's the clip we watched.

Sarah took me out for my first, proper, English cream tea! I can't believe it took over six months living here to finally go out with a friend for a proper tea. We walked along the sea front in the sunshine and had a great time visiting for the afternoon - a beautiful day.

A proper British girl - pinky out!

Tea, sandwiches, scones, cream, jam, and cakes.

I've heard several times that the lambs up on the hill (a few weeks old) love to gather in groups and run madly across the hills in the early evening. I really wanted to see them, but hadn't been able to get out there since returning from Poland. I was booked to go out for dinner with a few friends but I asked them to postpone it for about half an hour so Henry could give me a ride up to the hill in the jeep so I could see the lambs since it was my last night in Eastbourne. I loved being up on the hill a final time and seeing the lambs running around simply for the fun of it. My cell was out of range so I didn't receive Robyn's text of, "where r u?" until we left the hill... I was an hour late. Sorry girls!

These two lambs were curled up on their mom's back when we arrived, but by the time I pulled out my camera they had jumped up.

View of the hill (long clip).

Pack of lambs running (long clip).


Bounding lambs (short clip).

The girls took me to what they call the "Curly Wurly", a pub actually called the "Golden Galleon", but it's located along a curving river which the girls have nick-named the "Curly Wurly" so the name works.

Quotes on chalkboards on the pub walls:

"Life is too short to stuff a mushroom."

"There's no such thing as bad weather,
just bad clothing."

L-R: Robyn, Liz, Madelein, and me.

After dinner we took a walk along the river and returned to the house for a video and a taste of Robyn's homemade banoffee pie (I'd only had small pieces of store-bought until tonight). It's incredibly sweet but a really tasty concoction! There are lots of variations, but I found the official recipe online for those of you who want to try it.

The movie we watched was called, "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging". It was filmed in Eastbourne and Brighton (I occasionally called out, "Hey! I've been there!") and it's a really cute, cheesy movie about fourteen and fifteen year old girls with mad crushes on the new boys at school. They agonize about family issues, bras, dates, and snogging techniques. Some truly funny moments and a light and fluffy chick-flick (same director as "Bend it Like Beckham"). The most hilarious thing was realizing that in our late twenties and thirties, we still behave like fifteen year old girls when it comes to guys. Sad or charming? I'm not sure.