They say it's your Birthday? Well it's my Birthday too, yeah!

As I write this, I am 24 years and a day old! The birthday has passed and I had a fantastic day.

Me at 24...I know, I don't look at day over 23 :-)

My 2 friends and their 2 sons (5 & 1 year old) and I had a long lunch at American Italian restaurant and family favourite Frankie & Benny's then went for a long shopping spree in Livingston Shopping Centre. We had a lovely meal. We started with the sharing platter (or as we like to call them, Big Fat Platters). They consist of a few portions of: BBQ chicken wings, garlic bread, chicken strips, bread sticks, onion rings, stuffed potato jackets and a choice of four dips. For main course, Jileen and I had the bacon cheeseburger with fries while Claire had the New York chicken with fries and a corn on the cob. To finish and because my birthday is America's Independence Day, I had a Yankee Doodle Sundae, Jileen had waffles and ice cream and Claire had pecan cheesecake. The kids of course ate from the kiddie menu and played with their fun packs while us girls gossiped at the table.

3 hours later, we then moved over to the shopping centre and headed straight for Primark (we love to shop, by my God to we love a bargain). We were in here for a long time too. Claire was mostly buying for her one year old son and Jileen was buying for her son and 2 nieces who were staying over from Australia. I of course was buying for me with my birthday money. I got a lovely 60s inspired mini dress and 2 pairs of gladiator shoes, one pair sparkly, the other pair just an ordinary brown that will match pretty much anything.

Summer in the UK started at the beginning of June but we have barely seen any sunshine since then! July has been nothing but rainy and miserable and yesterday was no exception. With us being in such a busy shopping centre and the horrible muggy/humid heat we were totally parched. We headed to Witherspoons for a drink (non alcoholic as I was driving) and took a bit of time to chill there and gossip a bit more. This is where Claire had decided to end her day as the littlest dude was getting sleepy. We said our goodbyes to Claire and Logan and Jileen, Aedan and I headed out to Matalan.

Another good relatively cheap clothes shop that we both love, but this has something Primark does NOT have...shopping trolleys! While Jileen led the way through the shop, I pushed Aedan around in the trolley chatting about The Avengers and play doh! This was taking place much later on in the day so the shop was almost completely empty, so that gave me the opportunity for Aedan and I to 'spin' in the trolley whilst singing Be Bop A Lula and Bye Bye Love. His mum and dad having been switching him on to 50s music, something Aedan and I can bond over as I too was about the same age when I first discovered the music of the 50s. And I've loved it ever since.

At 8pm we decided to call it a day. It had been a long day, but a fantastic day. This was the first birthday in 3 years that I had spent in Scotland. For my 21st I was in Las Vegas, my 22nd I was in New York and last year for my 23rd I was in Liverpool. This was just another fantastic year for the old memory bank (I totally didn't mean to put in the word 'old' there!!!). It really doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are having fun!

My pathetic attempt to copy the famous Abbey Road cover.

P.S. Happy Independence Day to all you Yanks out there. Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did :-)

Peace and Love
TT