At the end of September it was my partner Emma's birthday – she has what I call a raffle birthday, one which ends in a 0 or a 5. I'll leave you to guess the exact age.

We both had a week off work so got to spend time together doing fun things in the unseasonally warm weather we have had recently.

On Emma's big day we headed to Brighton – there is a toy museum we’ve wanted to visit for a while, we had a voucher for a meal which we could use in a pub in the area, and Emma was eyeing up a lamp in IKEA which I wanted to get her for her birthday.

The toy museum was a nostalgic - full of toys of yesteryear, model railways and puppets, all situated right under Brighton railway station.

The lamp became a bit of a mission – we have been to other IKEA branches to find many of the bright orange lamps on display but none that we could actually purchase.

This ended up being the case in the Brighton store too so we gave up, Emma chose a different lamp online, and I admitted defeat in the IKEA lamp saga.

Navigating the city was easy. We left the car at the park and ride, buying a ticket which got us both unlimited bus travel around Brighton – just as well as I ended up getting us on the wrong bus going miles from where we wanted, but getting lost is all part of the fun of a day out, isn't it?

The pub we went to for dinner was called The Blind Busker, in Hove – a short bus trip from Brighton. We had issues booking it online but from the moment we phoned the pub to sort it out we found they could not do enough to help us and ensure Emma got her birthday meal.

When we arrived we felt the staff really cared and valued us being there, which was really refreshing – little details like ensuring a jug of tap water was on the table and a small bowl of water to help clean our hands after the sticky chicken wings we had for a starter.

It's all too easy to highlight when things go wrong so I believe when you get good service that should be recognised too. We left the pub a glowing review on social media.

Another reason to celebrate is the news that the Radio Woking version of Life on the Edge, the show I make with the young people at Edge Ahead in Woking, has been shortlisted in this year's Community Radio Awards in the Voices of the Community category – really great news and we find out the winners at a ceremony in Birmingham at the end of October.

Listen to my radio shows on Radio Woking: Sunday 9am – noon; Wednesday 7-9am. Life on The Edge every second Sunday at noon with Edge Ahead UK.

You can hear Emma and I on Surrey Hills Community Radio every second Monday at 9pm and Life on the Edge airs every first Monday at 10am.

Send me a voice note – www.speakpipe.com/jonandrews or email [email protected]