My Birthday

Another year older and another year… erm wiser? Ok so I’m not so sure about the last bit but I’m definitely can vouch for the getting older bit, lol. To be honest as I get older, I’ve found that I’m not really that bothered about having a big party or having a fuss made over me every year. In previous years getting everyone together was such as hassle and now these plans just seem to fall into place each year without any effort on my part.

On Wednesday, my actual birthday, I had to prepare for presentation at uni so didn’t really have anything arranged. The day started off with my mum and little brother showering me with presents early on in the morning… ok so it was hideously early but it was a nice gesture and I appreciated it :) Spent the rest of the day at uni, attending lectures (guest lecturer - a nobel prize winner no less!) and workshops (with some amusing incidents along the way) only to be surprised by a birthday lunch with some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. I had such a lovely time just talking and catching up with the girls and was pleased that everything just felt right. Got home and as I stepped through the doorway I was greeted by a birthday cake complete with sparklers and candles (bless my little brother!). Thursday I spent most of the day stressing about presenting (as I usually do) and after my presentation – which went was fine by the way – I finally had the chance to go home and just chill out my family. Later in the evening, I was pleasantly surprised by Farhan bhai and phupho Kulsoom who popped round with my birthday present, which was nice of them. I spent the evening chatting to mum and phupho whilst Bilal and Fari bhai proceeded to play on the Wii… very competitively might I add ;) Friday was my prearranged shopping day (amongst other things) with the girls. Going shopping, catching up on news and just spending time in the company of some good friends – it was fun. The weekend so far has consisted of a birthday party which took place on Saturday – kind of a joint one for Bilal as well – that was attended by my close family and friends. As I currently write this, it’s early... very early in fact on Sunday morning and I have a day of family visits planned accompanied by some chill out time. But before all that starts, I just wanted to take a moment or two to take a time out and share my thoughts with you over this past week :)

Birthday's always serve as a perfect time for me to reflect on the year that has passed and perhaps mentally list some of the changes that I'd like to make in the future. Recently I've been thinking about the sheer number of people that we meet as we go about our lives. Some of those people may go onto become very good friends whilst others we eventually lose touch with. Personally I believe that all those people are all special in their own way and there is a reason why I met them; a lesson to be learnt from each and every one. The reason may not be known to you or I, but that doesn’t mean that isn’t one and the lesson may not be obvious at that moment but it seems to become clearer as time goes by. In my life, those people I meet get sorted into groups; high school, part time work, uni, placement year, uni again and so on. I would say that I've met a very diverse population of people and not necessarily the type of people you might expect me to associate with. Alright so that sounds a bit strange but what I meant to say was that most people would expect me to hang out with the science/medical crowd or just asian girls with maybe a odd tech geek (sorry!) here or there, which is fine because that’s what I am… an asian girl that does science and has a bit of an interest in technology. However a fair few of my friends are actually lawyers and accountants – careers that my father would have loved me to pursue by the way – and lately I’ve realised I’ve made quite a lot of photographer friends over the years - something for which I have no plausible explanation, lol. At least I have all bases covered right? – a friend in every profession… pharmacist, accountant, lawyer, even a mechanic :P

Friendly acquaintances – definitely. Best friends – I’m not so sure that applies to all of them. What is the ideal number of friends to have? And by that I mean actual friends, not just acquaintances. In complete honesty, I would say that I have about 10 friends maybe less, that I am really really close to. These are the people that I can tell my secrets to, share my worries with in complete confidence and hopefully they can do the same with me. Recently another article which sort of links back to one of my previous post’s about social networking, was brought to my attention. The article initially describes the effect of Twitter, which has been mentioned a lot lately and the use of online social networking sites. It describes how we are becoming more and more dependent on online tools to network with people. It’s a great way to communicate, but we should also the take the time to make time for those special friends and have real conversations… not just an exchange of IM messages with unknown faces. I found the article an interesting read and agree with the message the writer was trying to put across... Quote: “Don’t just fall in love with the tool. Fall back in love with having real conversations.” :)