Ali's day of birthday surprises

A day of birthday surprises started with the first surprise that we are celebrating it today, a week before Ali's actual birthday...surprise! Since we are working on Ali's birthday, I brought it forward a week. We got the commuter train to London which was a little weird when we were going as tourist. We arrived at the London Eye and Ali's face dropped, she really thought we were going on the eye. Instead, we went on the London Rib tour, a speedboat along the River Thames.

We were given thick coats, waterproof trousers and a life jacket, then onto the boat with a front row seat and a really informative trip along the river first of all. We were told about the green bridge for the commons, the red bridge for the Lords. You get a pint in Parliament for 84p and it's illegal to advertise along the banks of the river, unless you have permission from the Queen! Which means that EDF for the eye and OXO were taken to court. After tower bridge, the speedy part started as we went from side to side, jumping on the waves created by other boats. It was fantastic, loved it. Ali also had everyone on the boat singing Happy Birthday to her.

Onto the next surprise, with a lunch stopover at Whetherspoons first. Neither of us have visited Madame Tausauds for years. The party room was heaving with people taking pictures of the stars. I still like the Royal family bit the best. Trouble was, Ali is terrible at knowing the names of celebrities...except Jessica Ennis and Tom Daly. The spirit of London ride where you sit in a London cab and go around the ages was as good as I remember. We took the escape route instead of doing the tunnel of terror. I remember it last time, to this day, it petrifies me and there was no way Ali was going through it. The next part was a 4D cinema and a film about super heroes. Ali said the film was good, but I can't see 3D so I didn't have a clue what was happening but the bolts in your back, spray of water and air was quite fun.

We had some time to kill before the next surprise so we went to Kensington Palace to see the memorial playground. Unfortunately, adults without children can't enter! There is a buzzer and gate to get in, so we were refused. We walked to the Diana memorial fountains but they were being repaired. Instead, we sat outside Kensington Palace watching the dogs running around. Starting to get chilled, we decided to walk through Hyde Park, it's longer that it looks on the map. It even has a horse path!

The last surprise was 'confessions of a chocoholic' afternoon tea at the London Hilton Park Lane, a 5* hotel that has a shoe shiner in the foyer and Bentley, Mercedes and Lexus chauffeur driven cars constantly picking people up and dropping them off. Ali was in a panic when we arrived, she was wearing track suit bottoms but I stole some clothes from her wardrobe so we got changed in the toilets. Classy.

The afternoon tea was amazing. First, open sandwiches with egg, smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese, prawn cocktail and ham and mustard. Then the scones and pastries. Oh my gosh, AMAZING. The tiny cakes were on top of an edible plate of white chocolate, the macaroon was to die for, the cupcakes.... We couldn't finish it so they gave us a gorgeous handbag doggy bag to take home with us.

Ali loved the day, it was great to surprise her throughout the day but gosh we are shattered.