Happy Birthday to Me

Since I am across the int'l date line, I figure I get two birthdays,like Ray. Let's start with last night, though, on my birthday eve.We went out for supper to a round table restaurant with 3 of Bob's friends-Francis,Devlin and little Bob(he's smaller than our Bob) Good food, good beer, and great visiting. Does Bob ever have nice friends! After dinner we went to Francis' restaurant(La Rouge) which was just closing for the night, and played a board game.I think it was called Cathedral and was fun, but I only came in 2nd.At 1 a.m. we taxied home and I had a good sleep. This morning we had eggs benedict at La Rouge(Thanks Francis) and went to tour Taipei 101, tallest tower in the world, until the one in Dubai opens! Also fastest elevator in the world(600plus mph) which leaves your stomach somewhere other than where it was when you started. The view was spectacular! Then we met Chris and Nevada and their sweet daughter Gemma for a wonderful birthday supper at Din Tai Fung, New York Times named it one of the top ten restaurants in the world. Absolutely amazing dumplings-noodle dough packets filled with pork, or shrimp,or whatever,and some broth in it as well. You pierce the dumpling and drink the broth and then dip the dumpling in a soy sauce-ginger-vinegar mixture. The staff came out and sang Happy Birthday for me and brought me a dumpling with red bean paste in it.Hmm. Not a big fan of the dessert with bean paste. But we smiled and gave them an A for effort. After supper we went to Chocoholic, a restaurant that specialises in different kinds of hot chocolates, ganaches, and truffles.I had hazelnut hot chocolate. Amazing! I took a picture of the display case for you,Adam. THEN, Nevada took me to a salon, where for $10. cdn they put you on a massaging table-chair thing and shampoo and massage your hair.Then they blow-dry it and style it.Bliss! Thanks,Nevada.Then we went to Chris and Nevadas and played Apples to Apples-a card game. And so another action-packed and fun day. I feel grateful and spoiled, and my hair looks really,really good! Tomorrow we go to Little Bob's for Chinese New Year's Eve and his girlfriend's Taiwanese family will be there, and cooking. But that's another blog for another day. Thanks for the comments- they keep me going on this blog. Pictures so far are just on facebook, but we'll get them up here somehow eventually. Kim and Brenda, I will try the ice with fruit thing-Bob was telling me about it.