Davina Dupree's Bizarre Birthday Balloon Ride

S K Sheridan

Guess what, Diary?!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... Yes!! It's my eleventh birthday at last, which is EXTREMELY over
exciting.com
.

At the moment, me and Arabella are sitting in the back of Mrs Fairchild's favourite car, her silvery blue vintage Aston Martin. She's not driving of course, Bertie the gardener is.
She's
sitting next to him wearing flying goggles, telling him hilarious stories about all the antics she got up to in her twenties. Arabella keeps giggling because from where she's sitting she can see how much Bertie is blushing – she told me in whispers that he actually went bright purple when Mrs Fairchild said she and her college mates once tied their knickerbockers round flagpoles to celebrate the last day of term. Hee hee, very
funny.com
.

I've brought the letter with me that my mum sent last week. It's so exciting I've re-read it about a million times:

“Darling! Hope you are having a thrilling time at Egmont. Have you had time to take up those sky diving lessons I booked for you? Daddy and I have just escaped from a tricky situation in Columbia, can't say too much about it but I can say that we sat in the jungle for three days eating insects. Can you imagine?! Anyway Darling, we know it's your eleventh birthday next week so as a surprise we've booked two places on a luxury hot air balloon ride for you and a friend. Daddy's already cleared it with Mrs Fairchild, she said you deserve a treat as you've been helping solve crimes or something – good girl – chip off the old block eh? Go to the website address at the bottom of this letter and enter the password “BIRTHDAY SURPRISE” and it will take you to the tickets, which you'll have to print off. And Darling, this is no ordinary hot air balloon ride so remember to bring a camera...Hugs and Kisses, Mum xxx”.

What does she mean, “This is no ordinary hot air balloon ride”? I just can't imagine. I printed off the school tickets in the computer room using the password a few days ago and now they're safely in the side pocket of my backpack, I checked them ten times before we left at the crack of dawn this morning.

Arabella's always a bit grumpy in the morning and she didn't actually speak to me until we sat down in the back of the car and Bertie gave us a chocolate chip brioche roll each. She ate hers in three mouthfuls then cheered up no end. She's such a sugar monster.

We both keep looking out of the window wondering if we're nearly at the hot air balloon place. We passed through Little Pineham Village ages ago so we can't be too far. We've driven through a forest of pine trees, over a hill, through another village, and now seem to be in the middle of nowhere.

Ooh, hang on a minute Diary, I think I'm going to have to go. The car's slowing down and Mrs Fairchild is pointing at a gate in a hedge although I can't see what's on the other side of it because there are too many trees in the way. I think we're nearly there!

Well, Diary!

What an adventure we've had already and we haven't even left the ground.

We had to get out and walk through the gate in the hedge, there was no room for cars. Mrs Fairchild decided to walk with us, so Bertie put his feet up on the dashboard, lowered his cap over his eyes, and was snoring loudly before Arabella had even closed the gate behind her.

The path through the trees was quite overgrown, although I saw fresh footsteps in the soil. Flowers lined both sides, and between us me, Arabella and Mrs Fairchild spotted bluebells, wild roses, oxeye daisies, fox gloves and primroses. Beautiful and extremely
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.

Suddenly, the path ended and we BURST into a large open glade. Six stunning hot air balloons were sitting on the lawn in front of us, I never realised how big they are before! Literally towering above us, rather
breath-taking.com
.

A funny little man with flying goggles propped on top of his head stopped talking to two other men and jogged over to meet us.

‘Hello, hello,' he yelled. ‘So good to see you. You must be the Davina Dupree party.' He stopped, a little puffed out, and beamed round.

‘Giles!' Mrs Fairchild exclaimed, taking a step back and putting a dainty hand to her mouth. ‘My my! I didn't know you'd become a pilot.'

‘Well bless my cuff links, is that you, Mrs Fairchild?' The small man's eyes grew large. He shook his head, stared at Mrs Fairchild for a few seconds, then his mouth broke into the biggest grin I've ever seen. ‘Well, well, well! It's so good to see you. I don't think I've seen you since I graduated from Dormouse College fifteen years ago. Has it really been that long?'

‘I think it has,' Mrs Fairchild put her hands either side of his rosy cheeks. ‘And you haven't changed one bit. Still the cheeky little chappy I remember. I'm good friends with Giles' mother, Sophia,' she said, turning to me and Arabella. ‘Although the shame of it is we lost touch after she moved to the Bahamas. Well girls, all I can say is that if Giles is your pilot today, you're in safe hands. You excelled at physics and engineering, didn't you Giles? We all thought you'd do something aeronautical. Personally I thought you might become an astronaut.'

‘Oh you do say the kindest things, Mrs Fairchild,' Giles chuckled. ‘I did get round to taking my pilot's licence a few years ago and I've been working as a luxury hot air balloon pilot ever since.' He turned to me and Arabella. ‘You're in for a real treat today girls, the ride of a lifetime. These balloons are really something.'

‘Marvellous!' Mrs Fairchild clapped her hands together and jumped up and down. ‘How absolutely exciting. Now listen, I mustn't hold you up any longer, I'm sure you're all keen to get started. Oh girls I am pleased to be leaving you with Giles. Have a fabulous time, both of you, and come and tell me all about it when Bertie brings you back on Sunday. Although I'll be out until three o clock at my archery lesson.' She gave us both a big hug.

‘Do send my love to your dear mother, Giles,' she twittered, leaning forwards to kiss him on both cheeks before turning to sashay back down the path towards the trees.

