139. It’s Ma Birthday

Guysss I’m 22- according to Taylor Swift I should be feeling happy, free, confused and lonely in the best way.

I think I’ll just stick to happy.

I’ve celebrated by playing Candy Crush obsessively (it’s becoming a problem). I’m on level 89 after 4 days (yeah I know late on the bandwagon). I’m even dreaming of those stupid colourful blocks bursting. Anyone else suffering from Candy Crush syndrome? If you don’t play, I suggest you keep it that way.

No but seriously, my real celebration will be to have dinner with my parents. We’re just about to head off. I fully plan on stuffing my face with yummy goodness. Party part 2 will be on Wednesday- I’ve having my uni friends around and we’re going to party like a mofo- by which I mean we’re going to watch Pitch Perfect and play Monopoly. Same thing right?

In terms of presents, my mummy bought me a very beautiful photo frame with pearly shiny stuff on it (anything shiny is a winner tbh). I just need to find a picture to put in it now…

Over and Out!

135. A Snapshot Of My Year

I had my 21st birthday in January and my friends bought me a onesie.

Does it look like they’re struggling with my weight? 😛 

We had snow and everyone realised that I have terrible aim.

Asking for mercy.

James had a big birthday bash and I had a blast.

Sh-Shake it like a polaroid picture!

I completed numerous puzzles weekly with James and Shakira. This is one of my favourites.

HAIII SONIC

The whiteboard in the Maths Common Room at Imperial is always full of interesting doodles. One week someone decided to write out some Maths terms phonetically. 10 Cool Points for anyone who tries to decipher these (Shakira and James are excluded).

You don’t need to be a mathematician to get some of these.

Ahhh revision time for third year exams. Can’t say I enjoyed this but it turned out okay.

RIP my beloved headphones. You served me well.

Celebrating the end of exams in style.

Magic.

Driving to Gatwick at 5am and I saw a rainbow as the sun rose. A moment of peace.

This picture really doesn’t do it justice. God dammit bad quality Blackberry camera!

A serene afternoon.

Dad meets swan. Hi Dad, I’m swan.

I rarely go to arcades but one day me and my cousins literally spent all evening there. I have a weakness for car racing games!

I lost badly every time.

I completed an internship with Towers Watson and they decided to hire me. That’s been huge for me.

Outside the office.

I might be 21 but that says nothing about my maturity. Me and James in Canary Wharf.

SWAG.

Learnt how addictive Roulette is at Towers Watson boat party. We floated down the Thames and whatever its faults, there really is something special about London.

I attended my cousin’s wedding in Paris. I took the Eurostar for the first time.

The world is getting smaller.

I swear every photo, it looks like I have one foot.

Eid with my family (this is just a handful of us).

❤

I got these for Eid- can’t think of a better present for a Harry Potter fan girl!

LOVED Tales of Beedle the Bard. Even his name is epic. BEEDLE.

We went to Ruislip Lido in the Summer. Clearly we weren’t the only ones who had that idea.

You’d think it was a beach.

I went to Go Ape which is basically an adventure playground for adults. Kinda perfect for me! The Tarzan leap was my favourite- that rush of adrenaline you feel when you jump of the edge!

Treetop adventure 🙂

Fresher’s Fair marked the return of university for my final year after an eventful Summer.

The Christmas lights on Oxford street.

The pretty lights make you forget how cold it is.

Attending my final Imperial’s Math Soc Christmas Dinner. The highlight was dancing like a complete idiot to some god awful songs with James. Boy! What a workout.

Shame about the food though.

And there you have it. Here’s to a bright 2014.

Merry Christmas y’all.

Over and Out!

67. The Squishball Turns One!

My baby cousin aka. squishball had his first birthday party the day before yesterday! His mummy dressed him up all dapper in a shirt, tie and cardigan which he proceeded to drool on for the rest of the day.

Don’t think he was ready for this shot…

To celebrate, his family and mine went to Pizza Hut and afterwards we went bowling while the little ones went to Gambados (playground heaven). I really wish there was an adult sized version of this. I too want to go on slides and crawl through tunnels. It’s very unfamiliar for me to be told that I exceed the height restriction (for those who don’t know, I’m short). 

Hanna with Qasim

Lighting the candle

Cutting the cake!

I got absolutely destroyed at bowling. The side rails were up and I still flopped hard. My dad on the other hand got super competitive about it and was the eventual winner. 

My dad taking bowling farrrr too seriously!

This is me…failing.

