Another birthday, and another new year. Yaay!

So, the euphoria has almost worn off (the day after the birthday is soo anticlimactic) and its not been so 'yay' anymore, but desperately clutching on the the straggly ends of my new list of resolutions, here's me trying to be more (unrealistically???) optimistic. So 'yaay' once again!

Yes, another birthday and another new year.

The day dawned bright and early! The 'brightness' started way before dawn, with dear friends at midnight (okay, so technically it was still 15 minutes before midnight and all our watches were about 5 minutes faster or slower than the other..(note to self: synchronize watches with all close friends)), chocolate cake and red wine on an ever-so-slightly nippy terrace. Very nice. Yaay!

Call from a dear friend continents away. Nice. Somehow pensive. Yaay! for close friends.

I seem to be spending most of my significant dates in trains (partly at least). So, following the tradition, the 5 am trip out from home for the train station, and with me after barely 40 minutes of sleep (well, lets just say, this won't be a sentence suffixed with 'yay'!). Well..But, the start was not all that bad. The taxi arrived before time - as usual, but instead of the driver honking on the horn to jarr me awake well before the appointed time, he actually waited patiently. Yup. :-). And since this was a mid-week train journey, the platform was not crowded and I got a nice porter to carry my heavy luggage. And, he ended up being a nice young person to chat to. I did catch him look puzzled at my constant monologue, but he eventually joined in and so we ended up talking, in a refreshingly pleasant way, about the railways, about the station and about mid-week train journeys. My reservation was of a nice window seat, AND barely into the start of the train journey the messages started coming on the phone. Yaay! Now, I am not (much of) an egoistic person, but it feels real real nice when ppl remember the special day. And they kept coming throughout (uh..almost) so it was goooood goood good (as Bruce Almighty would say). To top the morning off, it dawned nice and chilly with a fantastic fog. Perfect perfect perfect start to the day! Yaay!

(Oh and before I get too carried away with this 'being optimistic' business, I simply must tell about the eclectic ticket checker or rather the 'TT'. So, ages after leaving school, I felt like a school kid. And this time it was a TT sitting down and taking attendance of the compartment! While everyone either snickered or pretended to ignore, it was hard not to be amused. So Mr.TT plonked himself down on the corner edge of 'my' set of seats and proceeded to call out names of passengers at the top of his voice, and so forth, - for all the passengers to hear, while I desperately prayed for God to make him go away before he shouted out my name, and worse, the age. (I don't think God got enough notice for this request, so, well, it did not work). The fun actually started when a passenger was found to be missing. And then a series of loud announcements on whether anyone had seen 'Ms. Kiko. Foreign Lady. 26 years of age', followed by the TT conscientiously walking the length of the compartment looking for her. At various points of pacing about, he would stop and lecture a passenger on the importance of keeping proper records of the passengers of the Indian railways! After a half hour of this, having done his duty, the official disappeared as noisily as he had arrived. While the compartment, almost simultaneously, erupted in giggles.

The day at home was relaxed and nice. Yes, nice. Too short. But nice. Yaay! And next day, very early morning, it was time to head back to the train, and to current reality.

So yeah, four days down the line, it seems very very hard to follow the three resolutions. But I, am determined to try. So, yaay to that.

Yaay! to the new year!

d:-).