Happy Birthday to Me ... again and again ....

I was really lucky this year to have my birthday whilst I was at home in london .... and so i saw and was suitably cherished by my folks .... and got to see and celebrate with all my mates (thank you so much to everyone that came to the Sochu lounge .... i had such a wonderful night!) .... a real luxury for me given my recent global trottings ....

However ... my new friends in south africa wanted to celebrate for me too .... and so my lovely lovely friend peter decided to throw me a champagne brunch .... and yes i know this means that i have now been celebrating my birthday for over a month (although there is NOTHING wrong with having a brithday month .... and no it isn't an only child thing) .... and if he was honest .... it was all really it was to show off his new champagne flutes and candelabra .... (and yes he is - as peter pan on ice skates .... but every girl needs a gbf ....)

And so we met in his predictably fabulous flat at 11am armed with capetown-tastic food, champagne in the all new beautiful flutes and great jugs of bloody mary .... it was 27 degrees out on the deck (welcome to winter in cape town) .... and life seemed perfect ....

As the afternoon wore on - the sun kept blazing .... and the mimosas/champage and bloody marys hit the spot .... idah was teaching us to dance afro-style ..... everyone seemed awfully witty and clever ..... several of us had to pop out for more and more bottles ..... and if we broke a few glasses - well - peter was very understanding .....

however as the hours went on ... and the bottle pile grew .... it became clear it had all hit the spot too well ... and by 5 (we started at 11) .... after 12 bottles of champagne and 3 bottles of vodka between 10 people (not all of whom stayed the distance) ..... me and half the party were revisiting our brunch (including one nameless person who vomited over the balcony onto the white awning and the passers-by below .... yuck!) .....

rather embarrassingly for me i then promptly fell asleep on the settee .... stonkingly boxed .... and woke up an hour later ... in time to see england crash out of the world cup on penalities .... not sure if it was the alcohol ... or my latent patriotism ... but i spent the rest of the night slumped and mourning all english performances of the evening ....

So i know that my african experiences seem rather different to Shashank's (especially his recent flirtation with the darfur diet and men with guns) .... but .... anyhow it just goes to show that just because you turn 31 ... you don't have to be all grown up ....

It all seemed so fabulous at the start ....



And Peter was the perfect host ....



But then things started to get messy ....



And we went from fabulous to flat-out - how the mighty are fallen .... (in fact Idah did fall ... from the bed to the floor .... and still didn't wake up...)





And the party resumes after our "naps" ....