one year older :(

yesterday was my birthday - yup, 29 again! hehe. had a fantastic day but it's always hard celebrating birthdays away from 'home' without family close. even after 3 years, it is all still a bit sad for me. in my family, birthdays are always a special occasion where our family rallies together to enjoy your favourite meal and birthday cake! a tradition that my parents started at a very early age and one that continues even as we enter our 30s (oops, i mean late 20s, hehe!!). it is a tradition that we all have learned to value and a tradition that just enforces how lucky we are to have each other! so having said that, i missed celebrating with my family. xo

my day started with a trip to the gym in preparation of all the eating i intended to do! the girls took me out to lunch to a location of my choice. having a birthday in february, i never had the opportunity to enjoy it out in the sunshine so i took advantage of our surroundings and decided that lunch at the beach bar at the intercontinental hotel was the place! below, is a picture i took from our table overlooking the beach...i think this beats the 'feb. blues' of rain/snow any day!!

after lunch we did what we all do best - shop! not that i mind, but the thing here in doha is that there isn't a ton of stuff to do when you only have a short amount of time to kill. after the mall (and some of my ultimate favourite ice cream - baskin robbins peanut butter and chocolate), we went back to nicole's place where her kids presented me with homemade birthday cards - the best kind in the world as far as i'm concerned! then if the day wasn't already complete, they all sang happy birthday and out came a homemade cake!!! pardon the expression, but it was 'the icing on the cake'!! i am so grateful that after only 5 weeks being here i already have a great network of friends!! they truly helped make my birthday a very happy one...a perfect afternoon.

later that evening, mike took me out for dinner. he took me to a restaurant located in the beautiful resort of sharq village & spa (another hotel in the area owned by the ritz) - picture below. the restaurant was a lebanese restaurant called al liwan - a place where we have both wanted to go since we heard it is one of the emir's favourite places to dine. i can now see why as the food and service was 2nd to none!! mike is always so thoughtful in picking the best restaurants! however, the best was when the wait staff came out carrying yet another cake with a firecraker on the top, singing happy birthday...to MIKE!!! hehe. that was okay by me - as long as he was the one turning the year older!

i think you all will be as happy as i was when mike gave me a digital camera for my birthday!!! as i mentioned in one of my earlier blogs - about a week after we arrived here the power adapter broke on our pocket size one and we have been having problems sourcing a replacement one here. so this means more pictures for the blog as this one is small enough to carry around with me! my mom has requested that i try to take more people pictures (of mike and i) as i think it makes her feel better seeing me when i am living so far away. having said that, i will try my best.

...and to leave the best to last - i want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes whether it was via email, facebook or phone! it is nice to know that i am still in your thoughts even if i am half away around the world. means a lot. xo