Twelve

Twelve months, 365 days.

On my 21st birthday I fell asleep at about 10pm in em's bed in Plymouth while everyone else had a party without me. Officially I went to Thorpe Park for my celebrations, I had lots on my mind at the time and cried as the theme park music played and children ran about dripping ice cream. Needless to say, my birthday was a flop. 

It hit me today that 12 months can change absolutely everything and sometimes nothing at all. My closest friends who I have now known for 8 years, some longer have stuck around through so much. I went to Brownies with Danielle and sometimes I swear she used to pick on me for being a fat child. When it gets to ten years it will be bizarre. Then there are newer friends, India from college and her kindness with an awful break up. Nailah knows how to push my buttons and make me laugh in equal measure and newer friends from London who have made the city feel like home.  

Eleven

Eleven has always sort of been my favourite number without realising it. At eleven o'clock each night in my old house in Reading I used to swing my legs out of my tiny bedroom window, sit on the sil and have a cigarette while listening to Broken Social Scene, the 7 minute version of Lover's Spit was not only much better than the shorter version but was also just long enough for the whole cigarette.

 making friends with the locals

Everything about Edinburgh was perfect.

Highlights were - tartan in every shop, mini band performances, subway dances, hostel horrors (hairdryers at 8am and hoovers at 9), singing karaoke with a bar full of loud scottish men, not just singing karaoke but singing I Kissed A Girl in front of loads of loud scottish men, the gay bar being called Gay Head Quarter, tongues on shoes, waking up with about 10 umbrellas in my bag, heckling Zoe Lyons then her tweeting me when we got home, food day where we just spent the day eating constantly, Em's ketchup obsession, laughing a lot, Jade making us try out interpretive theatre that just meant wondering around with earphones on looking slightly lost and perking up at the rude bits, the pictures that time would rather forget, boggle eye and evil eye and just laughing so so much.