My Blogging Birthday!

Firstly, seeing as this is a post dedicated to the celebration of this date, I know it seems ridiculous to be writing it at 10pm when the day is almost over. But I spent the entire day at a safari park (which is a whole other weird, wonderful and saliva-filled story) and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and get to work.

Somehow it has been an entire year since I started this blog. I started it with no clear vision, knowledge of computers or idea of what I was doing. In fact, it only came about because so many people informed me they liked to keep up to date with my Facebook statuses because, apparently, they're hilarious. Then one night, in a night club in Exeter, a slightly tipsy girl I'd never seen before suddenly called my name.
"Oh wow! I read your status updates on Facebook. I always log in to see if you've said something funny. I love them! Seriously, there are so amazing!"
At that point I decided on two things. Firstly, I needed to change my Facebook privacy settings. And secondly, I needed to start a blog.

And so twenty oddball was born one year ago today and in that time I've blogged about:

- Enormous pants
- A transatlantic love interest
- Hugging Floella Benjamin
- Men who claim to own gondolas (but clearly don't)
- Elves
- Various near-death experiences

And those are just a handful of examples off the top of my head.

Actually, when it's all laid out like that, I have to acknowledge that it's been a really weird year...

But, what's very depressing is the fact that, even though the last year has seen me travel Europe, graduate from university and survive the Eurovision, I've somehow wound up in exactly the same place as I was when I first started twenty oddball. In my first ever blog post I wrote...

"At 21 years old I find myself back at my parents' house during the summer break from uni, and very, very single"


And here I am, exactly one year later, back at my parents' house after graduation, and very, very single. I'm not convinced that I've really made that much progress.

But, if nothing else seems to be moving forward at a visible rate, at least my blog is doing well. What started out as a kind of vague mess of ramblings has, during the last year, flowered into a vague mess of ramblings with an accompanying twitter account. And the occasional reader!

And, for the nosey among you, you might like to know that in my first year I've had 6,118 views and my most popular post was F-Words All Round: Freebies, Fun, and Foul Cocktails.

So here's to twenty oddball and let's keep our fingers crossed that my life will continue along unexpected and somewhat bizarre paths so that I can entertain you all for years to come!

Twenty Oddball Birthday Bonanza Giveaway!

On the 30th July twenty oddball turns one year old. So, at the end of this month I will have officially been entertaining people with my ramblings and tales of shame and poor judgement for an entire 365 days!

Obviously, we must celebrate this momentous occasion. In a perfect world I would teleport you all here so we could party and eat cake together, but, even if there was such a thing as a teleportation machine, I have enough trouble trying to plug the Playstation in so odds are, I'd never get it to work. It's probably for the best anyway. I wouldn't want to have to spend the whole of the next day scraping birthday cake out of the carpet. 

So, I'm opting for the next best thing and hosting a giveaway! 

Choosing a prize was an ordeal. For one, the very day I chose to pop into town to pick something up, there were a whole host of events taking place in the city centre. There was a craft fair, a vintage car show, men dancing with fire, an orchestra, a totally random polar bear statue that seemed to serve no purpose, and crowds of people who seemed to have nothing better to do than stand wherever I wanted to walk. Plus, from nowhere the sun came out and I was forced to dodge the crowds as I melted in my jeans. 

The second issue was trying to decide what to actually give away. My readers are all ages, male and female, and from all sorts of countries (actually, I've really had to brush on my Geography since I started this blog). So it wasn't enough to ask myself what I'd like to win in a giveaway because, odds are, pink, sparkly stilettos aren't everyone's cup of tea. 

Thankfully, what is universal is chocolate. And I have an abundance of it on offer! It's all Thornton's (I'm not sure if people outside of the UK will have heard of it, but trust me when I say, it's delicious). I bought a box of Classics, a box of Gooey Caramel Irresistibles and a really cute and yummy-looking chocolate monkey. 

I also picked up a Knock Knock notebook, which I am in love with and having inner turmoil about giving away. I may have to go and buy another one for myself. The quotes inside are hilarious. 

And you can get all of these goodies (along with a good dose of my genuine love) by entering the Twenty Oddball Birthday Bonanza Giveaway (rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) I'm hosting it on some techy-type internet thingy called Rafflecopter, but even I can work it so trust me when I say it's simple. 

You can enter on twitter, facebook, or right here on the blog and each way you connect gets you another entry. The closing date is July 31st and I'll post the winner on my facebook page, twitter account, instagram, and right here on the blog as well as sending a message to the winner so there's no chance of any funny business. Plus, you can enter from anywhere in the world! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So get to it and good luck!

The reason I pinched these pictures from the internet rather than taking my own is because I am currently on my deathbed (slight exaggeration) and I'm too ill to leave my bed. Or sit up. Or open my eyes for too long. Luckily, I wrote the rest of the post yesterday because even typing this is just too much right now.

Boring Terms and Conditions

This is my first giveaway and I just want it to be a fun way to celebrate and say thanks to my readers with no drama or unexpected disasters. So let's cover the bases.

This giveaway is running worldwide, but remember that there may be customs charges in your country for accepting a package from abroad. Much as I wish I could be, I'm not in charge of the worldwide postal system so there's nothing I can do to help you with that.

I will pack the prizes with love (and bubblewrap), but there's no guarantee that some moody guy in the Post Office won't man-handle the package. No one wants the chocolate monkey to arrive with no head, but, again, it's beyond my control once the package is out of my hands.

Update!

And the winner is Sarah Olson! Thanks to everyone who entered. I'll be posting more giveaways soon so fingers crossed for next time.