My 30th birthday

Was fabulous.

That's all I can really say.

My parents were here, my dear friend Jon and his fiancé Alix who live in Paris were here, our new-parent friends stuck their babies with the grandparents and had one of their first baby-free nights out, and so many more good friends joined me to celebrate turning 30.

We spent the evening at The Albion and ate suckling pig with the trimmings; the pig was stuffed with sausage which sounds wrong but was so so good.

The bar staff was nice enough to share the head with me, as it was, in fact, my birthday.

The Irishman surprised me by ordering a cake - chocolate, on chocolate, with layers of chocolate. Bless him. He even got a sparkler in the shape of "30".

And I had to make ANOTHER speech! But at least I had a large amount of wine to help.

The pub kicked us out around midnight, which was perfectly timed for those of us who didn't have to worry about last trains to head over to Club de Fromage for Boy Band Night. Nothing like dancing to Take That and NKOTB to finish off an amazing evening with friends and food. Honestly, I don't think that I can imagine a better way to celebrate a birthday. The evening was pretty much perfect and I wouldn't have changed anything about it.

Except maybe seeing that pig head. Ew.