a late birthday outing

Ten years ago I celebrated my birthday with a fantastic group of girls at TGI Friday's in Southampton.

This year I decided to do the same, but instead of Nicky, Bez, Sian, Tana, Sarah, Laura, Sally and Bianca, my flatmates of 10 years ago, I was joined by Kaz, Jo, Siobhan, Laura, Susie, Lou, Sarah and Claire.

It was one of the loveliest days I could have had, and for someone who claims not to have many girl friends, I greatly enjoyed the company of these girlies.

There were a lot fewer balloons this time (only one sneakily stolen one, in fact), fewer teenage girl gifts of silliness, pretty much the same amount of cocktails, much much better cake (à la Kaz) - which was accompanied by the wonderful singing of said girlies and our charming waiter, Matthew. It really was splendid.

As well as general happiness and contentment, which was certainly enough, I also received some wonderful gifties: a gift bag of Screme Eggs, 2 immense chocolate orange birthday cakes, and the best mini book ever from Kaz, a pretty kitty ornament and a snazzy new purse mirror from Jo, a Rob Ryan notebook and a flowery heart ring from Siobhan, an adorable handmade anteater named Anthony from Laura, a selection of kawaii stickers and stationery from Susie, a cute kitty diary from Lou, a needle-felting book from Sarah and a Christmas crafts book from Claire. All of which were waaaaaaaay better than the wind-up penis that I had received from one of the girls all those years ago....

I wonder if Laura remembers that this photo exists??

Thank you to all of you for making my birthday outing so lovely, I had such a fab time!