June 14,

Today’s my birthday!!

We awoke after both having had a good night's sleep. I decided to sit out on the balcony and saw the three parrots again! I called Jeff to come out and we sat watching them. He held out his hand, and became bird whisperer Jeff, because the parrots came over! They were all three assembled on our rail – one of them was within 5 ft of me! What a super bonus birthday present!!!

We had our Javas and then went to breakfast downstairs. Both of us had fried eggs and toast and a plate of fruit. We talked with the lady and found out the man is her husband, the older lady is her mom, and her teenage son (with a classmate) was there from a weekend break at boarding school. The worker lady does not seem related. After we finished eating, a couple of bunnies let me pet them. Then we went back to our room and we worked on a blog.

Around 1100, we decided to go to a movie. We arrived right on time for the 1130 English version-showing of How to Train Your Dragon, a live-action remake from the original 2010 animated version. We could have been late because the movie didn't actually start until noon! We have found this to be the case in so many places over here in SE Asia. They let you in just on time and then start the previews of other movies and ads. An interesting point, when we've been at movies in Thailand, they play the National anthem and the audience stands up, but not this time – nobody stood up I don't know if it's because it's a younger crowd. Anyway, just an observation I made. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, it followed the original.

After the movie finished, we went to lunch. We decided on Hungry Wolf’s Restaurant. This was a place we had been to the first day we arrived in Chiang Rai. We had an appetizer of flatbread with feta cheese and olives; and an order of lamb shanks over mashed potatoes and smashed peas and a salad. The lamb shanks came with a black pepper sauce and it was so, so, delicious! It was a great birthday meal, accompanied with a Chilean Malbec wine. We were conversing with the waitress and it came up that it was my birthday and she brought us a brownie with homemade whipped cream. Just as the desert arrived the owner came out and talked with us. He is Australian by birth but is a transplant kiwi (from New Zealand) and lives part-time here in Thailand. Then we shared the unexpected dessert – so good.

We went back to our place and just hung out. We watched another movie on our computer and had a light supper of crackers, hummus, and nuts with a sparkling wine. What a blessed day!