Happy birthday to me.

'Tis the season to be jolly, mainly because it is July and that means it is also my birthday. Actually, it was my birthday at the beginning of the week, but I have been dragging it out and wringing out every last drop of self-indulgence. If it is any consolation to you who are not celebrating their birthday along with me, I appear to be getting to an age where any conspicuous high jinks results in me feeling feeble and knackered for days. This is no exaggeration.

Last Saturday (the 7th) I held a birthday knees up, whereupon I proceeded to forget two of the most fundamental and fairly basic rules of alcohol consumption. 1 - do not decide that, after an evening of quaffing white wine, there is no harm in changing to red. 2 - do not do this on an empty stomach. The results are not pretty, but luckily I was too smashed to notice too much (Jo dealt with the messy parts & and the pathetic grovelling from me afterwards). Suffice to say the next day was spent prone on the sofa watching The Food Network, as it was the cloest I could bring myself to eating for several hours.

Even now, over a week later, alcohol holds little appeal. Perhaps I reached my karmic booze limit? Could I have met my quota for wine consumpton during this lifespan? Or have I just completely knackered my throat? Such mysteries...

A rather more subdued luncheon was held yesterday for some friends who were, for varying reasons (some more glamorous than others), unable to share in the previous weekend's embarassments. It was significantly more subdued by a guest list that combined factors such as pregnancy, accidental hangovers and jet lag, and if you're not yet convinced of its lack of rabid excitement, we managed a full game of Trivial Pursuit. I did not win, but I did correct the grammatical errors on the question cards because I am a pedantic pompous ass. Though I think I did win the unofficial "Who can eat the most?" competition, good for me.

On the birthday gift front I got some corkers. I had almost forgotten how good 'Sign O' The Times' was, but the double CD is reminding me of the days when Prince was just fabulous (he should never have got rid of Wendy & Lisa, foolish foolish man), I also have a lot of money to spend on clothes, a quite endearing Ugly Dog doll, a celebrity scandal pop-up book and Herodotus' Histories, which are providing me with slightly disturbing insight into the ancient Greek mindset. Jo also got me a couple of laser pointers, allegedly to indicate points of interest during my evening classes/Egypt tour, but I am sure I can also find a use for them on particularly provocative/aggravating "students". I also opened a couple of Civil Union gifts, because they arrived on my birthday and I decided it was thus acceptable, and have a gorgeous new clock (thanks Jez & Chris) and the 1st season of Cagney & Lacey on DVD. In keeping with my new found old fogey-ness, I caught myself admiring one of Mary Beth's cardigans during an episode the other night, but in my defence it was freezing and the cardigan was retro-cool (from certain angles).

For no apparent reason my keyboard keeps trying to make everything UPPER CASE, which is just annoying.

So the weeks ahead. Less than two weeks until civilisation now. I would wax lyrical, but frankly I am still slightly faded from last week. I did have a moment whilst getting my haircut last week when I suddenly thought to myself "this is the last haircut I'll have before I am married", and then I REALISEd (see?!?!) that this made no difference to either my life, my upcoming civil union (except that my hair will be in reasonable condition) or my hair cut. Just one more factor in my descent into adulthood: driver's licence, dog, mortgage, decent hair cut, glasses that actually suit me, ability to wear/walk in heels, "marriage", grey/distinguished hair. Luckily I have managed to retain my juvenile sense of humour, reliance on sarcasm and unfounded judgmentalism. Go me!