New Friends and old.....

i've been living in London for a while now

and actually know a lot of people living here in London,

but havent managed to get round to meeting up with them yet.

So i thought i'd use my birthday as a chance to

get together with old school friends and work colleagues

who i havent seen in a long (long long) time.

So i invited them...

and well, none of them came!

(It was a monday night to be fair)

but here's the thing i had an awesome birthday anyway,

after inviting all these old friends

i thought i'd invite a few people who i dont know so well 

but would like to get to know better.

So i invited a girl i work with and some friends from church to come along,

and they all came.

So along with them, my two sisters and one of my oldest friends

i had a really good time.

I dont know what this says about me,

that maybe once you get to know me you 

might start avoiding me!

lets hope not!

i also got a satellite phone call from husband

from the Amazon Delta,

and he made sure that my sister bought me some flowers 

from him....

those little thoughts from him made my day.

Birthday Goals....

so yesterday was my bithday.

i turned the ripe old age of 29.

Its funny for so many years 30 was the oldest age for me.

I had all these ideas of things that I should have achieved by the time i was 30

(and to be honest not a lot of goals for after that as 30 seemed for ever away)

Well here i am at 29 getting closer to 30

and if i think about all those things i wanted to achieve and

do i would say that right now i am the most content

i've been in a long while on a birthday

on striving towards those goals.

i always thought that 30 was a good time to stop dancing,

to start looking for a career change,

i never wanted to be one of those dancers who didnt know how

to leave the studio and ended up wasting away in it.

so i jumped on the band wagon a little early on that goal,

but hey tick anyway!

I'm on my way to a new career, and 

very muchly enjoying it.

I always figured i should be married by the time i was thirty,

tick

and i always thought 30 would be a good age to start having children at,

so i've got some time to start fulfilling that briefing....

Birthdays and beaches....

My holiday was just what i needed.

No work.

No stress.

No Cairo.

Dahab was also pretty quite too

(tourism still suffering from effects of the revolution)

which was great also.

I'll head back to work today and see if i'm in any trouble!

It was my birthday whilst we were away and Captain Tim even managed to arrange me a surprise party with all the people we had met during the week whilst diving, with a special birthday cake with Diver Rebekah written on it.

We were having dinner on the beach so

when they brought the cake out it was pretty funny trying to

light the candles as it was windy,

i think in the end we got one to hold long enough for me to blow it out!

Older and Wiser?

So today is my birthday.

Which technically means that i've gotten older and wiser.

and seeing as i dont want to focus on the older part i thought i'd reflect

on somethings that i've learned in the last year which

may or may not have made me a little bit wiser.

(back when i was young)

1 cup = 128g

How to play a chord on the ukulele.

How to put on Snowboarding boots.

Snowboarding hurts

How to snorkel.

Robert The Bruce is the most important figure in Scottish History,

(everyone should read a biography on him.)

When baking cookies,

don't double the amount of sugar just because its my favourite ingredient.

If i dont cheat at monopoly i can actually win it.

How to say thankyou in Arabic (the rest is yet to come)

The story of La Bayadere.

How to look after a tortoise.

How to get angry so angry at a taxi driver that he is too

scared to ask you for his money and just drives a way.

How to make pizza dough, and pastry.

How to cook in general,

this past year has been a food revolution to me.

Egypt isn't as scary as i thought it might be.

Philadelphia cream cheese is amazing on anything.

Egypt is dirty.

Sometimes asking for help is the only way.

Happy Birthday Mumsy!

(wee me and my mummy)

Today is my Mummys birthday....

i wont tell you how old she is or she'll have my guts for garters!

I will tell you a couple of other things about my mum though....

My Mum has 10 children....(plus our semi-adopted brother)
People often ask me, "How does she do it?"
I always reply,
"I dont know, you should ask her not me"

My Mum is a cultivator.
I was talking with a friend a while ago who asked me when did i start reading so much, and i told her i always had done ever since i could remember. i told her my mum bought me books and i read them, by the time i was 11 i had read half of Jane Austen and Gone With The Wind, by the time i was 14 i had read Les Miserable and Mill On The Floss (which i recently tried to re-read and found too difficult! but i remembered loving it when i was younger). My friend told me she wished her mum had done that for her....this is not the the only aspect of my life that she has helped to cultivate....there are too many to name

My Mum loves to give.
Whether it is her time or energy or something from her wardrobe......

(mum with some of her girlies)

My Mum is more sensible than my Dad

but sometimes she surprises us

My mum taught all her kids to love musicals....
Yes, until i was about 12 years old i did not know that any other kind of music existed.....we are all well versed on the ins and outs of broadway.

My mum is a people person.
This was something that i discovered today, as i would not ordinarily think of my mum as a people person, yet, as i was trying to find pictures of my mum to put up here i could only find ones where she is surrounded by large groups of people....and then i thought - actually that is very fitting as my mum is indeed always surrounded by people who she can share her love with.

In the words of Abe....

"No man is poor who has a Godly mother."
—Abraham Lincoln

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMSICLE

Happy Birthday Big Sis!!!!!!

At one point when we were growing up my dad decided to use a parenting technique he had heard about on us, it was this, that whenever we were fighting he would separate us (we usually resorted to hair-pulling) and make us each say one nice thing about each other.

Unfortunately this technique back-fired when i discovered a loop hole. Everytime we had to say something nice i always came up with,

"ummmm, she has nice hair."

I'm pretty sure my dad never noticed that i only ever had one nice thing to say...but it sure did drive my sister crazy! Needless to say his one attempt at any sort of parenting technique put an end to all 'techniques' in the future. so i thought i'd redeem myself a little bit and write some things i like about my Big Sister....

1. She is crazy...trust me that is a good thing.

2. She taught me how to appreciate vintage.

3.She works in a vintage store, which is now appreciated

4.She taught me to appreciate 80's movies and music.

5.She is a trend setter.....always cottons onto new fashions that little bit before they're fashionable...it means she is often saying ,'i told you so' to the minions.

6.If i'm having a bad day, she is the first person i want to call.

7.She lived with me for 2 years in a tiny bunk bed apartment in london and never tried to strangle me once.....that makes her hardcore!

8.She never gives up.

9.She tries her hardest to be a great role model for all her little brothers and sisters.

10.She is great to have late night chats with.

11.She has the perplexing ability to make any crying child smile.....or fall asleep within seconds.


12.She understands me....no explanations needed.

ohhh.....and she has nice hair....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXIS!

A Birhtday spent with friends is a birthday well spent

It's my birthday........

"i was wise enough never to grow up while fooling most people i had"
margret mead


photo www.meghangiboin.co.uk