happy Christmas Birthday to me!

♥ roast dinner with sprouts and honey roasted parsnips ♥ crackers ♥ tinsel ♥

♥ fairy lights ♥ scented candles ♥ pyjamas ♥ Christmas songs ♥ baubles ♥ sparklers ♥

♥ silliness ♥ gingerbread cake ♥ Home Alone ♥ Bernard and the Genie ♥ board games ♥

That's what Christmas Birthdays are all about!

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!

birthday weekend round-up

Although I share my birthday with King Tut day, I felt that the anniversary of the discovery of the young pharaoh's tomb was the more important news to mention here. I do love birthdays, but as I am getting older it's a bit of a weird feeling realising you're no longer in your early 20s... and you're almost a grown up.

I had a lovely day though - I was given an uber mathematical origami book by my boss following my 1000 cranes challenge (of which many were done at work), a gorgeous gift from one of my lovely Year 7 students, cards and chocolate bunnies in my pigeonhole and a bunch of other stuff from friends at work.

After work I got to open my presents from Jms - a backwards watch (after having bought myself a backwards clock about 10 years ago, I can no longer tell the time on a regular watch very easily - so this was perfect!), this awesome book, this awesome book, this awesome book and these ROLLERSKATES! Immense.

Kaz came over later that evening, for dinner and to hang out. She had made the most amazing chocolate orange cake - with ganache and everything. She had also bought me a pretty Momiji doll, who I named 'Murasaki' (the word for purple in Japanese), some awesome Edward Monkton coasters and the best thing pretty much ever, a tiny hand-bound, hand-written, hand-drawn book containing a story about me and my friends and our special magical powers. It was incredible, and the fact that so much effort had been put into it just made me swell inside with gratitude. I can't put into words how special it is.

Miss Yoyo had great fun making a nest with all the torn up wrapping paper, I had fun with all my new goodies, we all enjoyed the cake and the evening was grand.

On Saturday I went for a day out to Hampstead Heath with Phil and Laura - now it's properly feeling like autumn she thought it was about time we did some jumping in mud and kicking around in leaves. So we did. Then we looked for mushrooms and saw some robins and had tea and cake at Kenwood House, before returning to the station via Parliament Hill in order to watch the kites that were being flown against the rose-coloured sky. It was really rather lovely.

Upon my return home I found sherbet Double Dips attached to my front door - splendid!

Today is shaping up to be a pretty lazy day, which is wonderful. Socialising is all well and good and everything, but sometimes you just need days where you stay in your pyjamas all day and drink tea in front of the telly and just generally lounge about. It's an excellent way to see in my next year. But it doesn't half make me feel old.