The "thoughts on my birthday" post

I'm still going over the pictures from the 7th, so the "what I did on my birthday" post is work in progress. When I was a lot younger, my parents used to organise parties for me and invite loads of my friends from school. When I was about 12 I switched to going bowling with friends and then finally to going out into Birmingham at 17. When I first came to uni all my friends were very efficient at sending me cards, but they soon got pretty lax. My 22nd birthday was on the same day as my cousin's wedding. That side of my family had clearly forgotten it was my birthday and I only got 3 cards - and only a couple of friends even called/texted me. My 24th birthday was pretty good too cos even though I was in Durham (my first birthday away from home), there were loads of people around - Matt, Mel, Brooks, Matt, Tim, Carl etc so it was great. Then last year, there was noone around - even Matt who had been around most of the summer was away on his pre-PhD trip. As a result I got about 5 cards. It doesn't help that I have a really small family, but it was nice this year to round up a group of people and go out for a good night out and introduce them to something I'd discovered earlier this year (more on that in the next post). My opinion now is that I don't tell my old friends when it's my birthday - they're old enough now to keep records of these sorts of things.

So anyway, I'm now 26 and my time as a student is pretty much up. I've bought my last young person's railcard and am finishing up my lab work. I still don't feel old, in fact I think my drinking capacity has recently started in increase again if nights out in the last few months are anything to go by. This year has been a very mixed one - I've endured some hardships, at time felt completely alone and found out some things about myself, but on the other side I've made some great new friends, both at chemistry and college, and I felt more a part of the chemistry group, rather than a hanger-on. I've had a couple of amazing trips and after abstaining from traveling for a long time, I've been bitten by the traveling bug - perhaps part-inspired by my taking up of photography. I've also rediscovered cooking. After being spoilt in my 2nd year with a new kitchen I've endured a string of cramped, underequiped kitchens and pantries. Now, thanks to house 3 and Blondie's ワガママ (Wagamama) cookbook. The beauty of it is that once you can prepare the sauces in advance, so for most of the year we've had tubs of teppanyaki, yaki soba and chili sauces sat in our fridge waiting to go. Similarly, after a few dodgy examples, Blondie and I have mastered the okonomiyaki cabbage-pancake. The secret ingredients are sugar and miso paste and once Blondie managed to source some authentic sauce (sorry) they are tasting pretty authentic (to the Osakan style ones I experienced anyway).

so yes, a mixed year. I'll try to get up pics from the 7th soon.