Birthday Fun

It's official, I am no longer a teenager!  On Tuesday I turned 20 - where have all the years gone? Spending it away from home was certainly different, and a complete change from the previous two years which I spent in the comfort of my home in Devon with my mum and dad. This year my house mates spoiled me rotten, in Southampton.

It started with a drunken night out Sunday night, a free fish bowl at 90 degrees, £1 shots at Vodka Revs, a pointless taxi journey to Wahoo, and back again. We finally ended up in UNIT for a silent disco! I don't know if you've ever been to a silent disco but if not let me explain. Basically everyone wears headphones with a couple of different channels on and the music from the DJ plays through the headphones so everyone hears the same music only it's not out loud. The best bit is, if you take your headphones off all you can hear is the terrible drunken singing of all the people around you and the faint murmur of music. It's hilarious! It's safe to say Sunday night was a drunken one, which to be fair is the only way to be on your birthday night out.

                            Myself drinking wine before going out.

                            Myself, Kaylee and James at the silent disco.

  

 Monday night they took me for a meal at a Caribbean restaurant called Turtle Bay for a bit of jerk chicken - lush! Followed by a few more cocktails at Vodka Revolutions and then home with my pink helium balloons for the count down to midnight and then off to bed ready for an exciting day on my actual birthday which had all been kept secret. Before I headed to bed however, my housemates displayed my birthday presents on the cabinet in the living room, just to tempt me. They even told me to open something but I have always figured it isn't actually my birthday until I go to sleep and wake up the next morning, it might be midnight but it still feels like the same day, so off to bed I went.

 

                                           Birthday Presents!

                                            Birthday message on the mirror.

It was half past seven when I woke up with an excited feeling like you get when your a kid but you have to wait for your parents to get up before you can open your presents. In fact it actually was a bit like that, even my boyfriend didn't budge after I continuously poked him. Didn't he know he had to do everything I say on my birthday? After getting bored of poking I got up and made a cup of tea and before long I'd been joined by my lovely house mates. I honestly felt like a little kid as Kaylee handed me present at a time and everyone watched as I ripped excitedly in to the wrapping paper. I may be twenty but I certainly don't feel like it.

If there's one thing most people know about me is that since I was a baby I've had an obsession with cups of tea, I drink it all day every day and I go through milk like it's going out of fashion. Even as a baby my mum would fill my beaker with warm milky tea. When I started University my flat mates soon picked up on how much I drank the stuff every day and now that we are in the house myself and Emily are as bad as each other with the amount we go through. All this is in mind my house mates bought me a cute little tea pot, cups and saucers and leaf tea from Whittards! It's so cute! As well as this they gave me some chocolates, bath stuff from Lush and a scented candle. My boyfriend gave me Calvin Klein Perfume - Euphoria  and a gorgeous necklace. My parents bought a subscription for Company Magazine which is exciting, some pretty shabby chic hooks and they are bringing something else with them when they visit next week.  I was well and truly spoiled!

                                     My teapot and cups and saucers.

After a lush breakfast we caught the train to Brighton where we went vintage shopping in the lanes! Surprisingly I didn't buy very much while I was there but I had such a brilliant day. We had lunch at Wagamamas and a mocha with loads of cream at no other than Starbucks. When we'd had enough of walking around the shops we headed to the Pier and played a little in the arcade and went on a couple of rides one of which was the worst ghost train in the world but we found it pretty funny to be honest! After that we had doughnuts and watched a seagull literally take an ice cream out of a guys hand which amused us a little too much.

                                               Alex and I on the pier.

                                  Kaylee and I at the end of the pier.

                                   Alex and I at the end of the pier.

With a couple of hours to kill before our train we went to Vodka Revolutions for a couple of cocktails. Now call us light weights but as we headed towards the station we were definitely slightly drunk. The voices got loud, the conversation got ridiculous and any regard for the people around us was totally gone. I still don't really know how we came to the decision to buy McDonalds and two bottles of Rose wine for the journey home but it certainly made the journey go quickly and by the time we stepped of the train we were off our trolleys. With plans to head out as soon as we'd dropped our shopping home tiredness hit me and the thought of leaving the house again was not welcomed and therefore a nice cup of tea on the sofa with my Uni family rounded off a perfect birthday!

A day at the races!

I spent Friday and Saturday working at Newbury Racecourse for an agency I have recently signed up to called Rd Resourcing. I can tell you now, it was quite an experience.

I spent the second day in the pimms tent serving jugs of the stuff to the customers. A stag party set up camp just a meter from the tent and spent the afternoon ordering four jugs every time they ordered and they ordered probably about five times. They learnt my name straight away and whenever they were running low they would shout from their table: "Sarah, four of your best!"

As you can imagine the group of men were extremely drunk and provided entertainment for myself and the others I worked with in the tent. We watched them attempt to chat up glamorous looking women, whip each other with riding crops, play drinking games such as I have never, annoy the elder generations in the crowd and we watched as security kept a close eye on them. It was amusing. After spending nearly three hours drinking pimms they announced that they were heading for the bar to try a different scenery and that we had provided them with brilliant service and hoped we had a lovely day, then they staggered across to the bar and failed to leave a tip. So, they can spend £200 on pimms, and have it delivered but they can't tip. I must say, I was very bitter about this.

Here's the thing, there is certain type of person that goes to the races, not to say this is true to everyone that attends but to the majority. For example if you are regular at the races you don't shop in Primark. It's certain class of people which I am not familiar with. I wont go in to detail but, I'm sure you get my drift. I have myself, been to the races and had a brilliant day out but my bets went as high as £1 every time, I wasn't going to win or lose and I think that was the best decision myself. To win big you have to of already won, one way or another.

From my little red pimms tent I was able to watch the crowd elegantly arrive, the women dressed in beautiful dresses, outrageous hats and 6 inch heels and the men dressed from head to toe in suits, and tweed jackets. I was then able to watch them stagger out of the race ground just like students in Southampton stagger home from the likes of Bliss and Wahoo. There really was little difference, they might have arrived with class but they definitely didn't leave with any and watched with amusement.

It was two very long days at the races, I was picked up at 7.30am and got home around 8.30/9.00pm and I was absolutely exhausted but it was two days in a completely different world that I really enjoyed. Plus, I earnt myself about £100 - can't really argue with than now can I?