I am fed up of all my friends being away for my holiday as its always during holiday tie. It seems everyone has birthday parties except me. So I took drastic action and decided to have a birthday party when the weather was nice and when everyone was around. The South Bund was chosen as the destination and invitations were sent out.
I was careful to tell everyone not to buy my a birthday gift – I didn’t want to tri
ck people into buying me a present – I only wanted to have a picnic on the South Bund. The invitation worked and people came. We had 6 nationalities and lay on the grass watching the ships go by, drinking wine and chatting and laughing.
It was one of the most memorable days in China and my plan to end the picnic by telling everyone that it wasn’t actually my birthday, was thwarted by one of my guests bringing a cake and a present. Oh no… now I couldn’t possibly admit to it or she would have felt duped and possibly angry.
So although I told several of the guests, privately afterwards, some of the people still think my birthday is in early June. I guess I’m going to have to do this every year now and I cannot now celebrate my actual birthday ever again.
Oh well, that’s the price I have to pay for such a lovely picnic with my closest friends. Happy days in Shanghai.