I was pretty sad to see the end of my 21st year of life. 21 was the age I always wanted to be, being so young but also being seen as an adult and being totally free and Independent. I was all of those things and whilst not much would change from being 22 as opposed to 21, it means my next big birthday celebration is…30!
It’s been an amazing year for me. It started off extremely well with all of my 21st birthday celebrations, which made my 21st the best birthday I’ve ever had. Both myself and Mat knew it would be pretty hard to top, but we also both knew it wouldn’t be like any normal birthday. For starters I’m about 6,000 miles away from any other friend or family member except Mat, and out here I wouldn’t be able to drag out the birthday celebrations over a whole week like normal!
Having said all this, Mat made what could have been a really strange birthday, a birthday I’ll never ever forget for all the right reasons.
So what did we do?
I woke up and mat passed me my phone and told me to go on our brand new website domain (coming soon!!) and on this page was a full days itinerary of pure fun, food and excitement!
I burst into tears because of the thought and effort he’d put into my birthday was everything I needed. I started my day with a traditional Sri Lankan massage (thanks Ashley) which was extremely relaxing minus the times the lady doing my massage got a little bit too ‘hands on!’
Mat met me after my massage and we had falafel and hummus wraps, a nice break from the usual rice and curry/kottu everyday. A quick stop to the supermarket to get some snacks and then it was time for our SAFARI!
Anyone who knows me will know I am animal mad and that a safari couldn’t be anymore up my street. We were staying in a place called Arugam bay which is close to a national park called Kumana, which was part of Yala National Park.
It was almost as if the park knew it was my birthday and brought out all the animals that lived in the park just to see me. We honestly couldn’t have been luckier. Mat had read online that if you’re lucky you’ll see elephants and if you’re extremely lucky you might even see a leopard. Well let me tell you we saw 3 leopards! We saw them lying in the sun on rocks basking in their own glory whilst 5 or 6 Jeep-loads of people looked out to them. After 6 or 7 hours of the Safari seeing elephants, bear cubs and leopards we were then met by the most incredible sunset that looked out onto the park…it can’t get any better than that surely? But it did. As we turned the last corner of the park we saw an elephant so close to the jeep eating from a tree with the beautiful sunset in the background. I took a photo but photos just don’t do it justice. 
The Safari lasted most of the day so we ended up getting back about 7:30pm! It was straight in the shower, throw on my birthday dress and a bit of mascara and highlight and off to dinner we went.We opted for pizza for dinner thanks to my wonderful father, it did not disappoint! After we finished the pizza mat went to the toilet and then he was acting strange when he got back. He kept looking around at the waiters and every time I said ‘should we pay and go’ he would come up with an excuse! After about 10 minutes of this he had to tell me what was going on, he’d planned a surprise cake for me and had dropped it off at the restaurant earlier this evening. Despite all the efforts he made to discreetly ask for the cake to be brought out, they weren’t bringing it out! We both started to laugh and wonder weather the cake had been lost of eaten and we genuinely thought they were making us a new one with all of the rushing around and cluttering going on in the kitchen! It was half 9 but this point and we were the last ones in the restaurant! Eventually they brought out the cake with candles and sparklers and it was the most beautiful personalised cake.
After this we went back to our hotel and ate cake, sweets and watched Gavin and Stacey… the perfect end to a perfect day.
Thanks to Mat for giving me the best start to my 22nd year on earth, you’re the best.
Until next time,
Megan
x x
Tailored By Megan Taylor 