It Is That Time Again

I love love April. It is the month of my birthday and it is the month when tha transition from summer to winter happens. Last week it was my birthday. It was an ordinary working day (nothing exciting seems to happen on my birthdays these days). The highlight was when the day before on the 13th one of my friend baked a cake and surprised me with it. I also got a lot of sweet mesages on facebook, through email, whats up and calls. It is always humbling to realise that people care so much for me.

Here is the picture of my cake. Thank you Kristin.

A Day At the Zoo

We had a work team building exercise at the local Zoo a day after my birthday. Since my birthday was very uneventful I took it as an opportunity to celebrate. The team building was over by 13.00hrs and so had the rest of the day to tour the Zoo and what an experience it was.

My colleagues decided to do a little something for me a week after my birthday. We are just 3 in our department so it was lovely to share these bites and the cake, which I must say was delicious.

Woolies cakes are some of the best.

Anyway back to the zoo. Here are a few pictures.  There was so much to see and it was a fun day out.


Arriving at the Zoo.

The white lion was gorgeous.

They say that the rhino has one of the toughest skins together with the elephant and the hippo.

We stayed for quite a bit watching this elephant eating. It seemed he was enjoying the attention as there was actually a bit of a crowd watching.

Then there was the crocodiles. I failed to take a good picture so have this poster instead. There was one crocodile who had his mouth open for over 10 minutes without moving. My friends and I actually had a debate as to whether it was a fake or a real croc - then he snapped his mouth shut and opened it again.

Mesmerizing - he/she was a real show off.

I bet you can tell the tigers were my favorite. We stayed here the longest. There were three or was it four of them in the confinement and I captures 2 of them on camera. 

The defining moment when one of the tiger swam right to the glass panel where we were standing and started clawing. Ummm I wonder if he was salivating watching all of us - damn the glass wall.

14 April!!!!!!

Today is my birthday! There I have said it.

Here is the thing - I used to enjoy celebrating my birthday and I actually used to look forward to it but not so much anymore. What changed? Probably its the thought of getting older and realizing that time is definitely not on my side as regards a number of things.

Any how, here are a few things that happened today which surprised me:

1. Two of my bosses who are based at our company head quarters sent me birthday messages - I was surprised they even knew the day of my birthday.
2. My good friend (e-pal) Nathalie also sent me a sweet birthday message. She is such a lovely person and again I was surprised she remembered my birthday.
3. Another colleague who I hardly speak to and works in one of our satellite offices asked me, 'It's your birthday today right'. Again I was surprised that she even knew the date of my birthday. 

So the common thread here seems to be that people actually know more about me than I think. Lesson to remember: never to think that I am invisible, people are watching and observing - either silently or in the background.

I don't know what the rest of the day holds but I am grateful for the gift of life. I might fantasize about being young and my younger days- what could have been but never was (yeah right!) but it is a blessing to have lived for so many years, not everyone got the chance. Thank you Lord. Here is to many many more years.

Thoughts On Being Older

This post is long overdue. I am sorry that I failed to keep my promise to put up this post over the weekend. Something came up and I could not find the time to do it. Anyway here goes. First some pictures.

My birthday cake baked by my friend Ruth. It was delicious. Look at that, 11 candles means that I turned 11. How about that :)

Blowing out the candles for the second time because the 1st time we where out side and we failed to light them up since the wind kept blowing them out.

For sometime now I have been struggling with the idea that I am almost leaving my 20s behind and am on the verge of opening the door to my 30s. Honestly I am not yet ready for my 30s, so I think anyway. I always thought that by this time I would be living some of my dreams or at least well on the way of doing so but this is not so in some aspects.
Months ago I remember reading an article on Boundless magazine which had an impact on me. Unfortunately I have forgotten who the author was but I will always remember what she wrote. The author of the article was talking about the things that she had hoped to be but will now never be and she shared how she was learning to let go of those dreams and instead focus on embracing the things she could/will be.

At this point in my life I am realizing that there are things that I will never be or can never have or do because the time for that is past but there are things that I can still be, do and have.

The things I wanted to be by this time

1. I always wanted to meet the man who would be my husband and get married to him very young, like say before I was 25. I hoped that we would spend a couple of years just me and him  getting to know each other, traveling and establishing ourselves before we had children. But here I am still yet to meet my husband to be.

2. I wanted to have my 1st child before but I was 30. From the look of things that will not be case. That is one dream I have to let go of.

3.I always thought that by now I would well on my way of establishing my career in my preferred field, again this is yet to come to pass.

For a while I felt miserable about these things that could have been, but then after a while realised  it was not the end of the world but was only the beginning of something different. I can make my 30s my 20s :) I am still going to marry the man of my dreams and have my children even though it is going to be later than I anticipated. All things will still work together for my good. God just has a different plan for my life than I thought. 

On the plus side I have had the opportunity to enjoy part of my 20s as a single woman, independent and without much responsibility. My 20s has been a time when I have matured  as a person and  my relationship with God has metamorphosed. God has been molding me over the years into the person He wants me to be and intended me to be.

Here is to all that I desired to be but never was and cannot be and all that is to be and could be. My God is still good.

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, today is my birthday. I must say of all the birthdays I have celebrated so far this one is by far the most unique. 

Last year: This is part of the delicious dinner that my friend Tee prepared for me.

This year: Some friends have offered to take me to see the movie below. I am looking forward to watching it because I am a fan of Nicholas Sparks but I am preparing myself for a twist or sad ending because most of his books/films end like that - remember The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Nights in Rodanthe. We are catching the 21.00 movie cause this is the only time it shows today and its the one we all want to see (uuuhm and tomorrow I have to wake up early to go to work - I will survive :)

Image from here

Once again I have been amazed at the number of people who have remembered, it sure makes me feel loved and treasured. Thank you Lord for my life and all my friends and family who care so much about me.