★ DOPAMINE FLOOD ★: 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18

I'm all grown up now! ...not.

When you turn 18, everyone, including you, thinks it's a huge deal. The problem is that the higher your expectations are, the more likely you are to be disappointed. That's why I like to keep mine really low... and guess what? I ended up having the best birthday ever.

It all started with my mom's famous pancakes, which we only have on special occasions. Of course, I ate mine with nutella (oh yeah, and some fruit). My sister is at home so the three of us had a nice "little" birthday breakfast.

Then, believe it or not, I went to Uni (primarily because I wanted to see the girls, but pshhht). They were waiting for me with some cake, but I had to wait until AFTER the lecture...

When the lecture was finally over, we had lunch and Lena got this for me:

So the first "champagne" of the day came in the shape of an ice cream!

And this is the beautiful cake Maria double cooked just to be sure it wasn't raw. But it was a little raw. And I love half-raw cake.

I ended up going to the second lecture, too. I still can't believe that's what I did on my birthday; but with the cake and the girls to keep me company, time flew by and I had to get going to meet up with Sarah. We went to a little café, had a drink and caught up... and had some cake. If there is one day where you can have an excuse to eat cake, it's going to be your (18th) birthday. No judgement.

I had to get back home before going to the restaurant, but it turned out that a lot of restaurants were fully booked because of some exhibition. On a monday night, come on! Anyway, we headed to the harbour without knowing where we would end up. Aren't we just so adventurous?

I had never been to the Rive "Oyster Bar", but my Dad said we should check it out. This is what you see from every seat in the restaurant:

A quick look at the menu and we knew we would give it a go.

We had some salad, some bouillabaisse, some lobster, some mushroom linguini, some wild garlic risotto and the ever-present steak for not-so-little William.

Best restroom wall ever.

I also got a few presents (including things for my dorm and concert tickets when my sister will come visit me in Edinburgh in the fall!) ... followed by a little chocolate fondant presented to me by a charming waiter. Of course, I shared!

As I said... you can never have enough cake.

Back home, my Mom had made the most decadent and delicious cake. Can you see the heart shape? Come on, look closely!

And Dad got me some beautiful flowers!

Oh yes... Vanilla sponge cake topped with white chocolate buttercream topped with a brownie layer tapped with white chocolate and brittle. D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.

I went up to my room expecting nothing, but then I saw a Barbour bag... and then I saw what was inside... the Barbour Classic Beadnell I had wished for! My size had been hard to find because the stores usually start at 36, but Mom found it in my size. It was meant to be! The perfect match for my Hunter boots.

The day wasn't over... The one thing I really really wanted to do was drive around alone. Until then, I was only allowed to drive with my parents (because that's how the german law works), but this was the first night I could take the car out by myself. Obviously, I did.

I met Marianne, Margaux, Henrietta and Berk and we drove to the rowing club (where else?). We hung out there for a while, then we kind of split up and went home. I drove Marianne home because she had a surprise for me... and because I'm a good friend.

18 cake pops just for moi! Charlotte ended up eating most of them... Aren't they adorable?

Had one last slice of cake and went to bed, absolutely content and happy.

Since not much is going on on a monday night, I invited the girls over on friday to celebrate appropriately. We started with drinks and dinner. I made Tom Kha with basmati rice and chicken, but everyone was so famished that I can't show you any pictures...