Happy Birthday to Me!

I think the first thing I should probably get out of the way is that I really am 18. Honest. I was one of the last people in my year to reach that wonderful milestone but I finally did on July 17th 2013 and I was going to go all out with the celebrations to make up for all the times I'd had to miss out on going out with my friends. It was for this reason that I celebrated my birthday three times and although it may seem excessive it was completely necessary and unavoidable.

My birthday is in the summer holidays which is a pain for many reasons. Firstly it makes me one of the younger kids in my year which has always been a source of mockery from my friends and has earnt me nicknames such as 'Baby Kira'. My friends also kindly liked to remind me that I was not legal to drink alcohol (the drinking age is 18 in the UK) which was bearable when they were just going out to the pub the odd night but was more upsetting when it meant I missed out on some major events. But the main reason it sucks (and the contributing factor to why I had so many birthday celebrations) is that people are always away on holiday for my birthday! It can actually be quite lonely!

 

Celebration #1

On my birthday itself only two of my friends were around to celebrate with me so we spent the day together. We went out for a nice pub lunch (where I ordered my first legal drink and ironically wasn't ID'd- the one time I actually wanted to be!)

 

My first legal drink was a Mojito!

 



It was such a nice relaxing lunch and great to catch up with two of my best friends who I hadn't seen in quite a long time (as it always is with school holidays, you never see your friends as much as you'd hope to). One of the more peculiar things that happened that lunch (and with my friends there was bound to be something odd) was that when we looked out into the beer garden, we saw a lovely white peacock roaming around! I took it as a sign that my birthday(s) would all be successful. When we came home we decided to watch a film and chill out before my parents came home and then we all went out for dinner with some of my extended family. We went to a nice little Italian restaurant near where I live and had so much food! My dad somehow managed to convince my friends and I (who were adamant that we wanted a main and dessert ONLY) to have all three courses so that by the time the main course was being cleared away none of us thought we could handle another course. Of course this was when the lights were turned down low and the cheesy 'Happy Birthday' song came chiming though the speakers and I was presented with my birthday dessert, a Patisserie Valerie cake that my mum had brought to the restaurant earlier in the day! To say I was surprised was an understatement and the thought of eating yet more food made me anxious but somehow between 8 full tummies we managed to eat a large proportion of this cake and wow was it gorgeous...

My simply divine birthday cake (picture provided by mum, taken before she gave it to the restaurant)

 

Celebration #2

The second celebration happened the day after my birthday and the only reason it was held on a different day was because my actualy birthday was a Wednesday, which is a dull night to go out in London. Thursday, however, is much better. That day my two faithful friends Ellie and Scarlett (the girls who had been with me the day before) and I were joined by another friend, Luke, as well as some of my cousins and we headed to a bar called Vodka Revolution in Soho. This bar is a great place to start a night out! It specialises in different flavoured vodkas including jelly baby, chilli and bubblegum, all of which tasted yummy and so is good for when you can still appreciate your drinks i.e. the start of a night or when you're only going for a quick drink. However, the atmosphere was quite mild considering that there was a DJ playing music there and so would probably be a nice place to go for a quiet drink instead. It also closed up at 11pm which was a bit annoying and so due to those two reasons we moved on to another bar and then later to a nightclub. I'd love to tell you what those were both called but since they were not planned in advanced and my cousins pretty much herded my friends and I from place to place so that I didn't have to worry about what was going on, I have no idea what either of them were called. What I do know was that the next bar was a complete let down with no one inside and so we swiftly left and moved on to a nightclub which made up for the last bar very quickly. There was music and dancing and it was so much fun! I love me some dancing you see, that's my one priority when I go out. Oh, and here's a picture from that night for your viewing pleasure (taken from Vodka Revolution)

 

Celebration #3

Well here we are, finally at the last celebration- my birthday party! I know many of you will be thinking 'You already celebrated it, why do you need a party?', well you see I have a large friendship group who I love very dearly and it just wouldn't feel right not to celebrate my birthday with them! Also, the idea for my party had been with me for many months prior to my birthday and the more I thought about it, the more necessary it felt for me to have the party. I wanted a party that was unique and fun and very very messy and so I had a Holi party! Holi is an Indian festival where powdered paint is thrown and it was something I have always wanted to try. Surprisingly, my parents did not shoot down the idea straight away as I had expected but started to help me plan it and work out the logistics. They even let me use our garden for the party and persuaded my cousin's boyfriend to DJ for us (don't worry, we protected his kit from the paint) so it felt like I had an outdoor nightclub in my garden! My poor neighbours must've thought we were all nuts, although we did warn them about the party in advance.

 

We had 25.5kg of powder paint in 11 different colours!

I think it's safe to say that we all had a lot of fun! My house and garden was a mess afterwards with coloured powder absolutely EVERYWHERE but I think it was worth it because everyone told me it was the best 18th they had been to- result! 

 

Before...

...and after!

 

And that concluded my birthday extravaganza!