Less enthusiastic...

I was chatting to a friend this evening about different things that have happened this year, when we made a slightly depressing discovery.  We've hardly heard any good news in 2009.  Nothing drastically terrible has happened to me, but a lot of friends have been through some completely rubbish stuff since the beginning of this year, yet no-one we know has had any good news, or had anything nice happen to them.

Depressing, huh?!

My little friendies

I love my friends!

I've been on holiday for 2 weeks and the thing I love most about being on holiday is having a chance to meet up with friends.  During term time, it's not unusual for me to work solidly from 7am (when arriving at work) to 1am, pausing to sleep from about 1.30-6, so I find meeting up with friends during the week really difficult and weekends seem to go so quickly.  Which means holidays are where its at!

I had a week in the sun for the first week (and got a tan-hah!) and this week have hardly done any work as I've been seeing friends instead.  On tuesday I met up with my girlies.  I've known them for 8 years and we're closer than ever now-love it (and them!)  On wednesday I went to my wife's for dinner, and another friend joined us, where we relived those good ol' uni days.  Thursday was fabulous: I went wedding and bridesmaid dress shopping with some lovely old friends who I've known for 12 years.  Is a bit scary to think how much we've changed from those spotty little girls into people of the marriage age!  And today was another corker, I spent the day with a relatively new friend, and this evening with a different relatively new friend.  Tomorrow brings more girly times and sunday means my youth girls!

I love that I share different memories with each of these people, and that we all have different things in common.  I believe that my friends are one of the most important things in my life, and I love spending time and sharing with them.  I've noticed that whereas I'm not a different person with each friend, we talk about different things.  With some friends, I have a lot of light-hearted banter, and with others, we talk a lot of things or events that have deeply affected us. Although all very different, I'm so grateful to these friends for being there for me at different times in my life when I've needed them.

Thank you to all my friends for being who you are, you've all had an effect on me and made me who I am today. x

Knowing me, knowing you...

Something I've been thinking a lot about recently is friendship.  

What does it mean to be a good friend?  This has been on my mind for the last few months because I've got some fabulous friends who I want to support and be the best possible person I can be for them.  Although friendship is a completely natural thing to humans, I think that is also something that can be developed and worked at.  

So how do we be the best friend we can?

4 years...

So today is 4 years since our little fire incident.  Crazy huh?!

Right now I feel...

confused.   But also relieved I remembered the password to this site.  So will blog again in the next few days.

You've got a friend

Over this weekend, I experienced amazing hospitality.  I went to Momentum with a friend, her cousin (who I did not know) and her cousins uni friends.  And despite not knowing these people, being a complete stranger to them, I was completely welcomed for the week.

To be honest, if I had arranged to go away for a few days with friends, and a random joined the group, I would not be impressed.  I would not have gone out of my way to include them, or to befriend them, but this is what I experienced this week.

These people taught me so much about friendship and love.

Grateful

A friend of mine wrote a post along these lines recently, and I thought it was a good idea, as it stops me whinging!  So what have I been grateful for over the last few weeks?

1) Friends, both old and new.  

I've been stupidly busy over the last year and haven't had much time to see my friends, so I've really enjoyed spending lots of time with them this summer.  I've been to New York to see one lovely friend, who I hadn't seen in over a year, so that was fabulous.  And then I had a week away where I spent loads of time with lovely people, and met some new friends.  You know when you  barely know someone, then you spend time with them and you completely click and find you can tell them absolutely anything?  I found someone like this over the summer, which is always a winner.  And then last week I spent a lovely day catching up with a wonderful person who has helped me through some difficult times in the past.  So all in all, I love all my friends and feel so grateful to have them.  I actually don't know where (if anywhere) I'd be without some of them. 

2) Slightly more shallowly...my new phone and laptop.  

Both very beautiful...so beautiful that I don't think I can say anything else!

3) My holidays.  

Despite being absolutely broke, I've had a lovely holiday in New York, then went to Norfolk/ Suffolk (not sure which!) and am going to Belgium this week, and then possibly down to Somerset.  After being stuck in London for the last year, it's been so nice to escape and breathe fresh air!

4) My health.

Yes, so I sound like a little old lady here.  But I've never really thought about this before.  I've always taken it for granted, but I realised the other day how lucky I am to be alive and healthy, both physically and mentally.

As I am such a whinger, I'm going to try and post along these lines every few weeks...so look forward to some optimism!

x

PS: Fancy sharing a joke...

       Q) What do you call a man with no shins?

       A) Tony! (Say it...Toe-knee...)