Birthday 2011

The staircase in our new house has
become an excellent group photo spot.

I don't feel any older at all. This time last week it was my Birthday and I was preparing for a house party after visiting my Nan and a local fete in the morning, feeling surprisingly happy and sweet-natured for once. I suppose I appreciate the little things more now: I love taking comprehensive photographs and video diaries of my adventures, but generally, so long as everyone has fun and I see all my friends, I'm far more happy-go-lucky. I'll go where fate takes me!

Saturday 19th November 2011 started rather early after the telethon of Children In Need the previous evening. My parents burst into the room whilst I was barely awake, with cards and packages. In terms of presents, of which I think I've become less bothered by than when I was a materialistic youngster, from my parents I was the grateful recipient of vast quantities of chocolate, a Keep Calm and Carry On mug and a Doctor Who almanac, continuing the unfortunate Sutton family tradition of being bought books that I already own. There is also the small matter of the massive 32" television that I've recently had installed on my wall. Thats rather awesome, yeah.

Though the Stargate has yet to find
 a permanent home in our new garden,
 I used it as part of the party decorations!

But what I was really looking forward to was the party, held in the evening of my actual birthday, for once! Last year I enjoyed an epic do in the Totton community hall for my 20th, but this time around, our new house became an obvious location to decorate and socialise in.

Ian Pidgley was the first arrival, followed by Lewis Smith and Liam Garrahan, and the four of us ran a "TwitterCam" live webcam to the internet masses, at one stage gathering a massive ten viewers, watching us watch Tiny Planets on DVD. Thrilling stuff. More guests arrived, including Emma Long, Tom & Oliver Stevens and his girlfriend Kerrie, Becky Carter and Michael Hamilton, plus fellow YouTube filmmaker Matt McConnell. Adam Best eventually turned up, completing the arrivals, so that my rough plan of activities could begin.

Standing room only to see the
 hilarious video of Emma Long and
I miming to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now"

For some reason, I like doing quizzes. It is the one part of otherwise inane family gatherings I enjoyed as a child, and everyone else were very much game for it, diving into teams with facepalm-able names like "penis", sitting in the lounge as I played music samples and asked questions about current events and my twenty-one years of life, where it was revealed by my parents that after "Dadda" and "Mummy", the third words I spoke as a baby were "Traffic lights". I was obsessed.

Emma, myself and Adam in my
 bedroom. With the COOKIE
 MONSTER t-shirt from university!

Then came the inevitable moment where my parents turn off the lights and enter the room with a candled birthday cake, this year consisting of a loaf of bread with "9-2-1" numbers stuck in. I'm not making it up. Still, it was brilliant and everyone demanded a speech from me, all of which you can watch on the video diary. It involved genuine admissions of love and gratitude in contrast to my often grumpy exterior...

Finishing another priceless
anecdote during the quiz...

Ian and his family gave me a small 'video notepad' device and a wallet multi-tool, whilst Ian's attempt to buy me an executive back scratcher backfired spectacularly as he presented me with a ball scratcher. Rest assured, I don't think I'll be using it for it's intended purpose. Twenty-one pieces of bread were also in a bag from Ian, ranging from rolls to baguettes, so that should last about a week. Tom and Oliver gave me a pair of hilarious Facebook-style "Like" and "Dislike" ink stamps, whilst Lewis had given me a Jedi Path book, something I'd been meaning to read for a while!

So with my birthday party, seeing everyone and the fun I had with the university gang on Thursday, I've had a very enjoyable reminder of my impending death, once again!