AIBU to be pissed off at my husband for making me miss out seeing an old friend on his birthday?

No. You prioritised your piercing over seeing your friend. He did nothing wrong wanting to go to shops on his birthday, when you were actually there for his birthday.

Are you both 14? FFS.

All sounds a bit chaotic really.
Not sure why you couldn’t have separated for the last part and done your own things.
Why was the piercing something that needed to be done there and then? Surely there’s somewhere closer to home that you could have had it done?
especially when it seemed you were on a tight time schedule and had someone you had planned in advance to meet and this was dependent on everything else running to time.
Regarding it being his birthday, dh and I see our birthdays as just another day unless it’s a ‘big’ one but even then I’d not begrudge dh taking a bit of time out of it coincided with the possibility to meet up with a friend for the first time in years for an hour.
Anyway, the whole thread is just a bit baffling to me, sort of like 2 8 year olds have tried to plan a day out!

You should have prioritised your friend over the piercing OP. It was his birthday yabu.

If you haven't bothered making the effort to go to Bristol to see this friend on one of your own birthdays over the last 5 years then its not really that much of a friendship!

Certainly not one that you would prioritise over a piercing.

Not your DHs fault at all. You wasted the you time getting a piercing instead of seeing your friend. That's on you

YABU
Is this another of the stupid toilet threads in disguise?

Certainly the piercing took longer than, what, a 7 minute walk each way 15 minutes total maybe?

Personally for me, if I’d already agreed the itinerary upfront with my DH and he was happy with it and time starting running away for whatever reason, I’d have asked if he was happy to go to his last shop alone (especially as you say he knows the area having lived there previously) and if he was then I’d have parted ways to meet my friend on time.

Just take it as a lesson learned for anything similar in future to also agree a sort of contingency/plan B to ensure any priority elements of your trip stay on track.

It sounds like the delay was caused by your piercing, and by planning too many things into the day.

The toilet thing is absolutely related to his autism and not something he chose.

But I don't understand why to didn't split up so he could go to the shop and you see your friend?

This is weird. You delayed the day doing something you-centred on his birthday. You had also planned to meet a friend (presumably very briefly) who wasn’t a mutual on his birthday. You sound a bit selfish. The weirdest of all is you could easily have said ‘I’ll go meet my mate see you there/back at the hotel in an hour’, but you didn’t so presumably you weren’t that bothered about the friend? And he’s autistic!

Maybe the piercing delayed things a bit but surely the half mile trek looking for 'acceptable' loos was the main issue. Unless he is quite disabled, why on earth do you need to take a grown man to the loo? Let him look for a suitable spot by himself. In fact, he should have told you to go meet your friend considering that you'd already done pretty much done everything he wanted for that day. Bizarre.

I don't think your piercing needed to be a priority.

You created the first delay, it's on you. Also, why couldn't you have left him to it for a while, gone to meet her, and then join up again?

Such a strange post but I think you are unreasonable...

It was his birthday trip so fair that he chose to go to the shop that you don't have in your local area
Also
You chose to get ears pierced which took up time on this trip
Finally
You could have told him to catch you up and gone to meet your friend whilst he went to shop

You could have got your piercing any time. If you were that bothered about seeing your friend you should have prioritised that.

Would you even have had time to order coffee with your friend? It seems you had already delayed your meet up with earlier diversions.

you also could have split up, gone to meet your friend, and reconnected with your husband after.

Honestly, I would be annoyed if someone scheduled a friend meetup and added in a time factor to it.. in my brain that now creates a cycle where I have to worry about time all day instead of just enjoying myself. I’ve learned enough about myself to have refused the plan in principle. I would have said meet your friend early in the day, do it separately, or not at all. The ticking time clock later in the day would ruin my day. That is just my variety of ASD. It’s the same if I have any afternoon appt. It dominates my entire day and I can’t think about anything else.

Surely the answer is that he should have gone to the shop (and toilet!) by himself whilst you went to meet the friend?!

It was his birthday trip and you already wasted part of it in your unplanned overrunning piercing. It’s your own fault you didn’t get to meet your friend.

Sounds like the pair of you were pissing about and wasted a lot of time.

So you’re mad at him on HIS birthday because you delayed everything and the you didn’t get to see your friend? Yeah OK.

Did he want to see the friend on his birthday?
Given the arrangements were made I would have gone to meet friend and caught up with him after the shop but it sounds like you tried to pack a lot in

I would have left him in the first loo. 🤷‍♀️

Why didn't you get your piercings another time if meeting up with your friend was your priority?

I mean, it was his birthday. Why didn't you prioritize him? 🙄

Is this a reverse? It seems like if you hadn't gotten the piercing you would have had time to meet your friend. Because of that you had to choose between meeting the friend and going to the store he wanted to go to and it was his birthday.

Why couldn't he have gone to the store on his own and you could have met your friend on your own?