sawyl | An unexpectedly awesome birthday

An exception to my general rule of allowing birthdays — my own, at least! — to pass quietly unobserved thanks to some cunning planning on part of someone who shall remain nameless but awesome. Thus I got a tasteful t-shirt complete with a hand-sitched personalised and deeply appropriate slogan — in case you can't read it, it says "bitch" — an MP3 of Lionel Richie serenading me with Happy Birthday, and a bunch of backing dancers boogieing along to it! All of which was a genuinely delightful surprise, although with hindsight I probably should have realised that something was up!

As if all that wasn't enough I came back from my run this morning to discover an unexpected copy of The Goldfinch had come from my parents, an email from my father in Hong Kong, and something from my uncle. Even my grandmother remembered to phone although she wasn't entirely certain how old I was supposed to be...