21 selfies*

I turned 21 at long last! Being an August baby meant that my friends who were in my class at school treated me like I was five years younger, rather than just a few months. It meant I couldn't go out and celebrate when all my friends were 18, because they wanted to go out drinking and I wasn't legally old enough yet. Now, it often means that when it is finally my birthday, a lot of my friends are on holiday and so can't make it to the events I put on to celebrate. As long as they bring me some warm weather when they return, it's all good and gravy!

To commemorate my ageing process this year, I decided to try and get 21 selfies to document the occasion. I went to a vegetarian restaurant on the day of my birthday, and invited friends over the day afterwards (because the day afterwards was a Friday). That way I had a better chance of actually taking 21 seflies, which apparently turned out to be quite a lot of selfies for me. As it happened, I was only able to take 19 selfies - I wasn't smart and didn't count as I went along so I had no idea what number I was on at any stage.

Despite my failure, I have here for you 21 pictures from my two-day birthday: the 19 selfies and two pictures that were taken of me by my mum (photo 8) and a random stranger (photo 12).

1. That "I just woke up" look

2. Fakest pose of me sniffing
the flowers my gf sent for me

3. Fresh out of the shower,
admiring the length of my
nose

4. Dressed and considering this
top

5. Another fake pose of me working on my story. I mean,
I really was writing on my birthday but it was difficult to
genuinely write and take a selfie simultaneously

6. Changed my top. Like this one
better

7. Reflective balloon selfie

8. Cheesy grins all round

9. Messing around with the broken
mirror in my house

10. Taking the tube with my bro

11. Hey look! It's that other blogger!

12. Group photo

13. My version: same camera, wrong settings

14. Bathroom selfie

15. She had no idea

16. Read my glass. Believe my
glass.

17. I ruin nice photos with weird
faces

18. He got really drunk because
he lost a lot on the Wii

19. Laughing because I had
accidentally pressed record
prior to taking this photo

20. Me and the youngest bro
being superbly weird with our
faces

21. Twinsies!

All in all, I had a wonderful birthday surrounded by friends and family and I'm glad I have these snapshots from the occasion. Amazing as they are though, they do nothing to describe how much laughter was involved, or the comfortable silences we shared during the down time, or even how competitive we all got once I brought out Mortal Kombat.

That's a good piece of advice, actually. If you're inviting friends over, play a fighting game that none of you really have experience with. Watch laughter turn into slaughter as you all figure out the controls, and then yell at your team-mate for switching you out with zero communication so you get beat mercilessly for a crucial 10 seconds that puts you at a serious disadvantage for the rest of the match.

It's a real party-pleaser.