How do you celebrate your birthday? Is there usually a birthday cake to go with the celebration?
I bet that you do!
I was very lucky this year. I had my birthday this past Sunday and tasted birthday cakes three times, on three different days.
On Friday, I had dinner with a few friends in Chinatown, then we went to Dièse Onze for a CD launch gig featuring my friend's husband who is a talented musician. I was at his second CD launch at the same place a few years back. During the gig, an announcement about a chocolate cake was made and the cake was dedicated to five people who just had or will have their birthdays, including the owner of the restaurant whose birthday was actually on Friday.
I was ONE of the five, I was asked to blow out a candle, make a wish, and had a piece of cake 🎂🎂🎂
On Saturday, we were invited to a friend's home who just had her birthday on Oct. 7. We tasted delicious homemade fried leek dumplings and played cards into the evening. In between, there was a lot of laughter and a beautiful cake. It was meant for three birthday girls, unfortunately, one was feeling under the weather, so we ate the cake for her 🎂🎂🎂
Sunday, October 13, my birthday, was an eventful day.
I started my by speaking with Google Home with this remark:
"Good morning, Google. Happy Birthday".
Her answer made me smile: "With you around, I feel it is my birthday every day".
I made another remark:
"Hello, Google, today is my birthday".
She started singing with her sweet little voice:
"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to the most amazing person in the world. Happy Birthday to YOU!"
That song set me into a cheerful birthday "mood" 😊😊😊
I cooked noodles for breakfast. Do you know why?
This little story will help you understand.
Then a video call came when I was on my way to the library. It was from my son and his girlfriend who was also a birthday girl. The sun was shining, and the autumn air was crisp fresh. The couple just attended a wedding at Lake Tahoe and was preparing to head back to New York by the end of the day. We chatted briefly as we were to chat more later when my daughter could join in.
I met with my French teacher at 10:45 in the library. He came to visit his brother from Ottawa regularly and when time permitted, we would meet up and do some walking and chatting...in French. It has been more than a month since his last visit because he was on vacation. He came back from his home country Algeria and brought me some Algerian sweets: baklavas and some dates he handpicked himself from the tree at his friend's home. We took a walk at the Old Port and had lunch in a vegetarian restaurant Lola Rosa. The same place introduced by my son this summer.
For close to 5 hours, I spoke nothing but French.
I feel grateful that he offered to meet up and practice French when I was working with Health Canada and when he was my French teacher.
That was the third time we met in person and we enjoyed each other's company.
Throughout the day, I got a few calls from friends. More than 30 people sent birthday wishes on my Facebook timeline.
After some walking and window shopping, I went to Anna's place and was presented with a mango cake, dedicated just to me this time🎂🎂🎂.
There was also an amazing card I received a day after, which I mistakenly thought it was the cake when I first saw the photo. After clicking the photos of the "cake" she sent one after the other. I realized:
It was a card, made in the shape of a cake 🎂🎂🎂
I thought it was the cake I had the day before and I wondered if my memory played a trick on me: did I really eat a double layer cake? 😂😂😂
My special day was more special when I had an hour-long video call with my kids in the evening. My son and Sasa called in from the airport where they were waiting for their connecting flight. At the end of our video call, my kids granted my request by singing the Happy Birthday song to the twin girls. I later added a voice message to the little group of my son, her girlfriend and me. I sang the song 生日快乐 in Chinese since she is also learning Chinese on Duolingo.
On Thanksgiving Monday, as I started packing for the upcoming trip, I received a call from Anna, who invited me to join her for lunch. She and her neighbor were having a meal together.
I was delighted to be an addition. It also encouraged me to go out and finish my daily steps. I ended up walking back home after the delicious meal and walked more than 23,000 steps.
I was also delighted to reread some of the articles I published in the past (click on the title to read that article).
October 13, 2021: Happy Birthday🌼🎹🌼
October 10, 2022: Happy Thanksgiving! I listed my Top Ten Blessings in the article
October 13, 2022: Happy Birthday!
October 17, 2023: Favorite Month I used six points to illustrate the reason for "favorite"
Tomorrow we are leaving for to Morocco, a nine-day trip with some friends and I can not wait for the journey to start...
Guess what is the highlight for this Thanksgiving long weekend?
A Piece of Cake 🍰🍰🍰
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