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Thursday 24th July

5am – Woke up to make birthday cupcakes for my colleagues and friends, using Kristy’s amazing cupcake recipe. Yum! Then off to work.

3.45pm – Open work cards (very nice!) and present from Heather who sits across from me. She made for me a pretty origami flower ball to brighten up my desk!

4pm – Wes and I begin our road trip to meet John, Tiff and Gemma at the Fern Villa b&b, Ballachulish (pronouced Balla-hoolish), a drive of about 4+ hours.

4.15pm – Wes advises an ‘alternate route’ will be necessary due to ‘closed road’ on our intended route. Apparently we have to detour via Glasgow, adding an extra 1.5 hours onto planned journey. Something fishy here…

circa 6pm – I call John and Tiff to ask how their drive is going, John asks me ‘What time are your friends arriving in Glasgow?’, surprise ruined, John hangs up quickly!

7.45pm – pick up interlopers at Glasgow airport. Interlopers no more, Gerrod and Kristy join our birthday adventure, bringing with them gifts of Flight of the Conchords dvd and colourful birthday socks!

Friday 25th July

6am – I am woken by my alarm advising me it’s time to get up to meet John’s designated breakfast time of 7am.

6.05am – Back to sleep after re-setting alarm for 6.50am.

6.50am – Awaken to alarm followed by sister and parents calling from Oz! Hurrah! My birthday has begun! With a sparkle sparkle present of vouchers at Swarovski Crystal online store.

7.15am – Froot Loop breakfast, more phone calls and present opening, from Therese, Ray, Ty, Nic, Deb, Graham, Lyndon, Sarah, Jay, Lucy – a very cool bag, scarf and necklace:

8am – more present opening, this time from Wes – new waterproof jacket and a fly fishing lesson w00t!:

9ish – Pick up G&K from b&b up the road, and we’re off to Ben Nevis

10.30am – designated start time from post, after suffering abuse from Visitor Centre lady about our choice of clothes and lack of safety devices

sometime between 1 and 2pm – we reach the top, yes in cloud:

2.30pm – begin the descent back down:

8pm – showered and refreshed, we get our reward. A scrumptious indulgent shellfish platter for seven. Turned into an all-you-can-eat competition between two teams. It didn’t matter that after I was finished all-I-could-eat, I managed to gulp down 50 (yes) clams and mussels in an attempt to help my team win: we still lost. Apparently, even though we had very few clams and mussels left on our platter, langoustines and razor clams are ‘worth more’… Needless to say, I didn’t have much room for Wes’ surprise cake.

Wes uses all the tools available, while KJ tries not to laugh… and John… well… he looks happy…

Saturday 26th July

9am – our last meal with John, Tiff and Gemma before they head to Loch Ness and we show KJ and G around a small slice of our wonderful countryside.

10am-ish – Sightseeing begins, with a trip to Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness and the day ends for me with yumbo venison casserole from Clachaig Inn, at Glencoe. Glencoe is one of my absolute favourite places in the world.

Sunday 27th July

9am – check out of David and Catherine’s b&b and into the Slug for the final day of sightseeing with G and Kj. We even ‘did an Uncle Bert’ to make sure we got everyone into at least one photo together.

4pm – After an almost-tearful farewell to Gerrod and Kristy at Glasgow airport, Wes and I headed back to Aberdeen. When I saw how near to the highway the Falkirk Wheel was, we took a quick side-trip.

Monday 28th July

9.30am – the birthday festivities continue! Wes takes me to visit Willie Banks, fly fishing instructor at Tilbouries on the River Dee, just past Maryculter (pronounced Mary-cooter). A few hours of tuition with no hook and we were ready to get a trout (after learning the water is currently too low for salmon, we lowered our expectations, well I did anyway). We didn’t catch anything, but our fishing arms ached and we were happy to have at least half-mastered a new activity.

What a weekend! Thanks to everyone who made it possible, mainly to my amazing man Wesley, who tried his best to keep secrets and still managed to surprise me with cake, fly fishing and a beautiful card. You rock my world!

Tonight’s tea is haggis (of the vegetarian variety), which I cooked and ate while I was writing this post:

Oh, one last thing. See if you can spot the difference between This year’s and last year’s birthday hikes. This year was Ben Nevis 1350m, last year Mt Snowdon 1085m.