Another year younger for me

What I love about celebrating my birthday is that the more I get older, the more I enjoy life and the company that comes with it. Plus the fact that even though I am getting old, I never look old. It's a gift, I know. 

I've already had five birthdays here in China and for the first 3 birthdays, we've always had house parties. We would cook some food, invite some friends to come over, have some booze and simply chat or do some games like playing poker. But when that dreaded big 3-0 came last year, my husband and my friends decided that we better spice up my birthday and do a whole day activity instead. 

I remember going to one of Xian's hot springs called Tang Yu Wen Quan (Lan Tian). We hired a mini-van to take us there because it was 2 hours from our city. There were a lot of us, some I don't even know because they were friends of a friend of mine. It was cold that day, too cold for spring season but it was alright because we're going to have a dip in the hot springs and get a full body massage afterwards. 

For this year, I had a 2-day celebration. The day before my birthday, we went strawberry picking in the morning and had a relaxing foot spa and body massage in the afternoon. Compared to last year's weather, it was sunny and cool. We didn't rent a van this time but  a bus instead (only one-way though). The day ended with me going to a hair salon to have my hair trimmed and coloured. 

The day of my birthday, my husband prepared a healthy breakfast for me. My muscles were a bit sore from the massage but I felt more relaxed. We decided to go shopping in Xian (a nearby city) that day with some friends and ended up buying a lot of groceries instead (I still managed to get myself brand new skirts though)! Before the day ended, we invited the others who weren't able to join us in Xian to have dinner at our place. All the foreigners were there and each of them brought food. We ended sharing a sumptuous meal and then had a good laugh as we watched Ridiculousness on the big screen in our apartment. 

Gone is the party-till-you drop birthday celebration. Instead it was replaced by something  far more great because I knew that when I wake up the next day, the memory that I had on that special day will be able to cherished and remembered forever, knowing that I was able to share it with different people who happened to cross my path.