A birthday DAY!

The snow meant that I had the day off work.  It HONESTLY was the best surprise to wake up feeling dreadful after getting home SO late after orchestra because of engineering works with a headache, to discover a text message from school saying it was closed!
I woke up some point later after going back to sleep and saw the newly fitted wardrobes (doors to be fitted in a few weeks) properly in daylight when I was awake!
We had leisurely showers and then headed downstairs.  CBC headed out to sweep and shovel some snow from the car and then as he returned the tools to the summerhouse, he decided to give being a snow angel a go!
I made us breakfast- beans on toast with melted cheese and chives on top! SO nice to have the time for a proper breakfast on a school day! We realised it was the first meal we had eaten together at the new kitchen table.  We are STILL waiting for our dining room table from Harveys which is delayed We are worried that it is too big for our titchy dining room and wish we had ordered one from John Lewis which we could have returned if too big!
I opened the 4 or 5 cards I had received in the post and received a nice present from my Mum- the cotton pads I wrote about in my last post as well as some money. My Godmother had sent me some money too with her card and there was a lovely present from Melanie with her card, a cute Dalek delicate charm bookmark. There was also a parcel from Katie which turned out not to be a birthday present but a copy of some Charles Dickens she thought I might like. Good timing!
Later, we traipsed slowly to the train station to meet CBC's HoD for lunch in a pub in town.
We had a fair walk from the station but it was very pretty!
It was also CBC's HoD's birthday too!  CBC had a go on one of the other people's sledge.  I am a bonefide snow wuss so I refused a go. I did spend most of the Winter Olympics saying, "Nooo, that looks sooooooooo dangerous!"
After returning home for a while, we headed back to the train station and headed to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see The Winter's Tale ballet.  We had booked to see it with CBC's Mum and sister but neither of those were able to attend for various reasons. We had very good tickets in the Grand Circle Stalls.  We had booked to see this particular show not because it was my birthday, but because the conductor of our orchestra was conducting this performance of the Ballet.  He sent me a lovely text message an hour before the show saying Happy Birthday and hoping we would enjoy the show. SO exciting to see him conduct for the Royal Ballet. He has done other shows for them including Alice in Wonderland and been on tour with them but I've never seen him in this context and felt very proud of him. He is an exceptional conductor and I feel very glad he is so loyal to our orchestra.  We will also be going to watch him in April for the Bernstein ballet at the Opera House.

The show was beautiful and very creatively performed.  Joby Talbot is a very talented composer and his music is very approachable. Tom was as delightful and charming yet clear and authoritative as the conductor. The choreography by Christopher Wheeldon was clever and imaginative and the dancers, such as Lauren Cuthbertson were strong and full of excellent characterisation.

During the interval, we saw some other friends from the orchestra who went to watch. CBC's Brother came in place of his Mum and we had a lovely time. I did scoff (apparently too loudly-CBC says the Bartender scowled at me exclaiming over the price twice!) at the price of £12 for a plate of 8 triangle sandwiches in the interval but I was reminded that we are not the normal clientele of the  Opera House and those who buy expensive tickets would think nothing of this.