My Birthday

At the end of October I turned fifty. In the spring a few friends, already past this milestone, insisted I must do something memorable for the occasion. It had not occurred to me before this conversation, but immediately the idea of spending it in Cambodia seemed exceptional enough.

I spent the entire week of my birthday in bed (possibly with Dengue fever—the non-medical opinions are mixed). Suffice to say I had an incredible fever, the worst headache for seven straight days (and I get some pretty bad migraines), and ate a total of two pieces of toast and some steamed vegetables during the week. On the plus side I enter my second fifty years with my girlish figure back.

On my birthday proper, Anna-Marie sat me up in bed and paraded in some friends and staff and a garish Cambodian cake. For hers I had picked the simplest cake from the Bayon Bakery at the end of our street. But this cake was selected from their catalogue—the criteria being how much and how ornate can the icing be. Anna-Marie intends to take me down to the bakery to see how marvelous it looked in the catalogue, though as you can see, it is no plane jane.

The celebration consisted of me blowing out some candles, cutting pieces of cake for everyone (I’m still not sure why they let the sicky even touch the cake), opening a few cards and presents and immediately returning to bed. I look remarkably alive in the photo.

To my great surprise and astonishment a few friends back in Waterloo took up a collection before we left Canada and presented Anna-Marie with a lump of money to spend wildly for my birthday. I could have bought 200 bottles of Guinness with it or 25 hours of massage, but didn’t. Instead Anna-Marie released me with matching funds and I spent four days hunting for the best buy of a new DSLR camera. The result: the Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D. With thanks to those who made suggestions to Anna-Marie, we are back in the picture business.

That's the good news. The bad news is I've taken 800 photos at Angkor!