Today it is my birthday!

Yes thank you! After my wife and son this morning, you are the first to congratulate me on my 77th birthday. Today there will be a number of congratulations from the Netherlands from family, friends and acquaintances, but here in Pattaya I don't expect too many.

That's just because not many people here know it's my birthday. Of course, I could have made an A4 with the announcement of a party in a certain bar with live music, free food from the inevitable suckling pig on a spit and more ภาษาไทย and western food. Come all, would you get up and you know for sure that many people will come, whether you know them or not!

When I used to frequent a friend's bar here in a bar complex, I've been to many, many birthday parties. Every week there were one or more parties somewhere in the complex, where people ate a lot, but drank a lot more. And where the birthday boy walks around with a ribbon of stapled notes of 20, 50, 100 or even 500 Baht.

When after a while a farang stands up again, who has to start singing “Home on the range” or “Yellow ribbons” if necessary, it was time for me to leave those kinds of parties.

I don't have that interest myself. It's always been like that, because it's not such an achievement to have a birthday. You do what you have to do every day and after 365 or 366 days another year has passed, it's your birthday and that should be celebrated. Great, you have another year without doing anything special for it.

However, an English friend (who was about 20 years younger) said to me when I turned 65: “It's great that you've come this far. I just have to see that I save too”. He was somewhat right, because given his alcohol intake and the associated regular drunkenness, reaching my age could well become a problem for him.

Of course I don't remember how I celebrated my birthday all those previous times. Yes, in elementary school, that you treated your classmates to two fudge each or a penny wafer and later pastries when you got home. A few uncles and aunts would come to drink coffee and eat cake in the evening, and two bottles of Grolsch beer were specially bought for Uncle Harm.

When I was married, birthdays were only celebrated in a small circle, usually in the weekend after the birthday, because everyone worked. In a small group it always became a lot of fun with the necessary drinks and snacks.

The birthday I remember best is my fiftieth. You know, then I saw Abraham. Both at home and at work, friends and colleagues had provided a beautiful Abraham doll and on that birthday there were 50 to 60 people at my house. A neighbor of mine had drummed up his church choir of about 30 men, who serenaded me at exactly midnight.

Of course already somewhat intoxicated by the drink, but still, that choir outside in the cold in front of my house, then reminded me of little angels who sang to me a long life. That was very special!

After my 50th, my birthdays never got better. Sometimes still celebrated in a small circle, but often I was up on my birthday travel somewhere abroad. After such a long journey I had an appointment with my wife to go to Paris or London for a weekend; the two of us celebrated my birthday there.

I also thought it was funny on those trips to travel from one country to another on my birthday, so that you got a stamp in your passport with your own birthday in it. Only once did it happen, in Bangkok, that a border officer saw that it was my birthday that day and congratulated me; "Happy Birthday Sir!"

My Thai wife thought in the beginning of our time together that I appreciated a big birthday. She had reserved a table in a large Thai restaurant with Isan karaoke and invited many of her friends. It was very nice, but I made it clear to her that I don't like to be in the spotlight or put in the limelight. Just act normal, we say in the Netherlands, then you are already acting crazy enough.

So today it's that time again. We'll get dressed up later, my wife will go to the hairdresser and the two of us will have a nice meal in a nice and expensive restaurant. No, I will not say in which restaurant, because a number of Pattaya bloggers could just storm in and tie me up with 20-Baht notes. Then we go to Megabreak, the pool hall, where most of my friends hang out in Pattaya and we take a few alcoholic drinks together.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow it will be day again and I will continue to enjoy my retirement. Thinking up nice things for the blog and of course further I will do my best to reach the next birthday in good health.