Birthday Celebrations

Last week was my birthday. My friend Norma treated me to a dinner presentation at the Tokyo Steakhouse. It is a Japanese restaurant with Teppanyaki type of cooking where eight people are seated around an iron plate. The chef prepares the food right there in front of you, adding a showmanship aspect to it by tossing food in the air and making ceiling high flames. It seems that most groups had someone celebrating a birthday there, because the cooks would sing and drum some chanting happy birthday song around several tables. Each celebrant got a thin sliced birthday cake and and ice cream. Thank you Norma for this really neat experience.

After the dinner I went swing dancing at the Fed, where the Austin Swing Syndicate organizes dances every Thursday night. I haven't been going during the summer because it has been extremely hot and the building is not well air conditioned. I had a fabulous time and didn't waste a single song without dancing. At 10.30 PM they always have a birthday dance for anyone celebrating that week and those people stand with a partner in the center of a circle. During a very long song other people from around the circle cut in and steel you for a half a minute dance with them. It is so much fun to be constantly dancing and having dance partners grab your hand from another. In the middle of the song, all the power went off and it was pitch dark because the heavy drapes don't let in any street light in. The blackout lasted maybe a minute and then another couple of minutes until the music continued, but few of us continued dancing even without the music! It was a fab time.

This Saturday, my friends Julie and Sharon treated me to a dinner at Bombay Bistro restaurant. Neither of us are big Indian food eaters, but the dishes we ordered were very yummy and not too spicy for me. We had a nice time visiting with each other and covering all sorts of topics as usually the girls can do.
Julie and I afterwards went downtown to check out the Ginger Man pub at its new location. It is bigger than the old place, but has the same homey feel to it, "a coffee place without a coffee" as I called it, although some would not agree with me. It was a relaxing time chatting with my friend while people watching from the comfy couches and sipping a good beer.
Thank you girlfriends!