Friday 27 February 2009

Birthday

Today being the 27th of February means three things to me: it's my birthday, it's my sister's birthday, and it's my grandma's birthday. I am sure you can guess from this that I am a twin, with my sister being a whole five minutes older than me. I have never really managed to get my head around the bizarre fact that my mother's mother also shares the same birthday as Sally and I. The odds of such a thing must be an incredible number, something like, I don't know, 365-1?

Today was unfortunately also a working day for me -- and a working day with English Corner. I have explained my dissatisfaction with the "EC" plenty of times in this blog, today was no different. I thought, "Of all days to get away with murder, today would be it." I could use -- pardon the pun -- the birthday card. So I did. I announced at the beginning of both classes (one in the afternoon, one in the evening) that it was my birthday, talked a bit about my sister, and put on an episode of one of my favourite TV shows. I was happy to see that the afternoon class particularly enjoyed the episode I had chosen -- I knew then that I had got away with it. All in all I have had a pretty good day at Web. I had a delicious meal with Johann and Kimi at a Hong Kong restaurant, and also received a gift off one of my students and friends, Michelle. Kimi even gave me some gifts even though I had told her not to (the camera she bought me for Christmas was my Christmas and birthday present). One of the items was a red bracelet with gold Pisces fish on it. It is customary in China to wear something red when it is your birth year's animal. Mine is the Ox, and this year is the year of the Ox.

The two Pisces fish

I am not having a party tonight as with Web's terrible hours we don't finish until 9pm, so I will be having a gathering on Sunday night instead. I chose Sunday as it's the only day in the week we finish early at 7pm and don't have to work until 1pm the following day.

Happy Birthday Sally, and Happy Birthday Grandma. Have a slice of cake:

I'm 24 now unfortunately, I'll replace the photo with this year's cake when I get it

11 comments:

大眼睛熊 said...

Hey babe, HAPPY BIRTHDAY (sheng ri kuai le) !! Hope ur having a good day and will have a better day tomorrow!! Love u.. xxx

The Acolyte Tao said...

Happy birthday to you good sir! I have less than a month until mine and I finally hit 18. Thank goodness.

mabelp said...

Happy birthday to you, Sally and your grandmother. Ha! I thought your sister was your younger sister, but she is 5 mins older than you. Hahah!

You had a busy birthday, hope you would enjoy your gathering on Sun.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday (a day late) to all of you!

I don't know if a 龙凤 pair is really the most unusual kind of twinship, or if it just has that reputation here in China, but, every time I mention that I teach a pair of 龙凤twins, everybody always "hmns" appreciatively and says, "Well now, THAT is something you rarely see!" It makes ME feel kind of special and privileged (for a moment) just to be their teacher, so I can hardly imagine how they must feel themselves. Luckily they are not too spoiled. So, anyway, just in case you didn't know, here in the Middle Kingdom you can count yourself as something really out of the ordinary, because you are the 龙 in a pair of 龙凤胎.

By the way, I'm an ox too (but rather older).

Wayne said...

ha,a late" happy birthday" fpr u, Chris! and your "family's birthday" is impressive! ^_^

Jonna Wibelius said...

Happy delayed bday!!! Have fun celebrating tomorro!

Johnny Ding said...

Sheng Ri Kuai Le dear Chris.
Though I am late, I still wish you the best. Have a brilliant start in your 24.

I still remember I leart the word "brilliant" from you. Now I say this back to you:) Enjoy your very second here.

Sally said...

Thanks for the virtual slice of cake....very tasty and surprisingly low on calories! Have put a few pics of facebook of my birthday shennanigans (don't like saying my birthday, it's our birthday!) Hope you have a lovely night out tomorrow and hopefully will get to speak to you for a bit too. Love Sal x x

GWENNN. said...

I know it's late buuuuut still,HAPPY BIRTHDAY!(:

生日快乐!

Christopher said...

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes everyone :)

Flyingfish, nice to see another Ox here on blogspot! I have found that people can be quite shocked to learn I'm a twin, always many follow-up questions for me to answer. I've even had a couple of shrieks of surprise too. I wonder if twins are more of a rarity here or not.

Thanks again everybody!

Christopher said...

Oh, and Johnny, I'm very happy to hear I have actually taught somebody something, hehe. I think I used the word brilliant far too much!