For those of you reading who don't know me personally, I turned 21 last week, on the 8th June, which means that I can legally get a pilot's license for a gyroplane, apply to adopt a child or supervise a learning driver. That's not to say that any of these will actually have any kind of effect on me, but I can now legally drink in Dubai, the city my parents live in, which means that visits home from now on will be a lot more fun. Bring on the brunches!

Sadly I was quite ill last week, so I spent most of my actual birthday cuddled up on the sofa underneath my favourite blanket (which just so happens to be my housemate's - thanks Katie). My housemates and I had a Harry Potter marathon instead of the trip to Topsham we'd originally planned, but anyone who knows me will know that a Harry Potter marathon is pretty much my idea of the perfect day anyway, so I wasn't complaining too much. Starting at midday, after some exciting card and present opening (more on that later), we managed to get through the first three films before Cari came home from work. In the evening, we got ready to go out and vote in the General Election and go for dinner at my favourite place, Nando's (in case you're wondering, my order of choice is the beanie wrap, lemon and herb, with halloumi and sweet potato wedges). When we came home, my housemates put some candles on the M&S Percy Pig cupcakes that my mum had ordered for me and sang happy birthday - and of course we caught up on that night's episode of Love Island (our current guilty pleasure TV show).

Although my mum lives abroad, she still managed to make it really special for me by sending lots of cards and small presents in my suitcase when I came back after Easter, and by sending the cupcakes, a chocolate champagne bottle from Thorntons and some lovely colourful helium balloons in the post. The balloons came in an absolutely enormous cardboard box, and my housemates and I had just as much fun playing in the box as we did with the balloons! My lovely friends Kirsty and Abi who are both on a year abroad at the moment also sent me some gorgeous 'letterbox flowers' - a bouquet of flowers that are flattened into a long, thin cardboard box that fits through the letterbox - which was the most wonderful surprise.

My housemates also got me some really lovely presents which they gave me at Nando's. The first was a toy Baby Groot (see if you can spot him in the picture above), who is one of my favourite characters of all time, from Guardians of the Galaxy 2. They also got me a voucher for a local spa, a gorgeous tin of biscuits, and made me two hilarious homemade cards, filled with house jokes. We had an earlier night on my actual birthday, and I spent the majority of the next day sleeping and resting up as much as possible in preparation for my party on Friday night.

I've never actually really been one for big parties. I find them quite overwhelming to attend, especially when you don't know everyone, and I'd usually choose a casual evening at the pub over an actual party, which is what I did for my birthday last year. However, with this one being my 21st, and it being the end of our final term at uni, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to get all of my favourite people together for one last time before we all go our separate ways until grad week. My brother and his girlfriend even came down to Exeter for the night, so it was really lovely to have some family there as well as all of my closest friends.

The venue I chose for the evening is a really nice bar in town called Monkey Suit. They have two rooms upstairs that are available to hire for private events: a bar room and a club room, the latter of which I chose to make sure that we had plenty of essential dance space! The club room has a private bar, DJ booth where you can plug your phone in to play your own music, lots of wooden tables, chairs and cosy sofas around the edge of the room, and a dancefloor, complete with flashing lights and some lovely fairy lights too. God knows I'm a sucker for fairy lights. Monkey Suit do the best cocktails, and we were really lucky to have my friend Laura serving us that night, who looked after us very well. They also do a student discount of 50% off for the room bookings, which I thought was pretty incredible.

The outfit I wore is a black velvet playsuit from Urban Outfitters. Priced at £42, it was a little on the expensive side for me, and although I had decided to treat myself for my birthday, when I got to the till it turned out to be only £18 in the sale, and £16.40 with my student discount - an absolute bargain! You can't see from these photos, but it has a more open back with criss-crossed straps which is a really nice, funky touch, and makes the playsuit feel a little bit fancier. I teamed it with my trusty black converse of course - perfect for dancing!

All in all, I had a really lovely evening. It was so nice to be able to have all of my best friends in one room together, and to spend time with them all. The beauty of having a private room is that your evening becomes all the best parts of a good club night with none of the drawbacks - no queuing, your own music, fast service and all lovely people. My brother had a great idea to buy a bottle of prosecco to share, and he got all of my housemates to sign the cork, so I've got that to hold on to as a really nice souvenir. The whole night just made me feel so very lucky to be surrounded by such fabulous friends, and it really was the perfect way to round off the end of term for me.

It feels weird to finally be 21. Although I don't actually feel any older (let's be honest, who does?), I do seem to have an awareness that this is the real deal now (adulthood. I'm talking about adulthood). It's scary to think about the next chapter in my life - there'll be a whole new post on that which you can all look forward to - but whatever happens, I'm very grateful that this last one has been so full of joy.