‘Oh I will, Mrs Fairchild,' Giles grinned. ‘Right, come on girls, let's get you kitted up for an experience you'll never forget!'

He took us to an elaborate log cabin in the middle of all the hot air balloons and showed us how to strap light weight, folded up parachutes to our backs.

‘Just a safety precaution of course,' Giles said, adjusting straps here and there. ‘No one's ever had to use their parachute on one of our trips but we pride ourselves on being the safest luxury hot air balloon company in the country. Better to be prepared, I always say. Now, whose birthday is it?'

‘Mine,' I said.

‘Then may I say happy birthday young lady,' Giles said, doing a theatrical bow so low his flying goggles nearly touched the floor. ‘If you make your way to the log cabin behind the gold and black hot air balloon you'll find a scrumptious birthday brunch laid out for you. Compliments of your mum and dad. Please wait in that cabin until I come and call for you, I'm just waiting for a few more passengers to arrive.'

‘Oh goodie,' Arabella said. ‘I'm absolutely starving. Come on Davina, let's go!'

I have to go now, Diary, as Arabella is pulling my parachute, trying to get me to hurry up so she can start eating!

Yum, yum, Diary!

So basically, Arabella and I left Giles staring at a clipboard with lists of names pinned to the front of it and made our way towards the birthday brunch cabin. To be honest my tummy was rumbling quite loudly by then and I was looking forward to seeing what food my crazy parents had ordered.

Before we entered the cabin, we just
had
to stop and stare at the six hot air balloons positioned all over the lawn like giant sculptures. They looked so majestic, each one with an enormous, upside down egg shaped balloon joined delicately to a cabin underneath it with four long pieces of rope. When I saw them I thought
blimey.com
, I hope those ropes are strong, they look so thin compared to the size of the balloons!

I have to say that the gold and black balloon is DEFINITELY mine and Arabella's favourite, we are keeping our fingers, eyes and toes crossed that it's the one we are booked to ride in. The cabin beneath it is more like a little house than any of the other balloon's cabins. It has a balcony at the top that has an ornate rail running round it and exotic plants pouring over the top of it. The outside of the cabin is decorated with classical pillars and arches and it all looks very grand. The balloon, which is bigger than any of the others, has horizontal black and gold stripes all the way up it, and there is ornate decoration all over the gold stripes. Just completely
breath-taking.com
.

These balloons look very different to the ones Arabella and I looked at last night on the internet. We searched for images, just because we wanted to know
exactly
what we were letting ourselves on for, and all the ones we saw just had little wicker baskets underneath them with people standing in them. Oh well, I suppose my mum's letter did say this was a
luxury
balloon ride.

Anyway, Diary, when we'd finished looking at the balloons we walked up the steps to the log cabin's door and went in. I nearly fell over because in front of us was a table covered in the most luxurious food I'd ever seen! Trust my parents to go completely
overboard.com
. There were multi-coloured bread rolls filled with spicy meats from around the world, a rainbow selection of fruit kebabs arranged like a fan on a plate, delicate, golden pastries in the shape of wild animals, black and silver cupcakes which smelt of cinnamon and chocolate, golden cheesecake slices with a flower made from edible gold on the top of each one, and glasses of fizzy watermelon juice to drink.

It was all so beautifully arranged it seemed a shame to eat it, but we were SO hungry I decided to take a photo of it with my new camera, (another birthday present from mum and dad, they really spoil me with stuff but it's a shame I never see them), so we could remember it
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, then Arabella and I set to work, nibbling away at everything. Wow, Diary, talk about taste explosion! Everything was so delicious, I don't think I'll ever eat food that
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again.

Right I have to go now, I can hear Giles' voice getting nearer and nearer. Ooh how exciting, I wonder if we're about to meet our fellow passengers...

There's some good news and some bad news, Diary.

The good news is that most of our new flying friends are very nice, the bad news is that two small kids are coming too and they're SO ANNOYING! They're non-identical twins called Hattie and Hugo, they're six years old, have curly black hair and think that going round being rude to people and poking them is funny, when it's SO
NOT.COM
. Arabella's already told them to go away quite loudly but it didn't seem to bother them, they just went behind her and sniggered.

Anyway, like I said, the rest of the crew seem nice. There's the twins baby sitter, Amy, a tall girl who plays games on her mobile phone quite a lot. She's got a nice smile and she doesn't seem to like the twins very much, I can't say I blame her. There's an old man called Mr Duffy and his dog, Crackers. Mr Duffy is very smiley and keeps telling us tales about when he was a young man. He seems quite forgetful; he asked me where his spectacles were, when they were on top of his head the whole time! Then there's Aiden, a short, quiet boy who hugs his laptop to his chest wherever he goes. Giles suggested that he put the laptop away in his bag but Aiden looked horrified and said it was his favourite ever possession and that he NEVER let it out of his sight. So it looks like there'll be nine of us on the balloon ride: Me, Arabella, Giles, Hattie, Hugo, Amy, Mr Duffy, Crackers and Aiden.

Another bit of good news is that we ARE going in the black and gold balloon, hurray! We're standing outside it now while Giles does some final safety checks, then we'll all get on and Giles will show us around. I can't wait to get started! Apparently it shouldn't be too long now...

The excitement mounts, Diary...

Giles popped his head through the door of the black and gold balloon's cabin and said,

‘Come on in folks, I'll show you around.'

Arabella and I were just about to step inside when
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Hattie and Hugo elbowed past us and ran in front. Oh well, I suppose we only have to put up with them for three nights and I'm CERTAINLY not going to let them ruin my birthday treat.