And it was a happy birthday!

I thought I'd be all depressy, having my birthday away from home and friends and the hop in brew for the first time, but I wasn't. In spite of myself, it was a pretty good birthday. Going out and drinking a lot helped, as did the inbox full of emails, shout-outs on livejournal, and insane birthday cards with my little pony stickers. Oh, and having totally wicked friends--yeah, that helped too.



Tuesday we went out for Helen's birthday. We went to Bricklane, had a few drinks and then went for Indian food. There're billions of Indian restaurants on this tiny street, and they all have a guy standing at the door offering deals--25% off your whole meal! free appetizers! free wine!--to try and intice you in. There're so many restaurants, it actually kinda helps. We ended up going to a really good place that gave us 30% off and four free bottles of wine (there was about 13 or 14 of us). So I ended up having a lot of wine and piles of really good food for under 10 pounds, which is super cheap for london.

We went to another bar after. Brick Lane's much better for bars than Old Street, where we went for Riddhi's birthday. That closed around 11, yet Helen and Anne and I didn't get home until about 2:30, much, much drunker--but that's a story for another day...

It's too bad we got home late, because our wonderful flatmates had bought us a cake, and were waiting in the kitchen with it to surprise us. They eventually all went to bed, but woke up when we got home (I have a feeling we were pretty loud...and stumbly) and told us about the "surprise." So we ended up saving the cake for the next day...

Wednesday we thought about going to the Canadian pub (for poutine!) in Covent Garden, but I was tired and sick, so we stayed in. Last night, we had a flat party (and Anne made me poutine!) with a bunch of people from class, and some other people I somehow know. Anne and I bought a good bottle of wine, and a box of wine--totally classy--that she picked because the picture of a hippo on it was cute. Basically, instead of having a keg party, we had a box o' wine party. Good times.

Of all the wickedawesome cards and emails I got, the best was probably from Nat and Daorcey. They sent me an really, really religious card with some lovely comments about them praying for my soul. (They also sent me the My Little Pony Stickers.) How sweet. I laughed really, really hard, and I think they might make this their new thing. As nat put it: "I think instead of funny cards I'm just going to get religious cards and call them postmodern." That also made me laugh.

Put that insane card along side Tony's blog and daorcey's response, and throw in the so-ugly-yet-so-funny ecard--if you can even call it that--that mel sent, and the cute-funny ones my sister and Ken sent, and damn if I don't have a lot of damn funny friends. So, it turned out to be a pretty happy birthday after all.

For pictures of the flat party: http://njkobie.dotphoto.com/CPViewAlbum.asp?AID=2200677