The 'Almost' Birthday

When I woke up this morning, Sylvia wished me a happy birthday but for some reason it did not compute. I guess one of the reasons was that it was 6 am and I am not a morning person but the most important reason was that it was sunny and hot outside and it just did not feel like a December morning. It is all so surrealistic. My December 12 birthday is usually cold and clear with the emphasis on cold! How do I get my head around a December 12 that feels like July?

Secondly, I carried on with my normal routine, which is not so normal considering what I have been doing for the past 60 years of my birthdays. I started by going to school and having my usual Thai lesson with my taxi driver for an hour…not my normal December 12 thing at all. Because Thai is a tonal language; it seems like they have about a 100 words but each word can be pronounced in at least 5 different ways so even though you may be saying the words, no-one knows what you are talking about because you are saying the words incorrectly. I spend my mornings listening to the cab driver correcting me and not being able to hear the difference between what he is saying and what I just said! This morning was no different as I repeated words in my book 10 different times trying to get him to understand and failing hopelessly.

At ten, I went to a meeting at another school and, as usual, I was chauffeured in a 10 seater van with just me sitting in one of the back chairs with my TV panel, water and crystal glasses and a driver who does not understand a word of English. Again not my normal birthday thing. I have been a teacher all my working life so being treated like some executive is certainly not my usual thing. The driver waited while I had my meeting and drove me back to school. In Canada, I would be lucky if the driver even remembered I was at a meeting.

I forgot to mention that in the morning, I had I organized a golf demonstration by the Thai long ball champion who was easily hitting the golf ball over the swimming pool which was 325 yards away as measured by a laser. Josh called to wish me a happy birthday as I was picking up golf balls after the demonstration. How does this compute in my brain? Here I am walking in our frankly too hot schoolyard, just after the morning flag raising ceremony and speaking with Josh thousands of miles away in a snow covered country on my cell phone. Even the cell phone blows me away, never mind the weather, the long-ball champion of Thailand, the chauffeur driven van and so on.

After school, Sylvia and I went to play on a night lit golf course with our caddies (which I am used to already) and had a delightful evening playing golf. Why doesn’t this compute to my usual December 12 activities?