Happy birthday to me.

Well that’s rather narcissistic of me isn’t it. Still it is my birthday – so let’s target the elephant in the room.

As of 10.15 am I have had 91 messages on Facebook and about 50 on Skype from people wishing me happy birthday.

And that is remarkably nice. Before the advent of Social Media I doubt I knew 140 people, and certainly not 140 who would wish me a happy birthday!

So if you are one of them, thank you very much.

One of the reasons I like living in Peru is that my birthday falls on Peruvian Independence day. This means that everyone has to fly a flag from their house and there are invariably lots of fireworks. As mentioned earlier I am somewhat of a narcissist, so I like to think that the flags and the fireworks are all for me!

In fact here is a photo of me three years ago standing next to the flag. I found it because Facebook decided to repost it today.

Birthday 2012

At the time I really liked that photo and didn’t think of myself as being particularly overweight. Now three years later and two years into a change of lifestyle  that has seen me drop a considerable amount of weight, I look back and wonder how I ever got that large.

Assuming I can find a flag today to stand beside I will take a new photo. If not then this one taken from my run a few days ago will have to do. As you can probably see there is a huge difference.

runfie

So I am not sure what the biggest difference is to you but for me it is the fact that I actually have a chin. I suspect though for most people it could well be the fact that I have even less hair. And that seems like as good a reason as any to be crying.

Today I am off to a birthday party. One of the things that they do here in Peru which I haven’t seen before is something called Mordida. This is where  the cake gets stuffed in your face and you take a bite out of it – normally getting covered in icing and cake along the way. From a hygiene point of view it depresses the hell out of me but actually I think it is quite fun. Apparently if you don’t take your little bite, then your birthday wishes won’t come true. Originally I though it was for children only but I went to a friend of mines 65th birthday the other day – and sure enough he too took his Mordida.

And I suspect having a great big cake stuffed in your face could also be another reason for crying. For some with tears of joy and delight, and for others like me who are 1 week into a 2 week sugar ban, I suspect it will be taking all of my willpower not to lick my lips and dive in! I am also on day 4 of not drinking coffee – apparently one of the benefits of not drinking coffee is that your dreams become more vivid. Not sure whether that is the case or not, but I can tell you I dreamed the other day of being stuck in a bakery and eating my way through masses and masses of sugary delights. It was very vivid!

So do you ever want to cry on your birthdays?

Time spent writing: 25 minutes.
Time From Starting Writing to Finishing: 1 hour
Time Editing: 0 minutes
How Happy I am with Result: 4