birthday babies and the cupcake corner

On saturday, my friend Liz and I threw ourselves a belated birthday bash at a bar in Manchester. We spent the afternoon leading up to it baking our little hearts out, thus providing a 'cupcake corner' for people to decorate their own. (Ours were special due to us being the birthday girls, we had sparklers!). A fun night that ended all too quickly and saw me enter a near sugar-coma by the end :) Highlights included: Chris and a very pregnant Jen turning up all the way from Liverpool, 2 of the 4 yellow house girls making an appearance, and an amazing gift from Hunter and Wilson of a hot water bottle cover knitted in the shape of a little cottage! Amazing!

birthday break in the big city

For my birthday, Andy and I took off to London for a long weekend. It was fantastic and exhausting. I forgot how, like in New York, much walking is required! (Maybe now that my legs have turned 27 they simply wear out more easily...?)

We visited the gorgeous British Museum at night, walked around Soho and ate in Chinatown, visited the Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery and Photographer's Gallery. We walked along the Thames, watched street performers in Covent Garden, ate Brazilian food and saw Andy's dad sing in a huge (and kind of zany) production of the opera Carmina Burana, in a 20,000 person-filled O2 arena. Afterward, I treated myself to a very tasty cosmopolitan cocktail. (Now, we're eating beans for a month but it was worth every penny!)

I feel good about 27. Life has been a pretty great adventure so far, and I hope the adventure keeps flowing thick and fast in the years to come.

Brighton Beach

A winter walk on the beach.

NYE

I spent New Year's Eve with friends from Manchester in a tiny village in the south of England. We took a woodland walk at dusk with a dog and torches, we lit a fire and sat around it all night eating, drinking, singing, laughing and dreaming of what the new year might bring. At midnight we linked arms and sang Auld Lang Syne and walked up a hill with our glasses of champagne to better see the fireworks. I feel happy and hopeful about the year ahead...