Places to stay: Malmasion Oxford

Perhaps the reason why the boyfriend and I have been together eight years is because we both like slightly unusual things. Or he just amuses me by going along with slightly unusual things. One such unusual thing was booking me a nights stay in this amazing hotel as a birthday present. It is a converted prison in a medieval castle with a lot of the period features on show. The staff were extremely kind and helpful, they even tried to book us a table in town for dinner. But atlas, it was fully booked. We stayed in the superior suite - the lovely boy cheekily paid for an upgrade - and it consisted of three cells knocked together. It still has the cell down intact too. If you go down to the ground floor you can actually see a cell how it originally was.

I may have let out a little squeal when I spotted the roll top bath - filling it up to the brim on Sunday was pure heaven. We didn't touch the mini bar as we were too poor, but they had absolutely anything you could ever fancy. I loved the little touch of the bath robes and we kicked ourselves when we saw the DVD player. Games Of Thrones is crying out to be finished and we could totally have spent the entire evening in bed. The room was by far one of the best we've ever stayed in and we made that excuse when we trudged off after eating too many burgers to get into bed. At least we made full use of the room eh?!

Despite him remarking at least three times - 'The amount this cost me, we went to Berlin for the weekend' - it was certainly worth the money. The boyfriend has a very nice idea of taking me away for the birthday the kind soul he is. Sometimes in life you have throw caution to the wind and splash out. A little bit of luxury is what makes the world go round.