It's my birthday today!

But, in typical me style... or not, as the case may be, I've been having celebrations the entire weekend. I figured, why not?

So, on Friday night, I celebrated with my colleagues, who decided to try getting me drunk with one of my weaker drinks - champagne. After downing two glasses, I was close to being gone, but fortunately, after taking some time out, I wasn't drunk by the time I got back home. While I don't ordinarily like to hang loose with my colleagues that much (I try to separate business from pleasure), that night was an exception. I had to make an impassioned plea to try and get one of my colleagues, who I'm rather close to (and I'm probably his closest female colleague, I think) and who is rather popular and happening and also has something on, to come down and just wish me a happy birthday. He turned up and stayed until close to midnight, so that was really cool too. It's been a while since my batch hung out after work. The manager of the bar even treated me to a bottle of champagne as well, which was not good since I was definitely not getting any more sober!

Have I said anything about the bar yet? This place is chic, elegant, classy and gorgeous. Located on the top floor of the world's tallest hotel, the view of my decidedly boring country at night is still an amazing sight to behold. It's definitely a place to bring your significant other to because the ambience is really fantastic. And thanks to the aforementioned colleague of mine, he got us a table in the exclusive members' section so we didn't have to mingle with the riff-raff. Okay, just kidding. It's just good that we had a place to sit and drink in such a nice place.

I was dressed up all pretty and feminine too - in a black Morgan top with frilly lace lining the collar and the sleeves, and a tailored cream silk circular skirt which flounced when I moved, so I really felt very elegant that night.

Yesterday night was good too! I went to see the amazingly talented Swingle Singers. I would love to be able to sing like them... and sometimes I think I can, but I'm just too shy to be able to do that in front of everyone! I bumped into two ex-classmates there too, and it's just so amazing how small this world really is.

I ended off my night seeing the Trance Republic DJs do their thang. I had to sprint from the concert hall all the way to the club in order to catch my friend make his debut, and it's funny how all these other people were seeing this funkily dressed individual in really nice suede Camper boots just streak down the office area 'cos I was just running like hell. I managed to catch the last twenty minutes of his set, which he ended off with Beautiful Things. As the next DJ was going to be on from 11.30 pm to 1 am, just before he went on, I said, "Could I make a special request? Could you just make sure that at midnight, your set is going to be damn good? I'll be turning 23 in half an hour." So thank you very much for obliging. :)

The only bad thing, if it can be considered bad, is that people tend to ply you with drinks on your birthday. I had already drunk a Sex on the Beach cocktail (always something I find a little difficult to order, because I tend to go, "Could I have Sex on the Beach please?") before midnight came along, and then, all of a sudden, people start wishing me happy birthday two minutes before my watch says it's my birthday. Turns out my watch was slow, so okay, fine. And then... tequila shots just start coming at me. Three of them within the span of half an hour, and I could definitely feel the effects.

Strangely enough, after having sat down for 30 minutes, I was told by my friend that I didn't seem drunk anymore (I mean, like yeah, when I first sat down, I was covering my head with my hands) and that I'm quite a good drinker, considering how much I took. Now, this is coming from a guy who seems to be able to take close to 20 shots easily and not get drunk. So, like, wow.

In any case, I didn't get any higher or any more drunk that night, despite taking half a jug of vodka red bull and one more Sex on the Beach (this time in shooter form). It's a little weird, but I've noticed if the first three drinks don't get me drunk, I won't get drunk for the rest of the night. It's a good thing I was dancing though, because whenever I stopped moving, I started feeling more unsteady.

Enough about alcohol. The night ended, I went off home and got into bed at about 4 am. It's been a great birthday so far, so it's really cool. When you compare this with my birthday last year (spent mostly at home) and the year before (nursing a slightly bruised heart), you can see the drastic change. It's good to see that my plan to ensure that I celebrate my 23rd birthday in style has paid off!