November is here and it’s the most fantastic month of the year.

Why’s that Francesca? Well, I shall tell you for why…

Autumn has arrived, there is a crunch of leaves underfoot and a fresh chill in the air (even in Spain, it’s really cold at 8am), John Lewis have aired another anticipated advert (hello there Mr Alliteration), this year featuring Monty, a penguin with a better love life than me (the less said about that the better) and I’ve turned another year older.

This November is different though. It’s even more fantastic and even more special. I haven’t just turned another year older, no no no, this November was in fact, the big 2-1.
I worried that my birthday would be lonely this year, with being abroad and all that, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was joined by my fabulous mum and dad, my little (but not actually little) sister and my amazing partner in crime Rachael! I was spoilt rotten by all of them – Rach even arrived with a carry on suitcase FULL of cards and presents from all my favourite people back in Durham! I could have cried, it was such a thoughtful thing to have organised.

The school let me have the Friday everyone arrived off, so I got to spend even more time with them all! We had a beautiful lunch by the sea, chilled out at the villa, drank a few glasses of wine and nibbled on some jamón before heading off to bed, excited for the next day!

I was up uncharacteristically early on Saturday morning but HEY, I WAS THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!

We headed out for a birthday brunch once everybody was up and ready to go, which was absolutely amazing and yummy as shown here below…

With my lovely mummy

During the day, my family managed to smuggle in balloons and a cake, before smuggling them out again and down to the restaurant without me even noticing! 10 ninja points for them. I popped down to the beach with Georgia and Rach where they went into the sea (mad. actually mental) and I jumped around on the shore. One passing elderly Spanish couple asked me ‘are those two crazy?!’. I said that no they were not, but they were in fact, just English. They nodded at me and smiled, they understood. The English are crazy.
I’ll take this opportunity to point out that, considering it was the 8th of November, the weather was GLORIOUS. It was around 20 degrees without a cloud in the sky. How lucky was I?!

In the evening, we headed on down to my favourite restaurant and I was greeted by a beautifully decorated table and hugs from all my fantastic waiter friends. Oh and also a cheeky free bottle of extremely lovely Cava… After starters galore and the best steaks you will ever have, out they came with the beautifully decorated cake, complete with sparklers.