Thanks everyone!

Many thanks to everyone who has made my past few days and an unforetold number of future days more fun to celebrate by sending emails, photos, videos, gifts, cards, well wishes, posting on my FB, or by spending time with me.  It's been great!  I have a few nice gifts already - water bottle from Angie with gel lining to keep it cold; magnet with our street name on it and a big bag of M&Ms from Beth; and a card from Grandma!  For those of you that don't know my Grandma, she is 84 and always sends a card with a check for $25 dollars in it.  Not only did she send a card and a money order for $25, but she somehow managed to get it here on my exact birthday despite the long trip it had to make.  Thanks Grandma (and Grandpa)!  I will save it for when I can spend it at the casino in your honor. 

Gin, mixers and bars - a trifecta

Today I had optional classes since it was a holiday, so the students that showed up got to choose which movie they'd like to see off of my hard drive.  First class picked Casino Royale, second one picked Back to the Future.  Haven't seen that in ages.  After work I went to dinner with Angie, Beth and Chris at a Thai place in downtown Taipa which was quite tasty.  (Although they did not have Thai iced tea either, so I may have to give up on finding that here.)  Then we went back to Chris's house to watch the fireworks.  There's some kind of international competition going on right now and two countries per night show off their firework knowhow.  Tonight's winner was Japan by far - not even sure who the competition was. 

The infamous Pink Gin

As you can see, he has a lovely view of the city and likes to bake - both great qualities in a host as far as I'm concerned.  I got to try the "Pink Gin" as discussed by my fellow teachers late last week on another outing with details posted previously.   To quote Wikipedia:

Pink Gin is a cocktail made fashionable in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, consisting of Plymouth gin^[1] and a dash of 'pink' Angostura bitters, a dark red extract of gentian and spices, known from the 1820s at Angostura, Venezuela but now made in Trinidad and Tobago. Lemon rind is also commonly used as a garnish, with the citrus oils subtly complementing the flavour.

Angostura bitters were discovered as a cure for sea sickness in 1824 by Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert (though their other medicinal uses had been discovered long before this), ^[3] who subsequently formed the House of Angostura, a company selling the bitters to sailors.

It was pretty good, but definitely a drink for sipping. A bunch more people from work came later, and here's a shot of them playing slapjack.  If there's an activity that creates more noise than a bunch of intoxicated Asian ladies (and Beth) playing slapjack, I'd like to know what it is.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun and the fireworks were great.  I've included some shots and a short vid below. 

Thanks again everyone!

Best show of all and the reason for the festival - the full moon!