Being a Thirty-something is Awesome

Oh hey there, it's been nearly a month since I last wrote here! Sorry about that, I've just been a bit busy! All month I have been thinking to myself... I should write something on my blog! But I don't know what.... I had my birthday! Yeah, that was fun! I turned 31, believe it or not ;) and I had saved up a little bit of money, so I wanted to treat me and my best friend to a little London trip. She lives closer to London than me, so I met her at Victoria and we had a pint of fruit cider in a nice looking pub. I think it was called Traveller's Inn. She gave me some super adorable presents, and then we headed down to Vauxhall to find our hotel. We popped open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate! We were planning on going out for dinner, but we had a band to go see and we heard that the queue was really long so we better get down there quick! We turned up at the O2 Academy in Brixton and found that you could buy hot dogs (which I didn't buy because I don't eat meat) and tubes of pringles... so that was our dinner, topped up with beer. Yeah, beer. We were there to watch Catfish and the Bottlemen, and I obviously didn't realise how popular they were, because the crowd really surprised me! We got swept up by the crowd, and literally pressed to the front of the stage! Oh my gosh that was the weirdest experience, being pressed so hard between sweaty teenage bodies! After the alcohol fuelled madness, we were properly starving, and raided the Tesco near our hotel. Thence commenced the midnight feast and girly night in.

I can't even remember what we did for breakfast. What did we do? Did we have breakfast? We just wanted to get on the tube and into Camden! It was pouring down with rain, so not the best time to be perusing market stalls, but we couldn't resist all the pretty things! I bought a cushion cover - random - but it's covered in "Arctic and Antarctic animals" and it's the cutest thing ever!!!! My bestie found a gorgeous purple coat that she had to have and wear straight away! But we were getting soaked, so we decided to find somewhere for lunch. At first, I was thinking about finding a vegan/veggie place, but then I saw a traditional fish n chip restaurant, and I couldn't resist! Yes I do eat seafood, yes I know that prawns and mussels and squid are actually "meat". So let's just call me pescetarian. Anyway, I ate the small creatures of the sea, and a huge pile of chips. It was delicious and we were stuffed. But there were more beautiful things to look at, and we found a large indoor market, with lots of super cool stuff. I can't even describe how cool the stuff was. We tried to walk past an Iregular Choice shop without going in, but before you know it, my bestie was buying a pair of unicorn trainers. They were just too awesome. Next to that, there was a shop called Gekko, and I really struggled not to buy all the things. I think the spending was aided by the cocktails we treated ourselves to that afternoon. Before we knew it, it was time to head back down to B-town. Our over-stuffed suitcases of Camden goodies were chucked into the coach and we decided it would be fun to drink wine and do our makeup during the journey, so that we would be ready for a night out when we arrived.

Getting back to my seaside flat, we were fully impressed by the fact that my gorgeous boyfriend had decorated the living room with "happy birthday" banners, balloons, flowers, cake, snacks, and champagne on ice. What a genius! We awaited the arrival of more friends to help us consume the yummy things. At the same time, were were getting glammed up... and when I say "glammed" what I really mean is "covered in glitter and rainbows". I was in a rainbow dress, with rainbow shoes, and a rainbow tiara, and rainbow eyelashes, and rainbow makeup. I told everybody else to just wear as many colours as they could manage. I just wanted to have a super colourful night out! After some drinking in the flat, we headed into town, and you can imagine the drinking and dancing that ensued. Bournemouth is known as a bit of a party town. There was much party. Soon it was 7 am and we were getting tired and hungry. We popped into Subway for some much needed grub, and rolled into a taxi for "the after-party", which turned out to be a couple of hours of loud laughing - more like cackling - while drinking more bubbly, mixed with raspberry liquor. Eventually I kicked everybody out because I needed to sleep.

I slept until about 1pm. My best friend was sleeping on the sofa. I joined her on the sofa with several blankets, to veg out to Netflix for a few hours. Eventually we washed and dressed ourselves to go to my mum's house. Mum was cooking me a special birthday meal of salmon, beetroot salad, and a very delicious cherry and chocolate cheesecake. I really struggled to eat that delicious meal because my stomach was a little bit delicate after all the booze. But it's important that you know that my mum is amazing in the kitchen, and she is actually a professional in the kitchen, because that's actually what she does for a job, and she is highly skilled! I am very very lucky to be so well fed! It took me a while to recover from my birthday weekend, but it was definitely the best birthday celebration I've had. It's funny because I thought my 30th would be the big bash, but it was quite a small event compared to my 31st! I really love being in the 30s. I feel like my 20s were just a learning process of "how to have a good night out" and now that I'm in my 30s, I'm like a professional at going out and having a lot of fun. I think by the time you're in your 30s, you're a lot more comfortable with your adult self, and you've gained a lot of confidence. That's how I feel at least. I don't have it all figured out, but I feel like I'm in a good place. I feel really lucky and blessed and fulfilled by my tiny little life.

 Thank you.