Although it was squishy’s birthday and he got showered in attention, it was the rest of us who had the most fun 😛 It was well needed fun though, especially for me, seeing as I’ve been cooped up in my room looking like Gollum. It meant that I put cream on my face, got out of my pyjamas, brushed my hair and made myself look publicly acceptable. Understandably that whole process took a while… 

Zahrah and me!

Bowling superheroes? I think not…

Over and Out!

52. Presents Mania

Completely unintentionally, today ended up being a day of present giving. I love giving presents just as much as I like receiving them. There is an immense satisfaction in seeing someone’s eyes light up at the sight of something you bought. I’m probably just as excited seeing them unwrap their presents as they are. Gifts are personal things and I like to try and tailor them to people’s personalities and interests.

Onto the actual presents. The first was for my Mummy. She loves bags; every size, every type, every colour. I’ve had the same bag for the last 3 years and she’s had about 6. But hey she likes them so I decided to add another one to her (vast) collection. In particular, she’s been dropping (not so subtle) hints about Cath Kidston who is famous for her floral prints and oilcloth bags.

Cath Kidston floral pattern

I went to the Cath Kidston store in Covent Garden and it was so hard not to buy the whole shop (but I’m brown and trained well not to spend any more money than I have to). Everything looks so cute in floral patterns. They have everything you can possibly think of: bags, purses, clothes, nighties, notebooks, plates, cups, key rings, cards… The downside was that they were bloody expensive. The plainest, tiniest cards were priced at an eye watering £3.50.

The second was for my friend Stefan who will be turning 21 soon but today is the last day I’ll see him before then. He always kicks up a fuss about presents. His birthday is on 1st April and the first time I tried to give him a present, he told me it wasn’t actually his birthday and refused my present. Don’t worry he accepted it later. He has a very…distinct personality. Let’s just say he could give grumpy cat a run for its money but it’s endearing in a weird sort of way….once you learn not to take him seriously.

I took great pleasure in wrapping his present in pink wrapping paper. I can’t share what the present is because he reads this blog (occasionally) and he’s planning on opening it on his birthday but I can tell you that it’s really cool!

The last present was for James (rather belated). I found a site called Red Bubble which sells t-shirts with all sorts of amazing designs. Run a search for Pokemon or Harry Potter and I guarantee you’ll be there for a good half an hour scrolling and thinking…want.. want…oooh… want. This one never fails to amuse me:

Also apologies for the lack of posting recently. I had a burst of crappy coursework which has been eating up most of my time *shakes fist*.

51. Party Sharty

James had his 21st birthday party at a really nice posh place near Victoria. Turned out to be an awesome night! Looking over my last few posts, it looks as if I go to parties/weddings all the time. I don’t usually- honest! This is a random burst of activity before the social hibernation that is exam revision time.

James was pretty clear about the dress code. We were to come in dresses which gave me the opportunity to get my bargain prom dress out of my wardrobe. I haven’t worn it in about 4 years but I had a really special prom and thus many happy memories associated with that dress. The only problem was that I had to take the train there. Where lies the problem you may wonder… well my coat is quite short and my dress is quite long and coat on top of dress looks pretty darn ridiculous. Add public transport and unwanted attention and you get a problem. What I ended up doing was tucking my dress into some jeans (yay creased dress!), wearing flats and putting my heels in a separate bag. I was also wearing tights under my jeans which is one of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world and the tights were so tight, they felt like Spanx aka. a corset for my legs.  Highly unpleasant. It also rained on the way so my hair, which looked nice and tame when I left home, looked flat and lifeless by the time I arrived. Greattt!

Everyone was looking super dapper, particularly James who was looking extra boom in a suit and tie.

James and Shakira

Me, Meeti and Suzannah (unintentionally wearing all black)

My friend Meeti has a special diet which essentially cuts out eggs, meat, fish, onions and garlic. James alerted the caterers about this and gave them a week to come up with something for her. At the start of the evening, Meeti was told that the Head Chef was specially preparing her meals and that they would be brought to her. It felt like VIP treatment and I was really impressed. Unfortunately they seemed to think her diet was also gluten free which imposes further restrictions. The waiter walked in with an impressive silver tray and lid and theatrically lifted it to reveal this as her starter:

Vegetables

That’s right. Boiled veggies. We were rather bemused. For mains she got extremely salty aubergine and courgettes slices piled into a tower with spinach. It was probably not the most appetizing meal compared to the lamb and vegetable lasagna everyone else was tucking into. Things ended well though because James’ birthday cake was a beautiful, super tasty eggless cake that Meeti (and me) scoffed. Om nom nom!

