Today is the first day of my 23rd year of existence. 20th April 2004. 20.04.2004. Wow. That's gotta mean something.

Well, it is already. I'm having a wonderful birthday. We started celebrating on the 19th since Azim's on standby today. I'm always starting my celebrations on the 19th...I think unconciously, I know it makes my birthday feel twice as long!

Supposed to be in Birmingham by now, but they took me off the flight. Reason, lame as it may sound, stands at the fact that I have not had enough of my legal off days yet. Legal? In Singapore, I lived with the legal amount of four off days a month! I don't need 11 now! Arabs are very pleasure-seeking people.....they need 11 off days to stay sated. So there I was, on the 18th, all packed up with nowhere to go. All geared up for my Birmingham flight. That's the place where Strafford is. Strafford's where Shakespeare was born and bred. His house stands there...and it's not too far from the crew hotel! So one can see how I would spend my Birmingham trip without me going into detail. Plus, Birmingham's allowance is pretty good coz the end justifies the means. Birmingham's stuff not as expensive as London's stuff. So since sterling stays sterling, we get a whopping amount at the end of it all. Yeah...well....next month maybe.

After I sobered up at the indignance of being offloaded, I used the 18th to get all my presents for Azim. I had a whole list of practical and impractical stuff for him. As I type this, I've gotten them all but one. And that is, a really good and roomy toiletries bag for his layovers. The guy just THROWS his essential stuff into his suitcase! I get fits whenever I take a peek! His clothes are nicely folded, the other stuff all arranged in a proper layout and you'd start thinking this guy's half-gay for all his orderliness and then you see his shaving cream, his gel, his shaver etc etc in some kind of opposition with one another and you throw the gay tendency thoughts out the window. Well, gay or not, there is a reason why toiletries bags exist and I'm not going to make them a lost cause with him. I'm still searching for a nice one, even after our birthday dinner earlier! Gucci has a nice manly one. Maybe that'll be my choice and his bane. Heh.

We've exchanged our gifts. He loves his stuff. I love my stuff. I love him. This is our second birthday together and it's getting better, masya'Allah!

I'm older now. I'm 23. I'll be a better person, I hope. All I know is, I need to do different things to be better. Well, first up..I quote from "10 Tricks Every Cosmo Girl Should Learn by 30" from Cosmo's April 2004 issue, Trick #5: Dump toxic friends. I am a good distance from 30 but I think Trick #5 should start kicking in now. We all know what toxic friends are and I know I have one or two but now, I don't want to know any. So these one or two girls should get the message sooner or later. Adious, mi non-amigos. And just in case any of my Crescent Girls' School galpals should read this and terasa, just be assured you guys are not toxic to me. Okay? We went through too much to ever be toxic to each other. You guys saw me, skirt up with wedgie in progress. Think I'd risk defamation? Naaahh.....too precious.

Well, all in all, Happy Birthday Raihan & Azim. Too young to be adults, too old to be kids. We're just in time.