29/11/08 Turning 22

I’d just like to take this opportunity to record the fact that I celebrated my 22nd birthday lying beside a swimming pool in the late afternoon sunshine, sipping on a cool 7-Up (I was nursing a pretty serious hangover, otherwise I would surely have been drinking a cocktail).

For someone whose birthday is in (English) November, the idea of a pool party was never really on the cards. So to celebrate in this way was pretty special for me. The night before, I’d gone to a party at the Nordic club, which is a really nice expat club in Gulshan, with Laura, Job and Ollie. There was loud live music (terrible), a Dj (good enough), a canopy of fairy lights (enchanting) and lots of dancing (exactly what I needed). It was perfect, save for the fact that so many people I love were so far away. Everyone else there was also immaculately dressed (how do they all have so many nice clothes with them?!), so I felt rather like a scrubber in my flipflops and one of the two dresses that I have with me in Bangladesh. But I was having too much fun to care.

After our sojourn beside the pool the next day, I went to Job’s flat (he’s another VSO volunteer, from Kenya) and we cooked some great African beef and ugali (a Kenyan staple made from maize flour). So we ate, drank rice wine and Bangladeshi vodka, and danced the night away. Again.