Today they gave me a nice birthday dinner treat: Kang, Amraa, Chayanit, Dass, Noi, Ruki, Sayeed, Sanjay, together with Sunila, newly-arrived from Sri Lanka. Pla, Amraa and Nid gave me a photo frame, my first one, wherein I put the picture of myself with Zahra and placed it on my only bookshelf. The rest gave me a new cool notebook. I was a bit drunk, a bit disoriented with the company I had, completely new people and not the usual friends I have back home, but they were very sweet. I have not realized how much they appreciated my friendship until yesterday-- even Kang, the bitch.
Earlier, friends called me from Manila to remind me it's my birthday. Korapat sang a happy birthday song in Portuguese, while others sent messages through email and phone texts. Ruki, Noi, Nid and Sunila gave me kisses and hugs. Ton greeted me in tagalog. Zahra, my dear Canadian friend was on messenger and totally regretted going back before my birthday. Zahra and me are both pisces and both of the year of the rooster. We both like the same toothbrush brand, the color blue, the same kind of cakes and ice cream, the same music and movies,the same shops-- even the same guys. I swear she's my soul sister if not for the huge gap between our weights, heh!
That the group gave me cake at the end of dinner was not because it was customary but because they knew I preferred cake to any other dessert-- especially with alcohol.
That they knew exactly where to take me for dinner-- the place where we had Zahra's farewell party-- with the live jazz singers, showed me that they notice what I liked, and they get to know things about me. So much for "keeping a low profile" during much of my stay in Bangkok. Even people I hated in the office were there-- which taught me a fairly good lesson: you fight in the office, but you drink with friends.
