I have been unforgivably lazy when it comes to my duties as a blogger, especially since these past few weeks have been rather eventful. So instead of writing a blog odyssey (blodyssey, if you will), I shall break up my post into a trilogy of four parts told in reverse chronological order. These constituent components will comprise of: my recent birthday; my job at Apple; exam results and the aftermath of said exam results; and finally, Alex’s body flying birthday present. So let’s begin.

There are two things I can say for absolute certain: 1) anything can be improved if it “comes with a side of bacon” and 2) I have the most amazing friends in the world. Last Saturday I turned that age too big to be proud of and too small to be of any particular significance. In my family we have a lovely tradition for birthdays. Everyone gets up a bit early and we have a big breakfast together complete with presents, cake and a traditional Sri Lankan dish called milk rice. Then afterwards it’s usually off to school/work for all of us and festivities can happen during the weekend. Since this year’s event fell on a Saturday, I was left to my own devices for the afternoon/evening, so I notified a few friends (without using the words birthday, or party for vanities sake) and booked a table at a restaurant, all very last minute because of my horrible indecisiveness. It would be a nice chance to catch up and have a good sort-of-Japanese meal at Wagamamas. This was, of course, not what happened since my wonderful friends decided to intervene.

After the family breakfast and the impressive haul of gifts I was sitting down at the table eating when the doorbell rang and my mum told me it was the postman, a perfectly plausible explanation for being disturbed midday on a Saturday. I, of course, leaped towards the door, hoping to see a sizeable box containing something shiny and mains powered. Instead, my aghast look fell upon the sight of Alex, Amy, Ela & Rysiek holding a homemade birthday cake singing that all-to-familiar song. After some hugs, extinguishing the candles and welcoming them into the house my dropped jaw finally returned to its conventional position. We all chatted about the deception that had been going on behind my back and the far too obvious clues that I had missed and munched our way through two enormous birthday cakes.

Eventually they all kidnapped me against my will and took me to the bone-chilling sight that is Vue Cinema in Westfield. We watched Inception, a film that is confusing and remarkable in equal measure. It also boasts some of the best special effects I’ve ever seen in a film (which is what an Imperial student usually focuses on in a cinema).

From then on my plan resumed (a tad later than expected) in a restaurant and the night ended with a lovely session in the arcade and a few games of pool in the best pool place in London (small room below an arcade in China Town).

In summary, I had an unexpectedly wonderful birthday and I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who came, everyone who left me messages on Facebook and a special thanks to those four incredible people who made such an effort to keep me happy, surprised and speechless. Love you all!!

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx