Every year Valentine’s is a battle between what I love to get and what I will get. I love having a beautiful meal in a new restaurant and enjoying an amazing adventure, however, sometime my husband is very thoughtful and gives me some amazing present. The problem I have with presents is that I use them only on special occasions and then store them most of the year, when talking about jewellery. However, when talking about flowers, I love to photograph them but as a bouquet they only look nice for few days and within a week they need to be thrown away which makes them, in my opinion, not a very good gift as it only lasts a short period.
Valentine’s Day is a very special day for me and my husband as our first date was on Valentine’s Day 15 years ago, and everything started with a dinner in the local pizza shop while we were still studying our master degree.
Since that day, I have received all types of jewellery, however, over the last 5 years we have stopped with all traditions. This means, we do not celebrate on 14th, as everything is fully booked, but the following Saturday, however, the trickiest petition is not expensive gifts and this includes flowers. Therefore, my husband has been very creative and every year he takes me to amazing restaurants, each year with a different cuisine.
Every year, I leave the planning and preparation to my husband and every year he tries very hard to keep it a secret and the only thing we decide is the day. However, I am horrible with surprises as I keep asking questions and eventually I discover the surprise. Since I cannot stop asking questions my husband has stopped answering. However, for Valentine’s Day I tend ask few questions as even if he tells me the name of the restaurant it is likely I will not know about it, leaving my only concern what should I wear for dinner.
On 14th February this year, we had a mini celebration we opened an amazing sparkling drink and I asked the usual, what should I wear for dinner but I got no answer again. However, I still had three days to get my answer. Thursday, I asked again, however, this year was different as the answer was still a surprise.
On 16th February, against all the odds I waited patiently but when Friday night arrived, I could not wait any longer as I needed to start getting ready for Valentine’s. This year the answer to my questions was brunch and then pack a bag for the weekend.
Then the questions started again but this time this were different as I wanted to know where are we going, and what type of weekend it was like a spa day, photographic trip, shopping trip, or adventure trip. My husband did not give any answer about the specifics but he told me that I will not be hiking and I started narrowing down the place.
I packed my overnight bag for a non-hiking trip and my entire camera equipment, just in case. However, I did not do my usual preparation for my trip so I was forced to be spontaneous and go with the flow.
On 17th February, we were all packed and ready to go. The first thing to do is always food so we were going to Canary Wharf for our brunch in an amazing French restaurant with a view of the ice skating rink. Since our reservation was around 1 p.m. I was more in a mood for lunch rather than eggs, however, the eggs benedict looked amazing.
My lunch started with a beautiful Jerusalem artichoke velouté with winter truffle for starters, followed by a stuffed lamb shoulder with goat cheese for main course, and finally sticky toffee pudding with custard and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The lunch was beautiful cooked, the flavour combinations were deep and rich.
After lunch, we were on our way to the mysterious trip. However, I still wanted to know the location and I started with the questions, again. I wanted to know how far away we were going and I wanted to add some ideas depending where we were going. I asked where we were going and he said that if he told me he will give the entire trip away, so instead of asking for the place I asked for the general location. We were going north west, so I asked if it was towards Reading, and he no. Then I asked if were going before or after Birmingham, and he said before. Therefore, with that answer I told him that if we could add Bicester Village to our plans for some retail therapy and he said, “that is our trip and as always you spoil it again, however, I do not want to tell you where are we going exactly”. I thought it was a fair deal.
I was able to get this answer before even leaving the Canary Wharf area, so I thought since I know where are going we could go home and drop the extra luggage and travel as light as we can and made space for the shopping. Therefore, since this was a retail therapy trip, I left my entire camera kit and just travel with the smallest of my cameras.
We left the luggage and we were on our way. It was already 3.30 p.m. and we were going to travel through the sunset, making this an amazing car drive. We had an amazing car drive and we arrived to Bicester around 5.00 p.m. and stopped in the petrol station for some drinks and some nibbles, as I did not know how far away the accommodation was.
We took just a bit of a break as we needed to arrive to the accommodation before 6 p.m., and after setting the GPS we realised that it was around 10 minutes away and we will be perfectly on time. I tried not to use the GPS as they tend to be annoying. By this time, it was already dark and the accommodation was in the outskirts of Bicester.
The accommodation was set inside a beautiful estate with a huge garden and a big house at the edge of the garden. We entered the estate via an electronic gate and after parking we met the owner of the bed and breakfast. She showed us our room and told my husband that she only got a booking for one person but her 20-year experience told her that nobody books a single room on Saturday night so she already arranged for us in a double room.
We got ourselves settled on our room and we were ready for dinner. We were not far away from our favourite Bicester pub so we decided to go there. Before dinner, we made a stop in the local supermarket to stock for basic supplies and some snacks for tonight and the next day.
After shopping, we went to the pub and enjoyed an amazing dinner. Finally, after and amazing day that started with French lunch and ended with British food, we arrived to our accommodation and enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing night.
On 18th February, we woke up around 8 a.m. as we were having breakfast at 9 a.m. The accommodation was an amazing Bed and Breakfast in the middle of a farm run by the owners. Therefore, one thing was certain the eggs would be fresh and delicious. During breakfast we had a great conversation with the owner, while she was cooking. We talked mainly about the Winter Olympics as the day before, Britain and Northern Ireland had achieved a major landmark as they won 3 medals in single day.
We finished breakfast around 10 a.m. and since check out was around 11 a.m., I had enough time to explore the property and took a lot of photographs. The property had two horses, an amazing pond and a beautiful tree house. At around 11 a.m., we were packed and ready to go shopping.
We arrived to Bicester Villager around 12 p.m. and after parking the car we went to the visitor’s centre as they provide a 10% off corporate voucher in every shop on the plot with exception of Prada.
The reason we love Bicester Village is because we could get all our favourite brands heavily discounted specially when the season is about to change and we were lucky enough to be changing from winter to spring, at least on paper. We spent around five hours between window shopping and actually shopping, and we enjoyed every moment of that. The best part was that we did not go over budget but the worst part was that my favourite shop was closed and I was unable to browse it and I was very disappointed.
After an entire day of shopping, we went again to our favourite pub and had another amazing dinner. We left Bicester around 7 p.m. and arrived home around 10 p.m. as the route was heavily congested.
At the beginning of the weekend, I was very intrigued to see where we were going and a bit annoyed that I did not know the exact location, as I tend to be a perfectionist. However, it turned out to be an amazing adventure with my husband and a Valentine’s Day I will never forget.
Valentine’s Day is a day to remember love rather than just buying expensive presents that you never use or flowers that you throw away. It is a day to spend with the people that you love doing something together that you would never forget. This does not need to be exactly on 14th as everyone else does it on that day and instead of becoming a memorable adventure becomes something that you have to do.
My suggestion is pick a weekend day before or after 14th, force yourself to do something memorable and special, and remember that Valentine’s day is about choosing to spend this day with someone that you love.
Happy Valentine’s Day…and live like if every day was Valentine’s Day.
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