Birthdays and Blogiversaries

I'm a little late with this post as both of the events I'm about to mention happened a couple of weeks ago now, but better late than never, eh? 

In the last couple of weeks since I've been a little quiet on the blogging front, two very exciting things occurred. Firstly, Alphabeth turned one! Hurray!! I wish I'd been able to write some sort of blogiversary post on the actual day (12th April) but I was rushing to finish off an essay so that I could get it over and done with in time for the next exciting occurrence: my birthday! Yep, I turned 20 on the 15th April and am officially no longer a teenager. I definitely have some mixed feelings about this but overall I'm pretty excited to embark on the next decade of my life and to see what it has in store for me.

In all honesty, this birthday was one of the best I've ever had. For one, I got to spend it with my best friend from university, Alysia, who came over to visit me at home for a couple of days, as well as all my lovely school friends, some of which I hadn't seen for a while.

The evening before my actual birthday we all met up for a meal in Birdcage Belfast, which isn't even just my favourite restaurant in Belfast, but probably my favourite restaurant. Period. It's kind of like a hipster Nandos in that it sells a variety of chicken dishes and the menu is set up in such a way that it encourages you to split and share main courses. The end result is therefore a massive feed for much cheaper as you actually only end up paying for half a main and your own side, so it's great for students living in the area. Also, the food is absolutely unbelievable. I genuinely have so much love for this place, especially for its mac 'n' cheese and its range of yummy cocktails! 

The next morning, Alysia, my mum and I set off early to Castle Leslie for a riding lesson at the equestrian centre which I never believed I'd ever get the chance to do because it's just sooo fancy. The lesson was actually an incredibly generous gift from my mum's partner and was honestly a dream come true, even though it ended up being a little chaotic.

The riding style they taught was pretty foreign to me and I don't think I took to it particularly well but it was still a brilliant experience and it was so cool to get to ride against such a beautiful backdrop. 

After the lesson we met my mum for some coffee and she surprised us with impromptu bookings at the castle's gorgeous Victorian Treatment Rooms for facials! It was actually my first time at a spa so I was so excited and honestly, the whole experience was so much better than I could ever have imagined. The facial itself was so relaxing, and was only made better by some of the chats I had with the really lovely beauty therapist. She was Polish and spoke several different languages so we had a very lengthy and enthusiastic conversation about the joys of language acquisition- one of my favourite topics, being the language nerd that I am! I really love hearing people's stories as well; I think it's one of the reasons why I love reading blogs so much.

I don't think I can actually recall a time in my life when I ever felt as chilled out as I did after that spa treatment. When our facials were done we moved into a kind of relaxation area with these comfy chaise lounge chairs where we were offered these little smoothie shots and given a choice out of a huge range of herbal teas. I'm not sure if that's standard procedure in spas and I'm just a spa n00b but if it's not, it should be. I drifted into that lounge room feeling as if I was floating on a very fluffy cloud and I just remember looking around at Alysia and my mum and thinking 'I'm so happy, just right here, right now'. I really don't think I could have asked for much more than that on my birthday.

Once we'd managed to build ourselves up to leaving the spa, and consequently return to reality, we decided to take a walk through the grounds of the estate towards the castle.

Any time I'd ever been to Castle Leslie before there had always been some sort of function on and so I'd never seen inside. I honestly could believe our luck when on this particular day the castle was open and I got to have my very first look at its striking interior which is full of beautiful furniture and pieces of art, including an amazing wall tapestry! Not only that, but we also got to out into the castle's gardens, a really stunning area overlooking the lake that I'd never seen before. It's actually the part that they use to host weddings... Can you imagine having your wedding here, with that gorgeous view?

All in all, I had an absolutely perfect day. I couldn't have asked for a better one. Apparently the excitement was all a bit much for me though, since I basically passed out in bed as soon as I got home and was sound asleep by half 10! I may never be the ultimate party animal, but at least I'm always well-rested, haha!

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported me in this last year of my blog's existence. It's been an amazing ride and I'm so thankful for all the lovely people I've met  so far and for all the amazing experiences I've had thanks to blogging. I have so much love for you all.