I promised James I would dance (badly) at his birthday and I did. Me and Meeti kicked off our shoes and busted a few dance moves on the floor. About 20 of us performed the Macarena and everyone had great fun Gangnam styling. I think my rotating lightbulb dance went down quite well!

$#%&%** EHHH MACARENA!

Basically…. I had a really good time! Woo!

Over and Out!

49. The Big Blue Finger & Uni Times

James won this awesome Big Blue Finger which we were messing about with all day! It’s not like I go into uni to work….

I kid. I do my fair share of work too but I always make time to play and have fun with my friends.

Oh and it was James’ birthday. Finally joined the 21 club. Happy Birthday blad!
We bought him his favourite ‘seriously chocolately’ cake from Waitrose which was munched down in about 5 minutes. Om nom nom!

This is what mathematics undergrads doodle.

Pointing at the birthday boy

Guess who?

Noooo- don’t squish me!

Never seen anyone look so smiley about birthday cake

Blowing out the candles

My second family! Everyone looks so cute and smiley!

The bizzare position James find comfortable while working.

Over and Out!

43. JK’s Party

After waiting for 2 and half hours, I finally made it to my friend’s party yesterday. It was quite a big do- a good 100 people were there. It was a 21st party but it felt like a wedding! Is it a Sri Lankan thing to hold big events? I’ve been to several Sri Lankan do’s now and it feels like they all hire the same decorators and cake makers. This is not a complaint by any means, merely an observation.

Check out the sari!

 

When I say she’s my friend, I actually mean she’s one of my oldest and closest friends. I met her on the school coach when I was 11 years old and we’ve been friends ever since. She went through all of secondary school with me which is probably the most influential time of your life in terms of building your personality. So in essence, she’s seen me become ‘me’ and I’ve seen her become ‘her’. Other friends have come and gone but she’s always been there. I don’t see her often but we chat nearly every week on the phone for ages and catch up on life.

I didn’t realise we’d be matching so much!

After all that soppiness, I have to add that she also drives me mad! She holds long-lasting grudges, is massively indecisive and always late. But hey, I still love her. Nobody’s perfect and I’m sure I piss her off sometimes too.

Probably sums up our friendship 😛

Over and Out!

 

24. Go Shawty It’s Ya Birthday

It”s the 26th of January. It’s my birthday. I’m 21. Awwww yeh. How do I feel? Exactly the same. I’ve hit my twenties. It’s all downhill form here lol but I still feel like I’m 17 which is the important thing.

This is what I’ll spend most of my day doing:

Just kidding! My home phone has been blowing up. Relatives I didn’t even know I had have been calling up to wish me a Happy Birthday and I am honestly so touched and also feeling a little guilty because I probably don’t remember theirs. Definitely need to add a few reminders to my calender. Meanwhile Facebook has been reminding everyone else!

I had a really lovely morning. When I made my way downstairs (after deciding not to look like a hobo for once), I was greeted with a chorus of Happy Birthday and I saw that my parents had decorated the living room. I felt like I had just walked into a Bollywood movie.  Balle Balle!

Yay Tinsel!

Also after playing Neopets for almost 10 years, I’ve only now noticed that it changes theme on your birthday. Yayy for poor observational skills!

 

I think it’s important to reflect on one’s birthday. So now that I’m 21, I will try and be stronger…

 …wiser…

…and more mature…

…HAH! Like that’s gonna happen!

Over and Out!

22. Birthday meh

So it’s going to be my birthday on Saturday and I’m going to turn 21. This is a milestone and legally speaking, I think it means I can do anything I want. Awww yeh- time to go America and chug down some vodka shots.

I’m usually quite boppy and excited about birthday but this one… I don’t know. I had such big hopes and plans and because I can’t make everything happen, I almost feel like I don’t want any of it to happen. It’s a very stubborn attitude to take. Perhaps it’s the Winter Blues. This is not to say I am unhappy or antisocial- I’m just feeling apathetic about it.

I’m not doing absolutely nothing however. Next Wednesday, I am finally going to see Lion King the musical with my friends which I am massively looking forward to. I am going to sing annoyingly loud to all the songs. I will make sure to fit in some time to practice my opening to the Circle of Life. Naaaa sebeniyaaa babadeechibaba! (You know I think that would make an awesome alarm sound. ©)

Yeah this totally happened when I was born too.

As for what I’m going to do on the actual day, I’m not entirely sure. I might just chill with the parents and maybe we’ll go out for dinner. Such a rave I know. I need to calm my wild ways.