Birthdays Galore

Sorry guys that I haven’t posted in a while, but it has just been hectic.

Anyway, in July it was a very expensive month b/c Sarah, Sana, and had a birthday all in the first week of the month.

5 JULY – MY BIRTHDAY (23 years young): On the 5th of July it was my birthday, and it was pretty good. In the morning everyone gave me their cards and stuff. Then in the afternoon, Sarah and I went to see The House of Viktor & Rolf, which is a ‘stunning new exhibition showcasing the work of Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf’ at the Barbican Art Gallery. It was such WICKED exhibition! It features their unique collection from their inception to their present collection. Check out this short video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RNkUyrLofZo, and you must read this for more info: http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=7272. And later Sarah and me got some Chinese takeaway and rented ‘Babel’ directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu that stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Kōji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Nathan Gamble, and Elle Fanning. Babel creates multiple stories taking place in Morocco, Japan, Mexico and the United States, and it’s very hard to describe, but very wonderfully enthralling and enjoyable. REALLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! ***FOUR STARS***

10 JULY – SANA’S BIRTHDAY (17 years young): The 10th of July was Sana’s birthday, and since it was a weekday we didn’t do much. We just gave Sana her presents, had a nice meal together, and decided to do something over the weekend instead.

12 JULY – SARAH’S BIRTHDAY (24 years young): And on the 12th of July it was Sarah’s birthday, the oldest of us four rock stars. It turned out to be a not so perfect day. Sarah planned to treat us and take us all to our local cinema to see the new ‘Chronicle of Narnia’ film. However, after waiting in the que for bloody ages, the ticketer told Sarah that we couldn’t see the film b/c it was upstairs and there’s no wheelchair access to the screens. What made this a very upsetting situation is not the fact that they didn’t have wheelchair access (as most of the buildings in the UK especially in London are over 200 years old and it is difficult to get wheelchair access w/o destroying the architecture, and I have somewhat accepted this fact), but rather that how badly the employees treated us w/o even apologising or calling the manager to explain. They didn’t even bother to rectify the situation and basically I felt like they were like ‘next customer, please’ w/o a bat of an eyelash. So, we ended up going home feeling quite bitter, we decided to order some pizza and we rented ‘The Golden Compass’ directed by Chris Weitz and stars Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, Sam Elliott, and Eva Green. It is a rendition of the first of book trilogy, ‘His Dark Materials’ by Phillip Pullman. It was a pretty good film, but like most other films adapted from books, it doesn’t compare to the brilliance of the book. ***THREE STARS***

So, July is always an expensive month w/ our three birthdays; well, the first half of the year is quite expensive b/c dad’s birthday is on 2 April, mum’s birthday is on 9 May, and their anniversary is on 4 June. My younger brother, 12, (the youngest of us four rock stars) is the odd one out since his birthday is on January. As you can see, it’s very expensive indeed...