I am 23! My birthday was really lovely. I loved waking up in our flat, just me and Alex. He made me breakfast in bed and then it was present and card time. I didn’t have very many (because a lot of people still send things to my mum’s house or Alex’s parents), but the ones I got were brilliant. Alex bought me Mario Party 8 on the Wii, which is a great game. He also wrote me a song about his proposal last year. It’s a gorgeous song and made me cry A LOT. I’ve uploaded the lyrics, so you guys can get the gist of it. It’s basically the story of how he proposed to me last year on my 22nd birthday.

After we had presents, Alex and I went out for lunch in Canterbury. We didn’t know where we would go, but settled on Prezzo which was a great choice. Neither of us had been to one before, and we were pleasantly surprised by their service and food. It was a great lunch.

Alex’s brother, Greg, came to pick us up at about 3pm to take us to Hastings, so that we could see our families on my birthday. We went to see my mum and brother, and then went to Alex’s parents’ house for a lovely steak dinner and Wii fest! It was so much fun!

We planned to celebrate my birthday out on the town the following night (Thursday), and you can check out my photos of that evening on my Facebook, here. I’ll probably add them to my gallery sometime soon too, but for now, they’re just on Facebook. It was a fun night! You can tell we got pretty drunk. It was just me, Alex, Joe and Greg (our brothers, respectively), and we had a really nice time.

Well, progress on wedding preparations is coming on. We still haven’t booked anything yet, but we’ve made a choice to get the ball rolling before Christmas this year. So, by then, we should have booked the church and the reception venue. Our reception venue will most probably be Leeford Place, but we’ll have to go and have a look at it first. I’m so excited about our wedding, you wouldn’t believe. And it’s really nice that Alex’s mum is excited about it too, because she recently went to a wedding at Leeford Place, and keeps calling us with loads of contacts and tips for us to use for our wedding.

Also, this week, I’ve discovered that during my Nursing course (starting 15th September), I get just over £350/month from the NHS to do the course! How great is that? This means that I don’t have to work during my course, and Alex and I will be fine, financially. We’re even talking about saving money for our wedding! At first, we didn’t think we’d be able to do that, so it’s a great surprise!

So, I have decided that next Tuesday will be my last day at work. We’re going away to my dad’s in France the following Friday (29th), so I won’t be working that weekend anyway. I don’t see much point in going back to work after our France trip, and then leaving a week or two later.

Right, well I’m off out into town to spend my birthday vouchers. I’ve got £20 for River Island ( ) and £20 for Topshop!