It’s been a pretty rough week… one of those where you take a step back and think to yourself – “wow! didn’t see that one coming!”. All week, I was up by 5am, so that I was out of the door, and at work by 730 am. I think its fair to say that physically it was very draining too.

On Tuesday night, as I headed to bed, I decided to restart my blackberry because it seemed a little slow. As I lay in bed, my face turned the same colour as the screen on the BB…. it was displaying the white screen of death. My attempts to revive it were futile, and it meant one and one thing only – I had to reinstall it (darn! important numbers were lost!). So as I hooked the BB to my PC, and got online to find the drivers, I got talking to my buddy HFM. Our conversation was hovering around a situation which she was having with a friend of hers. As we discussed further and further, my mind drifted back to something which I had put together a long while back, but never actually posted.

I was going through a phase not too long ago, when I was questioning everything associated with me. A huge question which I kept asking myself was “Who is a friend? What is a friend?” I keep thinking about this, and as HFM and I spoke more and more this week, it started to get a little clearer.

I am generally a very private person. Sure, I throw stuff around this blog, and I tweet as if its the unpolluted air that I desire, but it’s not even close to what my thoughts are. So, who do I share these thoughts with? Friends right? Well, that’s what I thought too… but I don’t know…. You see, my definition of a friend is someone who I can trust with my life. Someone who is there for me without me having to look for them. A friend is one who doesn’t care about the pleases and sorrys and thanks, because the connection between 2 friends is greater than that. But is that really friendship? I ask that because that is what YOU expect from another person… but would you give back the same too? And if you didn’t – does that make you less of a friend? Does it make you an associate and not a friend at all?

I love to keep things simple in life. Life is a battle on a daily basis, some of which you win, and some which you lose. What you don’t want though is battles with or amongst your friends. I think of friends as those who I can be there for, and those who are their for me; it doesn’t have to be in the worst circumstance, it’s just assuring to know that they are there!

On Tuesday night, HFM and MaliZOMG hung around and kept company which, to a large extent, made me feel sooooo much better; after a hard/bad day at work, nightmare day dealing with clients, trying to get stupid colleagues to do their job, and then finally as I was close to drifting off, a phone which needed resuscitation it was nice to know that 2 people just gave a crap. I slept for 4 hours that night, but I slept in the knowledge that I had 2 good friends who were there for me when I didn’t quite call out to either of them.

The same goes to everyone who comments or tweets or helps me or encourages me when I need it the most, but don’t quite talk about it – that is friendship; the pure fact that I know there are people who care enough to well… care! On my part – I have been less of a friend to a lot of people for a long time…. hopefully that change has begun, and will continue in the future.

One thing which I love about the Internet is the fact that you can make good, reliable, and great friends without ever meeting them in person. Given the opportunity, I would love to meet every one of them – from Salta in Argentina to Melbourne in Australia, St Petersburg in Russia to Chengdu in China. I love the friends which I have made in all walks of life – school, uni, work, chatting online, tweeting, blogging and ofcourse – travelling!

Friendship begins by offering what YOU have to give, and not what someone else is willing to give to you; so with that in mind – do you have what it takes to be a good friend?

Firstly, I am liking the new wordpress layout change – looks wickedly cool!

I also am liking the clean up of google reader!

I have been an insomniac of sorts this week. I have been falling asleep between 2300-0000, but I am wide awake by 0230-0300 and can’t sleep from then on. I just can’t get my head around why my mind and body is reacting in this way; I honestly feel I am drifting away from normality, and need to pull on a rope to get myself back to shore.

My laptop finally gave up for the fourth time this year. I spent an entire day re-installing it from scratch Time for a new laptop I think!

A friend of mine is gloating that his work bought him a new laptop when he got blue screens twice…. grrrrr….

I decided earlier today that I will go debt free (well…. besides my mortgage) by the end of December. The last bits of my car loan should be finally paid off…. I feel lighter already! (pun totally intended!)

I spent another week  picking up the pieces at work….. *sigh* somethings just don’t change….

I said “No” to the Head hunter…. changing jobs seems a little risky at the moment (as great as the financial package was!)….

I am now friends with a couple of people at work…. As cautious as I am with extended socialising with work colleagues, I am looking forward to crazy hanging out sessions….

I invested some money in stocks issued by a bank which was “rescued” by the government. I think it is a good call, and was advised by a seasonal player to invest more into banks and financial institutions…. further advice anyone? (I am open to DOW or Far East stock market tips )

One of the objectives of me blogging was to spread some knowledge from my part. It is Eid al-Adha on Monday (and I haven’t blogged about it ), and I wont be at work, and have the company Christmas Lunch on Tuesday…. so essentially I start work next week on Wednesday (woo hoo!)

I have started reading “A Hundred and One Days“, which is written by one of my favourite authors – Asne Seirstad. I have all her books, and have read all but this one.

My current blog entertainment is courtesy of Antonella.

I have found a new travel buddy! Well… not quite found – I knew him since I was a kid – he is kind of in my extended family, and works in Russia, but travels a lot around Europe, Far East and South America from work (he is an auditor). He has invited me to join in on his travels…. lookin’ forward to random road trips next year!

It’s been a dull week for me… hope you guys celebrating christmas are getting on top of your xmas shopping! How was your week?