What a Birthday....

Hi folks...I hesitate to share my "couldn't make it up if I tried" birthday adventures just in case you think I have finally lost my marbles but hey ho this is a warts and all kind of a blog...so here we go with tales of the birthday I won't forget in a hurry...my friends would tell you that if disasters are waiting to happen I'm the one that they always make a beeline for.  It all kicked off when I landed at Birmingham Airport and noticed a very elderly man in some distress as we left the plane...his daughter was waiting to meet him but he was in a right old state not sure where to go so I offered to escort him through the corridors of arrivals and before long we were chatting ten to the dozen and it was only as we made our way down the ramp and into the airport proper I realised that I hadn't picked up my suitcase....oops...in fact major OOPS...what I thought was a minor inconvenience almost turned into an international incident. On the wrong side of the door and faced with huge NO ENTRY signs any sensible person would have made their way to Flybe Customer Services for assistance...you would have thought that in this day and age of anti-nasty terroristy people airport security that I would know that NO ENTRY really means what it says...OH NO in a moment of what can only be described as total brain shutdown...Mrs Smarty Pants decided to take the bull by the horns and dash back through as more folks arrived...well who's ever going to know. But the plan hit the skids when the next door failed to open and I could see hundreds of impatient looking folks people waiting with their luggage on the other side. A little shiver of unease set in...time to hi-tail it out of there but now all the doors were refusing to open...I was trapped OOPS...OOPS...OOPS... bigga-mistakea.  After what seemed like a lifetime but was in fact about 20 minutes a door finally opened and stood before me are scary looking security guards...you know the kind...faces like thunder and you just know they are going to register zero in the sense of humour department. Apparently little old me...all by myself had managed to LOCK DOWN the whole of ARRIVALS at Birmingham International Airport...it doesn't get more OOPS than that does it so there was nothing else for it but to play the doddery old lady card...apologise profusely and pray that I wasn't going to be carted off to the UK's equivalent of Guantanemo Bay...mind you I was tempted to ask why it took them so long to respond to the threat of a potential terrorist Grandma on the loose but decided perhaps it was best just this once to keep my mouth shut and make my way with my tail well and truly between my legs to the nice folks at Flybe who rescued the suitcase and had the good grace not to laugh.  Huge apologies to everyone who had the misfortune to arrive at the same time as this "head filled with cotton wool" senior citizen...I hope I didn't totally ruin your day and I'm sure there's a moral to the tale in there somewhere.
And just when I was thinking that the day couldn't possibly get any worse I managed another spectacular oops when I tripped on a piece of cardboard during set up and dived headlong into the huge tools box which sent it skidding across the floor and banging into the wall...upside down in a box with only your legs showing is not a very dignified position and if I was looking for sympathy from the Fiskars team...fat chance...I'm convinced they were debating through hysterical laughter whether to just leave me there for the duration of the show.  But it takes more than a bit of acrobatics to put this old girl out of action...a sore back for a couple of days had me waddling along like a pregnant duck but nothing that a soak in a warm bath didn't put to rights and to round off a very eventful birthday...what a lovely surprise when the dining room staff at The Hilton arrived at our table with a delicious birthday pudding and serenaded me with a resounding rendition of "Happy Birthday"...

and thanks to friends and teamies for the beautiful birthday cards that were waiting for me when I arrived home but it's back to sample making today...see you all tomorrow for the good news from The NEC.

Hugs Kath xxx