Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday. I never really expect to do anything much on my birthday, especially since I live overseas, my friends are scattered all over the globe, the postal service here has not proven to be reliable... and in truth, there isn't so much to do here. But I did have some minor plans. Mu had asked me if he could take me to dinner. I accepted, but knowing that Mu doesn't really like or celebrate events like birthdays, New Years, Valentine's Day, Bayram, etc, knew it would be a low-key evening. So we drove around a bit and decided to go to the Chinese restaurant in Ankawa.

Unfortunately, only the day before, Mu broke (or nearly broke?) his toe playing soccer, but he insisted on hobbling from our table in the garden into the restaurant to order a bottle of wine. He came back with not only the waitress and wine, but also a little blue bag containin the bracelet above. Needless to say, I was pleased. I think it seems to be my style... and I even know the shop. Located downtown across from the gold section of the bazaar, a winding area of sardine-tin-sized shops packed tightly together; window after window so strung with gold that you cannot see where one sparkly object ends and the next begins, Atasay looks different. It looks like a 'real' shop (by real I mean that it looks like a shop from a mall anywhere in the world) that hs been dropped by accident into this old style Middle Eastern bazaar. The idea was that if I didn't like it, I could exchange it either here or in Istanbul.

Anyway, this was just the first of the presents and the party because after snacking, Mu said that he wanted to go back to the apartment and cook the main course there. However, when I arrived home, the door opened to a decorated apartment and a bunch of my Hawler friends (pictures to come later). So much more of an event than I expected (which was no event at all)!