The beginning of my second week in London involved lots of cleaning, organising and running errands and not much of anything else that would be worth putting into a blog post. But by Wednesday, my life had gotten more fun with my best friend Steph coming to visit to celebrate my 19th birthday on the Thursday.
Wednesday was spent avoiding rainy London by staying in and binge watching Orange is the New Black whilst filling ourselves with gluten and dairy free banana bread and pizza - being so lazy was so needed.
My birthday began with opening presents and cards from Steph, her parents and grandma (aka my adopted family) and a cooked breakfast.
Steph also brought me a 'Birthday Girl' badge, which I'm pretty sure is meant for anyone turning six years old or younger since it doesn't have a safety pin on the back. It got me a few funny looks throughout the day but also lots of lovely people wishing me happy birthday and evening a bus driver singing to me.
After breakfast we headed to Kensington Gardens, then down to South Bank and across to Somerset House and Covent Garden.
Since we both have to avoid dairy (and gluten for Steph) we headed to the gluten-free, dairy-free Ms. Cupcake bakery in Brixton for my birthday cupcakes. As well as the cupcakes they also make vegan brownies, cookies and pastries which are all also gluten and/or dairy free. I highly recommend them if you've got a sweet tooth but struggle with intolerances, I'm sure that Steph and myself will be paying them a visit again in the near future.
After a little pit stop at mine, we headed back out again to dinner at Bill's in Soho (who also cater for the gluten-free) and then to the Queens Theatre to see Les Miserables.
I've wanted to see Les Mis on the West End since Sierra Boggess was playing Fantine back in 2012, so when Steph got us tickets for my birthday, I was beyond excited to see it. The only cast member I knew prior to the show was Carrie Hope Fletcher from her YouTube videos (her channel is Its Way Past My Bedtime, she was absolutely incredible as Eponine and surpassed all expectations I had for her performance. The entire cast were amazing, it was so clear that every member of the cast were loving, and wanted to be there on that stage, despite the fact they do the same slightly-depressing-three-hour-show eight times a week. They were still clearly having the time of their lives and living in every moment which it made being a part of the audience that much better (even if I did cry for seventy five of the second Act.) I have to thank Steph again for one of the best birthday presents ever.
After the show, we met Carrie at the stage door, she is so incredibly kind and humble, and again, exceeded all expectations I had of meeting her. She seemed genuinely interested in us and what we wanted to say to her, despite the fact she had just performed in a three hour long musical - I can only begin to imagine how worn out she feels after that show and I think it was so lovely of her to stop for us.
We headed home to light the candles on our cupcakes (I don't care how old I am, I always want to blow out candles on a cake on my birthday...)
My lovely flatmate Maya had also gone to the trouble of getting me roses and a card which was the loveliest little last moment of my birthday.
Inspired by Estee Lalondes 25 Moments On My 25th Birthday! video, I decided to put together a 19 moments on my 19th birthday video, it more of a vlog-style video than a fly-on-the-wall one like Estee's but I'm still so glad that I decided to do it and now have something that I can always look back on. You can watch the video here or below.
I spent the last of my week travelling back home to celebrate and catch up with my family, which was well needed after a hectic first couple of weeks in the city. It felt so good to be back in my own home and to be reunited with not only my siblings and parents but also our small holding of dogs, chickens and my sisters pet bird (our house is literally a petting zoo and I love it.)
So, that's it! My second week in London which consisted mostly of birthday celebrations. And I think it's one of the best birthdays I've had yet, thank you to anyone who sent a card/present/wished me a happy birthday, you all helped in my making my day amazing.
Thanks for reading!
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