The Next Step

Today is my Mum's birthday. I woke up early and wrote the card that I brought and placed it with the wine and Belgian chocolate that I purchased from her favourite shop, Marks and Spencer's.

I went downstairs to the living room, having prepared my best "Happy Birthday!" shout to really remind my Mum that it was her birthday. I felt it was important to remind her of that.

My Dad immediately said, "Mum's out shopping".

I made myself a cup of tea and kept the presents in their waiting place.

After finishing my morning beverage, my Mum eventually returned. I yelped "Happy Birthday!" as she walked through the door and I thrust the M&S goodies into her hand.

"Wine and chocolate! You know me so well!"

I would like to point out, my Mum isn't an alcoholic or a lady of rotund size despite what she just said. She doesn't live off wine and chocolate. That would be slightly odd.

She then proceeded to give me some bad news.

"When I was out, I stopped your direct debit."

"FUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!" I thought loudly in my head.

Let me fill you in. Just before I started university, my parent's had managed to pay off their mortgage so they decided that they would give me money every month to cover my living and personal costs instead of taking out student loans.

Their generous money had lasted me three years and I counted down every day until the next batch of monetary juice would flow into my account.

However, as my parent's are paying for my Master's degree they decided that they would cut down this allowance to the exact amount of my phone and gym contract.

Today was the day it stopped.

This news has forced me onto the next step. Whereas before, part-time work was something that I occasionally did which provided me with money to spend on little gifts for myself. Now, I will have to work to fund any fragment of social life.

I guess that is my next step of adulthood but I will now be pretty poor for the next year and I will probably be forced to shop in places such as the 99p Store and Primark.

RIP to my monthly allowance. You served me well, you will be missed.

The 21st Birthday

Helllllllllooooooooooooooo!

Sorry for the enthusiasm but it's 1:20AM here in England and I'm really energetic as I'm listening to Hot Chip on my new laptop. Therefore, I thought it was time to write a little blog.

I know what you're thinking, "A new laptop?"

I can confirm that to be true.

"Why?"

Well a little event, my 21st birthday, occurred on Friday. I am officially a year older and now very much an adult. Although I've noticed that I feel younger if anything. For example, I went shopping with my Mum and my Sister yesterday and my Mum took us to Pizza Hut for lunch, surely that isn't what three adults would do?

The main thing though is that I have a great birthday. Two of my university house-mates took me out to the cinema and then to dinner at Zero Degrees on Thursday and then my parent's took me out to yet another dinner on Friday whilst as I said, excessive shopping happened today.

I did notice one very bizarre ritual though. Almost every card that I received said "Congratulations". What are they congratulating me for? Surely they should congratulate my Mum for going through the pain barrier of giving birth to me. Perhaps even my Dad should gain some credit as well. It seems a very British institution to congratulate someone on their 21st birthday, but I will say that I am delighted to be alive after 21 years.

Well done me.