Another trip around the sun

First of all, I should explain. I love my birthday. Not because I want presents or to celebrate me, but because May 7th is nicely situated at the end of the school year, with fresh spring weather, tulips and peonies are blooming, and most importantly, it's the best opportunity to bring people together. A lot of good memories have come from my birthday celebrations.

Last year, a milestone birthday, I was going to celebrate in Boise, Idaho (in my mind an underrated, charming city - however, thanks to Covid, I have yet to confirm this assessment). Instead I spent it with one of my best friends and her family. I was still spoiled and surrounded by love so definitely a great alternative. At that time, if someone would have guessed where I would spend my next birthday, I don't think I would have guessed London in a million tries. So to be honest, without doing anything at all, my birthday was going to be a good one (and it helps that it started with a midnight Zoom call from family and lots of messages when I woke up). But, little did I know, my birthday would once again bring people together, in a different way.

My birthday fell on a Friday this year and my plan was to leave the next day for a long drive to Cornwall with a stopover at Stonehenge (I treated myself to the VIP tour as a birthday gift). Coincidentally my Airbnb hostess, Sandy, suggested hanging out one more time before I headed south. Since I took Friday off work anyway, plans were made.

We left that morning for Windsor, home of the famed Windsor Castle and occasionally the Royals. A chilly day, the castle was still closed due to the Covid lockdown rules, so we settled for wandering around the little town and along the outside of the castle. Sandy told me stories of the area and I showed her how to perfect the selfie. 

At lunch we found a pub, just off the green, and sat down in the sun to enjoy a bite to eat and a wine spritzer. Just as we were toasting the day, a gentleman sat down at a table next to us and we struck up a conversation (Sandy is equally as outgoing as I am). Rob quickly became part of our conversations and filled us in on what it was like to live in Windsor. Two rounds of drinks later, I made sure that numbers were exchanged before we all went our separate ways. 

We headed back to the city, me stopping to pick up my rental car on the way and nervously driving home a new car, on the other side of the road, through London traffic, in a stick-shift. Let's just say I'm really glad no one else was in the car to see my panic. 

Despite an early morning departure, I spent the rest of the night avoiding my packing. I may not procrastinate often, but when I do, I'm really really good at it: "I haven't checked email in the last five minutes, I should look again." "Are those new text messages?" "Oh, just one more episode on Netflix can't hurt." "Hmmm, what should I order for dinner?" "Clean the dishes, sure don't mind if I do." Fortunately for me, no matter how much I procrastinate I always get it done, it just makes for a late night. Off to Stonehenge in the morning!

MATCHMAKING UPDATE: I am excited to report that three weeks later, Sandy and Rob are still hanging out and sending me selfies from Windsor. No matter where it goes from here, I'm super excited that two cool people met because I was out celebrating my birthday. Cheers to another successful trip around the sun!

PHOTO UPDATE: If you want to see more from my London walking tours, I've posted all of my London pictures on the Snapshots page on this site.