A year of Me

Wow... it's been a while huh. Well, I have a lot to say... I had better get on with it then:

1. I have a JOB! I know... the impossible happened, I was so happy when I got the call... a year ago.. But I was very happy, and reading over how I used to stress so much about job hunting makes my current employment all the more special. I work in a Sleep centre and help diagnose people with sleep disorders. It's fun stuff, most of the time. Unfortunately I'm chained to colleagues I would do extra night shifts just to avoid. Yes I do night shifts and have experienced how it feels to attempt cognitive functioning with just 10 hours of sleep over one week. I have even experienced my very own parasomnias because of it. (Parasomnias = sleep disturbances or sleep disorders, it can be experienced by severe sleep deprivation in any healthy person).

2. I have severely truncated the amount of Manga I read, however I have been determined not to abandon it altogether and so I read the first 3 volumes of 'Vagabond' By Takehiko Inoue at the same time that I re-read 'Fruits Basket'.... two very different genres but both read with much enthusiasm! I still need to get up to date with the usual Naruto, Bleach and One Piece which I abandoned in the past 18 months as well.

3. I have gone back to reading books. Yes... Books, those things with words in them that can now be read on a kindle the thickness of a pencil. But I am not tempted by pish posh technology, I behave like a true human and read books from actual books with pages that can't be accidentally deleted.

4. My general outlook on life is, if possible, even more negative than what it used to be. I know from my own religious points of view, that it shouldn't be and that I should be optimistic and see beauty in the world bla bla bla... but when you read books of reality, describing events that have actually happened, not just impassive lines you hear on the news... You end up struggling to see what good there is in the world, especially in mankind. Mankind was probably the worst thing that happened to this planet, their ability to do bad is shockingly high, especially when there is some unspoken code of morality shared between cultures and countries, the simplest being 'Thou shalt not kill' killing happens quite a lot... especially under the guise of legality, such as wars. Syria's government seem to think it a sport.

5. So yeah, I dunno If I ever mentioned it before, but I am Egyptian by nationality and British by birth, so I got the write to vote for the Egyptian election (however I am never allowed to become an Egyptian president's wife.... phew). It was rather exciting ticking a few boxes with actual hope (rather than know all the parties are the same brew of politician), but you  understood the sense of discord when I looked down the list of representative's for my family's Egyptian county district... there were 142 hopefuls, 142! For one district of one County! At least something is happening, it looks like Egypt will be in unrest for a long long time.

6. I turned 24. I know there are people drying up from cholera and baby girls being killed to make room for a first born son, and living baby girls being circumcised, and mosques being bombed in Syria, and children sold into slavery, and landslides destroying homes and Tsunamis wiping out cities. But I'm 24!!! In my own world this is horrendous news! It means I'm older than 23! which was quite a shock when I turned 23. Being 24 wouldn't mean much had I been married/engaged etc. And yes I know it sounds fickle... it bloody well is fickle, now that modern women are thinking about being married at 33 after they've become consultant/ top dogs in their career, but in my little world (which doesn't mean much in relation to the real world, I admit) It's serious because it means I'm just another year older and another year closer to the metaphorical sell-by-date... another year closer to being too old to have children (the physical expiry date). All very fickle because there's no guarantee that I'll have children once married... It just means that I have to be even more patient and play the growing child to my parents (yup, my mum is still surprised I can reach the tap on the kitchen sink). But... one thing I know, is that you can't mess with Naseeb (I'll explain that term some other time). If it's going to happen... it will, it just either me or the other party are not ready... gah!

7. I was on the brink of turning feminist. Crazy but I managed to pull myself back. Not that I think there is anything wrong with being a feminist, it's just that I think some of them want to prove themselves equal to men so much that they forgot that they already are. Like female weight lifters.... I don't get that, they ruin their natural femininity because of it, they end up looking rather grotesque. Yes some pay scales are different between men and women in the same job but there's normally reasons for that. No I do not think that a woman's time of the month will cause drastic changes in her attitude towards a groundbreaking decision, but yes I believe women can make decisions that are sometimes... erratic, especially when she's upset, and especially involving lovers/partners. It's happened and it still happens and it will always happens, it's a woman's nature. I might be a feminist had I lived in some gender unequal country, I definitely would. But in the UK, I trust in the system, its a good one, so I'm not going to go nit picking for gender inequalities that don't mean much. Not unless I don't get my state pension unless I'm married, then I'll make some noise.