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Sunday, 25 March 2012

A Very Extended Birthday

I think Hannah hit the nail on the head when she said this birthday would seem extra long because my friends now span so many timezones. My birthday has indeed been a satisfyingly stretched one, and if I had to pin a starting point, it would be the thursday night a week ago, when I received my first birthday present. It came as a surprise because it was so unexpected, and surprises in a good way always makes things a thousand times better.

Friday morning I managed to squeeze in Skype sessions with two of my best friends, and it felt like a birthday present in itself, just because we hadn't talked in so long. There was so much so say and wonder and laugh about... I love how they get me in ways no others can. That was followed by a long awaited dinner with my closest friends in Southampton, in which they celebrated my birthday at a fancy restaurant with a large cow bell, two strawberry tarts, fancy clothes and my very own Fluffball. It was a bittersweet night, ending with sad hugs for the Easter break, perfect in every way but in the goodbyes.

The next day, despite having to get up really early to pack and get ready, I had the luxury of having a long detoured walk to highfield. 'Twas a wholly beautiful morning, and I was quiet happy Sarah the entire time, enjoying the sound of my suitcase dragging along mingled with early dawn bird chirps.

In three quarters of a day, I found myself under Italian skies with my much loved family, and spent the next five days fully fully enjoying myself. It was stunning, delicious and most of all familiar. Familiar speech, familiar nicknames, familiar laughter. Before I left, I got a card that lovingly wrote "I'm sorry we can't spend your birthday with you, Sa, but we'll celebrate for you in these five days." and that was exactly what it felt like. There was not a day that went by that wasn't filled with the spectacular Italian coast, cozy car rides, great food (I was, of course, in Italy), sufficient wifi, easy conversation and jokes.

And as the extended flood of happy birthday wishes came in, I spent my birthday morning skyping for a long happy time, then going out to watch the Hunger Games, with friends I had missed, and dinnering with them. Which, not surprisingly (from the way they 'tried' to keep things a secret) involved the whole restaurant singing happy birthday to a blushing me. Then going home and finding out about my darling junior college friends having a birthday lunch for the faraway birthday girl, complete with a birthday cake (which was reused). They even sent an audio clip with various army boys (and one dearly missed girl) yelling happy birthday into the phone.

Thank you to everyone who showered me with love in the way you knew how. Especially all the whatsapps (thank God for whatsapp), texts, BBMs, facebook messages, cards and phone calls. It's strange not being able to celebrate your birthday with the people closest to you, but that has been well compensated with the length of time my birthday has been celebrated. I love you all.

Welcome, Sarah, to the Twenties.

Monday, 12 March 2012

INFP

While attempting to consider my "strengths and development opportunities with reference to my personality trait" for my IPL reflective essay, I stumbled upon the Myers Briggs personality test. This immediately brought my mind back a month while at the Christian Medical Fellowship conference with Rebecca and her adamant belief in this whole personality typing thing. Bex completely derived that I was an INFP, and was horribly smug the rest of the time. I now have to admit that this typing thing has proven to be quite true.

So anyway! I opened up a website in hopes of finding something to write for this essay, and was hugely hugely amused to find this: "INFPs never seem to lose their sense of wonder. One might say they see life through rose-colored glasses. It's as though they live at the edge of a looking-glass world where mundane objects come to life, where flora and fauna take on near-human qualities", and spent the next five minutes laughing like an idiot to myself.. at myself. Seems like I fit this description to a tee!

The website then went on to list several other famous people who have the some personality type, including cool people like A. A. Milne, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lauren Ingalls Wilder, Shakespeare and Luke of the Bible (who was a physician and an author!). More importantly, it went on about fictional characters with the same possible personality, and right there at the top of the list, was Anne! Ahaha, and under that Bastian Balthazar Bux, hehehe. (From the books Anne of Green Gables and The Neverending Story, respectively, just in case people think I'm delusional) The two of them are my two favourite protagonists from two of my favourite books and I'm delighted to have the same personality type as them!

Yay, just thought I'd share one thing that brightened up my day today, and let Rebecca Ready Steady Goh know how she's impacted my life!!

Tuesday, 06 March 2012

Sunday, 04 March 2012

A Little Something That's Ours

This is a little something a friend and I have been working on for what seems like the longest time ever! I'm so proud of all the things I did not do, such as play the guitar or the piano or take the beautiful picture with my new camera. All the applause goes to this friend whose fervent wish is to stay anonymous. (Yes, this *friend* really took the picture!)

You rock.

It was entirely my fault that the video is so ridiculously long, mainly because no matter how much my Chinese is improving in the UK (oh great irony).. I still cannot sing fast without tripping over my own words.

I hugely enjoyed the process of this though. I loved the song, the movie (unbearably cute actor ), awesome anonymous guitar skillzxzxz, and best of all being able to produce something that we can call ours.