That was frickin' awesome. I've just got back from Jon's 21st birthday (post having a bath and uploading all the photos) which proved to be every bit as fantastic as it was billed.

Being the only person who had been to his house before, the girls gathered around my house just after 2pm yesterday. Although originally we had been waiting on Adam, we decided to make a move after he failed to show after an hour, and met him at Jon's. By the time we had all assembled there were 9 of us in what became known as the Lufbra Tribe, representing the uni side of Jon's friends.

• Adam
• Alex
• Rosie
• Chris
• Anna
• Lianne
• Lauren
• Sarah
• Me

By about five we had all arrived and pitched the tents. Some preparations had to be made costume-wise but once we were all fully clothed we headed down to the back lawn where we were greeted by waitresses carrying platters of canapés and the other guests who had already arrived.

It was initially quieter than expected, but after a couple of hours the place was definitely more lively as the vast majority of the guests arrived. There was a considerable amount of talent (like loads of it) about and the theme seemed to have been adhered to pretty well, with some well thought out costumes. There were also a considerable number of recognisable faces around and about. Joe and Tom Sherratt, Rich Rowland, Leo Hewitt and few of the other ex-OSH lads from that year.

A colossal marquee had been erected behind the terrace and after a couple of hours of swigging back the punch and lounging on the lawn we were called to dinner. Each tablle within the marquee had been labelled with a different exotic destination. I was on Tangia with Anna, Alex and Adam, while the others were all seated together on the table behind us. By this time Jon was finally getting a chance to relax, and had received our present an engraved whiskey flash and shot glass set.

The starter was king prawn on a bed of prawns and balled pineapple. The wine began to flow and we managed to trawl our way through several bottle of rose during the evening. Main course was a self-help platter of steak, chicken and various other meats also with the option of lamb curry. The food was awesome, but thankfully the help-yourself approach allowed me not to stuff myself (I'm not a big eater at big meal events).

After this course there were speeches and entertainment, which included some ballet and concluded with a pole dance where both Jon and Ben (his brother) were shown the ropes and had to do a demonstration of their own. In with this there was also a slideshow (properly done on DVD) of photos of the boys as they grew up. Chris said that he was getting all emotional about the whole thing which proved of much amusement to us.

The sweet was served and there was a great rush to gather up the remaining chocolate desserts (which were lush) and finish them all off ourselves. Mission accomplished, there was a stunning firework display behind the marquee where we were finally able to see how far back the garden stretched, right down to the lake. Anna reckoned the display gave Alton Towers a run for it's money, and she only works there.

And then the drinking and dancing began and the night took it's own course. The free bar caused some issues, in that I wasn't too sure if the drinks I asked for were the ones I was getting. Doubles tasted a little stronger than doubles normally, but I'm not complaining and it made for a fantastic night. Anna managed to pull Leo but most other people behaved themselves, but there was plenty of socialising going on.

I don't know when I went to bed, but I do remember being woken by Chris in the small hours checking where I was. I was very surprised to see that my tent was still standing, and even more amazed no one had been impaled on the lethal spikes protruding from the top - at the last minute I had to borrow Matt's tent as I couldn't find mine, but it turns out that it was the old fashioned sort, and therefore and absolute nightmare to keep upright.

At 6am Alex woke me with his talking and I stuck my drunken head out to see Chris packing up. I decided that a walk and some water (or any non-alcoholic liquid) would do me a world of good, and so so Chris and I raided the remaining tetra packs of orange juice from behind the bar in the marquee. A pint of vitamin C later and I went back to bed for four hours.

Unfortunately the showers weren't working in the portacabin so we just had to make do. Most of the girls were up and about before me, but both Alex and Adam arose later, both clearly more worse for wear than me (especially Alex). Adam also had the added shock of waking up in his own tent with a bloke he didn't know. This provided plenty of entertainment, even more so that he couldn't remember much of the evening after the food.

The sun had been out in force on Saturday, and by 11am it was clear that today was going to follow suit. In the blazing sunshine we sat around and sobered up before heading down to the marquee terrace for more sociability and large quantities of hydration before they started serving a hog roast lunch. Alex couldn't face anything but I was starving. Thankfully I had avoided any kind of hangover and after lunch we all headed down to the lake where Jon and some others had gone for a swim.

A hour or so sat baking in the sun lakeside wasn't doing my skin any good and I started to burn, so Lauren, Rosie and myself decided to call it a day, leaving Anna, Alex and Adam to enjoy another hour or so.

Some of the observations around the house were the fantastic selection of cars; from Jon's own land rover, the Bentleys and the Hummer H2. Also the attention to detail and simply a fantastic view made the whole thing brilliant. And he couldn't have picked a better day for the weather.

Rosie dropped me back home mid afternoon and go straight on the bath and Aftersun bandwagon. I couldn't believe the whole event had gone so quickly. One of the most enduring memories of this is going to be of us lot meeting up and having a great time. Although Jon's birthday, you get the impression that with people leaving on placements next year that things are inevitably going to change (like they did last year) and this may be one of the few times I will get to hang with these people in the coming years. It was also good to get the 'old crew' back together as I have seen far too little of Rosie, Chris and Lianne this year since the course messed about with our timetable.

I can't say much more except cheers Jon for a superb weekend and happy birthday mate!