It was my birthday last Saturday. It was also my nephew’s wedding down in London. We had such a great weekend, shared with our “little” boys and their partners and with the wider family. The sun shone the whole day and Dominic and Louise were clearly having the best time. I do love a good wedding.

But because we were celebrating the wedding, my birthday had to take a bit of a back seat. I was given some fantastic presents and cards, but I waited till I got home on Sunday to open them. I had to buy my own cake (caterpillar of course) and I decided that like the king I would have an extra birthday – on Wednesday. For the past few years I have found that I love a selfish birthday, where I go off on my own and choose my own adventures, this year I went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It is term time and most children are still at school, so the theme park was not too busy, despite amazing weather. I could get on all the rides with barely any waiting. I rode The Big One, Icon (twice), Revolution, Infusion, the Big Dipper, Avalanche, Steeplechase, Launch Pad, Nickelodeon Streak, Rugrats Lost River, Wallace & Gromit’s Thrill-o-Matic, The Ghost Train and the Chinese Puzzle Maze. The only thing I bottled out of doing was Valhalla, allegedly the best water ride in the world, but one where everyone I saw was getting completely soaked.

So if the kids are at school, who goes to Blackpool Pleasure Beach in mid May? The answer seems to be three categories. There are parents with pre-school children, coming to try out the little rides. There are groups of school kids, where a teacher has somehow persuaded the head that it is a good educational experience to go to a theme park. And there are thrill seekers like myself, taking advantage of the lack of queues. In particular there was a group of Belgian roller coaster fans, who travel the world trying out the rides.

What a great week and what a great way to celebrate my birthday. I topped off the day with a visit to Notarianni’s, a famous Blackpool ice cream parlour, where I picked a sundae made with strawberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate and pistachio sauces. Yum yum.