Birthday Party

The day of my party had finally arrived and I started it as I start most of my days off, with coffee. Then I went to the supermarket, went to my favourite coffee shop, Nhat Vien, while my cleaner did her thing. I love leaving the house untidy and coming back to a clean house. Despite being generally tidy the house does need to be cleaned at least once a week, everything gets covered in dust and grit as the windows are usually open the whole time. I had a couple of beers at Hau's because I was nervous before going home and starting to get things together. Bael came over and helped me put up my birthday banner. While he was there Tuan, my bicycle guy, turned up and started to blow up balloons. Tuan works by the side of the road in my neighbour and he's my go to guy when I have a problem with my bike but he will never let me pay him. So I invited him to my party thinking that it would be one way to thank him, he doesn't speak any English. Anyway so he comes with his younger brother and starts to decorate my house with balloons. I left him to it after a while and went to get my hair done at Dung's. When I came back he was gone. Huong and some of the kite surfing guys from Wax turned up with a cake at 6pm. Tuan came back and proceeded to make flower arrangements with flowers in a pot of water, he did two of these and put them on my front porch. They were so beautiful and it is such a thoughtful thing to do. He then disappears and comes back with two cakes,with a cake stand, a bouquet of red roses, some long stem red roses that he arranges in a vase that he also brought with him. This is not to mention the candles and other nik naks he gave me. I was stunned and I feel so guilty about it, I never meant for him to do this, to spend money and time on me. I am supposed to be saying thank to him for fixing my bike not having to think of some way to say thank you for everything else he has done. That sounds ungrateful and I'm not, I just genuinely feel at a loss as to how I can thank him for everything he has done for me, to tell him how much I appreciate it. People started to arrive in earnest about 7pm and right from the start Huong was a great help. She started to help Hau and the other Huong get the food set up, put out the cakes and get people drinks. I spent most of the evening running around the house like a headless chicken. I'd go to the door, greet someone, usher them into the kitchen to get a drink and then I'd have to go back to the front door and do it all again. Mrs. Lan from the Hoang Kim guesthouse dropped off a present, my Ao Dai tailor came to the party and gave me some beautiful fabric. I'll have to go back to her to have another Ao Dai made! The owner of MTV came and brought me flowers, Dung my hairdresser came, one of my neighbours, people from school, Denise and some of the girls from Nha Trang, the Vietcom bank girls and even some of the APC staff from the ESL centre came. It was a really busy night and I did enjoy it. If nothing else it was lovely to be reason that everyone had gathered together and the party really flowed and ebbed well. Some people were there the whole night and others came and went. Patrick and Ola came and brought Martin, the hotel's new ops manager, along with Marie. Larissa and Tim came and had a good time I think. Everyone tells me that the food was great, it certainly disappeared quickly enough. I managed to get one spring roll and that was only thanks to Huong who shoved one into my mouth telling me that I had to eat. I didn't open my birthday presents during the evening, I was just too busy. I was amazed that I ended up with five cakes, one of which I have no idea who brought it for me, which is terrible. I also received a lot of flowers, which is so lovely, I love flowers. Anna wasn't able to make it and I have mixed feelings about that. When she came to Phan Thiet in May she had asked if I would consider a joint party, after some initial hesitation I agreed. Anna then changed her mind and said that as I had so many plans already she would just come as a guest. Then she went up to Nha Trang to celebrate her birthday and hurt her back. There was no way that she could withstand a five hour bus ride to Phan Thiet so she went back to Saigon late on the Saturday afternoon. It still blows my mind that you can travel door to door between Nha Trang and Saigon in less time then it takes me to get to Saigon from Phan Thiet and it's more than double the distance. Carlo wasn't able to make it either, he wasn't well but those two were the only notable absences. I closed the house party down at about 11pm and some of us who were left joined Hau and Huong senior at 7UP. There was a couple of tables set up with brandy and another cake! For some reason I was in a filthy mood and spent about half an hour stalking around the club trying to get a beer. Eventually Daniel from Sinbad managed to get me one and I went back to the group. Tan, Huong and Bael had all been texting me asking me where I was, I should have gone home. Huong decided to go back to Mui Ne, Hau and Huong senior don't like her. The two sisters keep talking about "family" and that's all who they wanted to be there that night despite it being my celebration. That didn't improve my mood either, this was all topped off with me being presented with the bill at the end of the night. Luckily Bael paid a big chunk of it. In Vietnam if it's your birthday you usually pay, but as far as I was concerned I had paid enough in paying for my party and I certainly didn't want to drink brandy at the nightclub. Then to crown the night I fell off my shoes on the way out of the club and went straight down on my knees and gave myself two bruises, ah well at least I know it's me. The days after the party were pretty quiet, I didn't do much outside of cleaning up, dealing with the cakes and getting ready to go to Hanoi. I hung out a lot with Bael, Hau and Huong. I do like the two sisters but they do have some strong opinions. They really don't like the other Huong and the boys from Wax and they hate gays. This surprises me as there are a few gay guys in Phan Thiet and it is quite obvious that they are gay and from what I've seen they are tolerated. Until now I hadn't seen any strong feelings towards them, I was surprised. I dropped off the house key to Daniel and Anh and arranged for them to come and feed the cats while I was away and caught the bus to Saigon. I would stay the Tuesday night with Anna and Jan and then we would take a morning flight to Hanoi. I was looking forward to it, I view the trip as my chance to celebrate my and Anna's birthday.