Birthday celebrations

It's Nick's birthday! I successfully woke up in the night and managed to get everything prepared by the light of my phone. He was woken up by me walking in from bathroom with my amazing Pringles tube "cake" which consisted of candles stuck to the side with medical tape singing happy birthday as I walked. He then opened his very strange card that was the best of a bad bunch when the opportunity arose to buy one and proceeded to open his presents which had been wrapped inside my socks. All very makeshift but I think he appreciated the effort and was amazed I even had these 2 opportunities to buy things at all when he won't leave my side! Unfortunately Nick started to feel ill and felt that he wouldn't enjoy the trip we had booked to do today so I went and cancelled it but it was too late to get our money back. After a while though he started to feel better so off he ran to see if we could still go and luckily one group was running late so there was still our van in the area to pick us up. The tour operator even gave him a lift back on her moped to the hotel to make the van on time. It was all rather dramatic but we were on our way for our day out. The trip included visiting the mangrove forests by longboat, going to James Bond island where one of the films in the 70s was shot, stopping at a floating village for lunch, an optional canoe ride, visiting a temple inside a cave with monkeys outside and a final stop at a waterfall. Originally we had opted not to do the canoeing but then found out if you don't do it you have to wait around for the others to finish before moving on so as it's his birthday we decided to pay extra and do this. Our canoe rower was trying very hard to be funny and singing throughout which did make it hard to enjoy the beautiful scenery around us. We were able to get up close to the mangrove trees and see the impressive root systems they have. He cut me a heart out of a leaf which I thought was sweet but then wanted to have my camera to take a photo through the heart shaped hole and insisted we kiss for the photo. The result isn't too bad! The monkeys at the cave were friendlier than we have seen before and it was amusing watching them snatch bottles of peanuts tourists had brought to feed them with to then sit and drink the peanuts out of it. Unfortunately at the waterfall stop it was too strong to swim in at this time of year but it was still an impressive sight to see. We had a long drive back to the hotel and as we were last to get on the bus in the morning we were sat apart from each other. We got dressed up and headed to a restuarant that is on the beach front and has a balcony that overlooks the sunset for dinner. It was a beautiful setting for Nick's birthday tea but you really are paying for the view not food quality. I ordered a chicken burger and we weren't even sure what I received was legal meat and it was a horrible brown pink colour. There was no way I was going to risk eating it after being so ill so after Nick had his food we got a ride a Burger King instead! At least I could trust the meat here. Overall I think Nick's had a nice birthday and was pleased we managed to make the trip in the end despite changing our minds so much!Read more