We're now literally only hours away from the greatest, most fantastic, happiest day of the year. My birthday. More specifically, my 18th birthday. It's certainly going to be interesting. That however, is tomorrow.

Today, on my last day of being 17, on my last day of childhood, I went into Leicester with Heather, with the objective being to socially slack and avoid revision. The mission was accomplished, but not without considerable emotional trauma.

The plan was similar to last Sunday, in that we'd meet at Leicester station, at 1130, as both bus and train "collide" at that time and place. There I was, waiting in Leicester station, having been briefed in the previous days light entertainment news by the London Metro on the train, with no Heather to be seen. Apparently, the Crazy Frog creator actually dislikes the Crazy Frog. Her bus was late! This is odd because isn't it usually trains that are late? Either way, when she finally got there, she apologised for the bus being late- something which she needn't have done, unless she was driving the bus. I never found out what role she had in controlling the bus- perhaps this is best left unanswered?

Either way, we decided to go and see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as neither of us had seen it. This is where the problem began. The only way I got into Leicester was by (not literally) scraping together the change I had in my wallet, with the plan being to withdraw some cash at the station, with which I could buy all sorts of crap. The first problem was the "cash machine" at the station was little more than a sheet of glass with a keypad in front of it. In fact, all it was, was a sheet of glass, with a badly insulated wire where the screen should have been, with a keypad in front of it.

Not a problem, you might think, but that's not all! The cash machine outside Morissons near the Cinema wasn't any more cooperative. I put my card in, keyed in my pin, pressed the "give me money" buttons, and all it returned was a "receipt" claiming that my card had expired.

What was the date today? June 1st
What was my card's expiry date? 05/05

Bollocks! One day late! I couldn't believe this! They hadn't even sent me a new card!

Thankfully, Heather came to the rescue here- she was loaded (with money) and so managed to pay for us both. This didn't prevent me from feeling horrendously guilty, mind. I made myself feel better by consuming a small Pepsi that Heather leant me money for, presumably out of pity.

Coincidentally, my sister Lucy went to the same film today- on the showing after the one we saw. After a quick phone call, she saved my dignity and gave me some cash as we were leaving and she was arriving.

I enjoyed the film itself- I have vague recollections of critics calling it “average” and so on, but being the culturally ignorant person that I am, and having not read the books, seen the TV series or heard the radio series, I enjoyed it.

So the film occurred. It’s hard to write about this bit as we just… watched a film. Hardly the most thrilling them ever, for the reader. (You).

We left the cinema, and after Heather (or “Heater”, if you prefer) finally gave a straight answer to a question for presumably the first time ever, (“Shall we go into Leicester?” “I don’t know… maybe… if you want to”), we went into Leicester to paint the town red, with the £20 Lucy had given me previously.

I got to Natwest, and unfortunately for Heather, and indeed myself, had to spend around 20 minutes standing about in there, trying to get some money out using an expired card. I got there in the end. Paid Heather back, apologised for spending her money, and had a go at the person at the information desk because my new card hadn’t even been ordered. By which I mean, I had a polite chat with the person at the information desk.

We got to the centre of Leicester, and after a somewhat lengthy debate about what to do, we decided to go to Pizza Hut again. It’s my birthday (week)! Can’t I go more than once?

Like the last time, it was a lovely meal. Not really a thrilling thing to blog about if you weren’t there, although needless to say, I’m now slightly more suspicious as to the activities of the “Brownies”. They have weird rituals like most silly cults… but it would seem they recruit their victims young.

On Sunday, I released one of the balloons that Pizza Hut had given me into the roof of the Shires shopping centre. We went and checked if it was still there. Unfortunately, it has now disappeared. Not sure where it went- it could have burst, or maybe it floated gently to its demise. I guess we’ll never know.
Walking through The Shires, it occurred to me that people are everywhere, and are like vermin. It’s hard to move during some parts of real life shopping. Maybe these people are just the real life equivalents of pop-ups? Getting in your way whilst you try and purchase goods and services?

We spent the next “while” (I didn’t check my watch) poncing around Leicester looking in vein for some speakers for the new computer I’ve neglected to mention until now. God knows what I was planning to buy, mind, as, as I said earlier, my budget is somewhat restricted. Turns out in the end that the 19” TFT monitor I found when I got home has built in speakers, so I needn’t have worried anyway.

Anyway, long story short, it’s been a delightful last day of childhood indeed. Thanks to everyone involved, especially me!