Feliz Cumpleanos Aqui!

Last Thursday was my 23rd birthday. The day prior, March 12th, my co-workers threw me a little party and Gill made me a special carrot cake from scratch and everyone decorated my cubicle with banners and signed a card for me since I was going to be on holiday for my actual birthday.

On March 13th, Ellie woke me with some chocolate croissants, fresh fruit and mimosas.

My champagne and my new digital camera box!

Before we ventured out for the day!
After we ate breakfast, we went to the affordable art show in Battersea park where there was a huge variety of art for sale from £50 to £3,000. A lot of the art was very impressive.

In Battersea park, Spring is coming, Finally!




After we walked around, we headed to the Borough Market where we ate Raclette which is this crazy French cheese that is heated under a flame that is then scraped off on to a pile of pickles and roast potatoes.




We also shared a veggie wrap and tzatiki sauce. We attempted to go to a beer and cider festival, but it was closed for a break so we went home to relax before our dinner reservation. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door and there was Gena and Merlin who surprised me for my birthday. We went to a happy hour at this place near the restaurant called Anexo and then we went to Dans La Noir, the restaurant. Dans La Noir means Dining in the Dark, which is literally what we did. They ask you what kind of menu you prefer, vegetarian, anything, only meat no seafood, only seafood no meat. We chose vegetarian and Gena and Merlin chose anything goes. All of the servers at the restaurant are completely legally blind so they lead you into the dark room and have to lead you out if you have to go to the toilet. The dark room is not like dark when you turn your lights off to go to bed. It is more dark than the human eye has normally ever dealt with. Your eyes never adjust. Since the menus are a surprise, you don’t know what you are eating and half the time you use your hands because cutlery is a challenge when you don’t know what kind of food you have on your plate. Also pouring red wine is really interesting as you can only feel the glass. The dark is supposed to increase your palette and let you concentrate on your meal more. It was an amazing experience. The food was quite tasty. We had two courses. Gena was a little nervous about her meat as she had no idea what it was. After you are done dining, they show you what you had eaten. It was such an interesting dining concept and something I will never forget.

After that we went back to Camden to meet up with Lauren and have a few drinks before going out. We ended up heading down to Ghetto in Soho for Misshapes which is a really popular indie dance night that started in London and has been recreated in NYC now.







We danced all night until about 2 and had a crazy good time, admiring the drag queens and crazy sequined costumes that some people were wearing. Last birthday, I was at Wet N’ Wild in my bathing suit and at Kobe with Cory and Josie. This year, I am freezing my butt off in London and eating in the dark. It is crazy where life takes you in a year, isn’t it?