Another year older, another year wiser but still just a Muggle

So I am now 27, EEEP crikey. It is terrifying to think I am really REALLY an adult and 30 is now only 3 years away! It only feels like a year ago that I was turning 21, I have been promised that my 30’s will be amazing so we will wait and see I guess. Until this I will enjoy being in my 20’s still.

If you saw my previous post you may have seen that my week off didn’t start quite according to plan alas. But Wednesday rolled around and I had a nice relaxing afternoon and saw my Aunt for a little bit. I then headed to bed for 11:30pm. This is a big thing for me as I am usually very impatient and I open my presents at midnight! I decided to wait till the morning which I am glad I did.

We got up about 7:30am, which is crazy early for a day off I’d say! But I wanted to make the most of my day. I had to sit outside the living room eagerly waiting for Matt to ‘finish’ a surprise for me. When he let me in I was so excited. He has dressed all the Poes in little hats, and he had, had them printed on a cake too and there were candles light and a hand drawn Happy Birthday sign. It really meant a lot to me especially as it was the first celebration in our flat together that he decorated it up a bit!

 I unwrapped my gifts and I was really surprised Matt got me the time turner I had been pining after. It is beautiful and is the real silver and gold one I wanted! I am terrified I might lose it so I may buy a safety chain to clip on it! I also got some Harry Potter Pop Funkos, and got a beautiful dress and shirt! I also spent my gift card the lovely ladies at work got me on Friday on a penguin jumper which you can see below too!

 I then got ready and I picked my new elephant dress. I bought some navy tights to go with it and paired that with a navy cardi and a backpack as I wanted to be hands free all day! We then headed to The Harvester to have breakfast. I had planned on a simple crumpet and fruit type breakfast as my tummy still wasn’t feeling 100%. However when we got there I was actually quite hungry and pretty unhappy about missing out on a fry up on my birthday so I caved and got one! I did however give some to Matt as I couldn’t manage it all! It was well worth it as it was DELICOUS!

The motor way was insanely clear and we arrived around 11:45am. Our tour started at 12:30pm so we had a fair bit of time to wait. We looked round the gift shop and I excitedly started make a mental list of how I was planning on spending my birthday money, and then we sat outside for a while as the sun was shining gloriously and it was the first beautifully sunny warm day that week!

We queued up just before 12:30 and headed in! We did the first part with the cinema and little talk and I got to push the doors open to the great hall as it was my birthday woo! I was so excited and I got Matt to snap as many photos of me with my favourite props and sets as possible and I took WAY too many photos myself… It is hard to pick just a handful out of the hundreds but here they are!

The sets are all beautiful 

I did the broom stick thing this time! That was loads of fun, I didn’t do it last time because of the queues and the fact that I really hated photos or videos of myself (shame really!) this time however the queues were only around 10-15 minutes long and I really wanted a photo!

I love this picture and I got to pick Gryffindor robes

After looking at all the beautiful sets, we headed into the next part which was the main reason for my visit THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS! It was really awesome and you got to go up inside it too which I hadn’t realised you could do! It was stunning and exactly how I imagined it would have been!

I tried so hard to get through to platform 9 3/4 but it didn't work

When you come off you can have your photo in a booth to look like you are on the train (which we did and bought!) and then you get to have a few snaps and play around in another booth with a video that plays in the window! I really enjoyed that part!

So happy I got a snap of Matt to keep!

We got through into the middle bit, and I was ready for a sit down! We both got butter beers (I got the fancy one with the mug you get to keep and Matt ended up getting 2 disposable ones) It was warm enough you could sit outside which was GREAT! It meant we got to do all the outside stuff properly and sit down and really enjoyed our butter beers (last time we went it was SO COLD outside we spend a minimum amount of time outside and rushed through it!)

I wish I could drink butter beer all day long

Couldn't resist getting a snap on all the things outside

The next bit was all the inside information, the how they did it and the artwork and what not. I love this bit too as it is so fascinating and interesting the amount of work that goes into making films.

Then you head up Diagon Alley. I remember it being longer and I kind of wished it was but it was really awesome regardless! I love peering into all the shop windows.

My favourite shop

Then the last bit which is defiantly a favourite of mine was the Hogwarts model. It is just stunning and the atmosphere in there is perfect. It just makes you wish SO HARD that it was all real and you could really go there. I won’t stop hoping that maybe one day I will get my letter ha! You just have to sit back and take it all in!

The Hogwarts model... so stunning

You then go through the wand shop bit with the names of all the people that worked on the films on wand boxes, again this is really atmospheric and pretty impressive.

And then you end up back in the gift shop! I was pleased I looked at the beginning as I was pretty tired (it was about 5pm by this point and I was starving) I picked out a few bits. I got myself a beautiful T-Shirt, chocolate frog, Muraders map mug and a souvenir guide. I really wanted a wand too, but I decided against it as it was quite pricey and I wanted to save some of my pennies for other things.

My mini haul

While we were paying I also got a ‘It’s my birthday’ badge! I was pretty pleased with that!

And with that we headed home. It was NOT a clear drive home, actually it took about double the time but I guess the M25 at rush hour you wouldn’t expect anything else. We then got a pizza and garlic bread from Morrisons on the way home and I really enjoyed that and ate while watching so Star trek next gen. The evening was spent being lazy in our pj’s just watching TV and playing on the internet.

It was one of those days that I just DIDN’T want to end, and I didn’t want to go home either. It went so quickly and I enjoyed every moment of it. I then popped into the shower and Matt relight the candles on my cake and sung Happy Birthday too me which was the perfect end to the perfect day!