Plan a nice birthday and then nature takes over

I have a couple of days off work and am heading to Dublin for my long-planned long weekend birthday treat. I started my birthday off in style by going out for drinks after choir yesterday evening. Okay, there's actually nothing too unusual about going out for drinks after choir but I had warned people in advance so there were a few prepared to stick around until midnight to "feier in den Geburtstag ein" (celebrate into the birthday - it's extremely bad luck in Germany to wish someone happy birthday before the day but not all that unusual to stay up until midnight to wish someone happy birthday as soon as your birthday arrives). It was a lovely evening, very quiet but full of laughter and good chat. And at midnight, the waitress turned off the background music and blasted a CD of "happy birthday to you", which was kind of amusing. We've only been there a couple of times before but it seems to be the kind of place that adopts you quickly.

Got home just after one and spent 45 minutes or so packing and tidying up a bit (despite plans to have it all done on Tuesday evening!). Slept really well and had only minimal problems getting up at seven o'clock. Funny how it's so much easier to get up for holidays than for work! Did the washing up, brought the rubbish and recycling down and gave the floor in the kitchen a quick clean and still had time to have a shower, get dressed and head for the bus to get to the airport - yes, the bus. None of my usual running out the door and hopping into a taxi because I'm late.

I have a full program of fun and lovely things planned for today. Have tickets for a lunchtime concert in the National Concert Hall at one o'clock, floating booked for four and a hairdresser appointment at six, followed by meeting my brother for dinner. And then sleeping in a really comfy bed before getting up to head to the Craft Fair tomorrow (which I just got a free ticket for, woohoo!).

I had checked in online yesterday so just had to drop my bag off, there was no queue and I only had two people ahead of me going through security and no-one at all ahead of me at passport control. It's ages since everything just ran so smoothly for me when travelling. And then I got to the gate and while reading through some happy birthday texts they announced that our flight is delayed by about 70 minutes. There's a superstorm on the way - actually, it's five small storms one directly after the other and the first arrived last night. It's mild here but apparently very windy in Dublin so the plane was delayed from there. It has just landed here though so hopefully we will get out of here before the weather gets bad. I don't think I'll make it to the concert as I'll only be arriving in Dublin at around 12.30, I think but we'll see how it goes. And hey, for whatever reason, emirates' wifi is free at the moment so things aren't all bad!