I'm officially 25

I'm not sure why I write "officially 25". There wasn't much argument about me unofficially being 25.. which is probably mostly because I have never claimed to be.

Anyway, when I awoke yesterday morning I found myself to be a year older than the same day the year previously. While I have the same feeling every day, yesterday felt slightly different, because it was also the anniversary of my birth.

Brandi awoke me with a sausage and egg sandwich, and pancakes, and a balloon. It was a very nice start to the day. She also gave me my present of a BBQ, which is a suitably manly gift for somebody who has just hit "mid 20's".

We had planned to go to Coombs Abbey for afternoon tea (a gift which Ash gave us for the wedding). Thankfully, it was a really nice hot day, which made it perfect. Coombs Abbey looked awesome, and had really nice grounds surrounding it. Brandi thought it looked like "Downton Abbey", whatever that is.

The Abbey has been converted into a hotel, and inside it looked awesome. It was decorated really classically, and was very dark inside with chairs with really high backs, and tall book cases.

I wasn't sure how this "afternoon tea" worked, so upon deciding, after looking at the menu, I wanted ham sandwiches and shortcake, the man told me that we get all of them to try everything! Though we did have to choose one type of tea. I chose camomile. I didn't know what it would be like, but I had Earl Gray at home.

The afternoon tea came with strawberries and chocolate, cornettos, scones (with jam and cream), millionaires shortcake, and fresh fruit pastries. It was really, really nice, but I was pretty full by the time I got to the shortcake.

When we were done we walked around the grounds. It was really nice, and all public as the council had bought the property a while back.

I took a photo of a bunch of Canadians

I photograph badly since I'm 25

Some swan babies!

While we were walking around the park we found a little adventure playground. I really wanted to go on it, and even though I'm pretty sure it was built for older people, the children were dominating it, and when I tried to go on it my feet were too big to grip onto the ladder-post.

All the excitement, food and walking tired me out, and what started as a moments spontaneous sit-down ended in me dosing off for a few seconds.

After we were done we went to my mom and dads for a birthday party. The sublings were excited to see me, which is always nice. Also, my nan met Brandi for the first time, and I'm pretty she didn't make a nasty comment about her!

Everybody got me nice presents, which Ellie, Savannah and Sam helped me open. My mom and dad got me a big box of nice sweet and savoury snacks (which is always appreciated), as well as money and a Rocky dressing gown (since I'm not boxing now it is always nice to pretend as I come out of the shower).

After we had food I played on the bouncy castle (trying to bounce the sublings over) and then dodgeball (trying to knock the sublings over with a ball).

After that we sang happy birthday (me included), and then we all went home (apart from my mom and dad, who were already home).

All in all, it was a very good birthday, and I don't overly feel too bad about being 25. The 'life plan' I had when I was much younger is strangely and unintentionally very accurate. I am happy and have no regrets, so I probably shouldn't complain too much about being 25... as long as I stick around this age now.