Birthday Luncheon

Last week a few of us had the opportunity to celebrate three birthdays, granted Tone's was belated, but Pam and Alicia's were in the same week.

The restaurant that Pam had chosen happen to be one that Mark and I wanted to try, so it was a great excuse to check it out and of course to see the gals again. Mama's House is located next to the ferry terminal, which meant the view would be overlooking our little Gu Lang Yu. It's a Thai, Western, Chinese and Japanese restaurant. Pretty much caters to most peoples palates.

Kim, Katy, Pam, Tone, Alicia, with Amy standing

Birthday gals, Pam, Tone, and Alicia

After a nice lunch, a few of us headed to Zhongshan Lu thanks to Pam knowing which store sold swords. The conversation came up because Mark and I tried to find a store near Zhongshan Park that sold swords and couldn't find it the weekend before, but Pam, who is quite versed at finding the oddest places around Xiamen happen to know where there was such a beast.

Having finished my Taichi routine, Yang, decided I should learn taichi using a sword. Many people use the smaller swords that extend out, but Yang was insistent that I needed a sword of a specific length. He neglected to tell me how heavy this puppy was going to be. After finding what I needed, I started with the negotiations, which of of course the shop owner saw a laowai and decided that she wanted to over charge by more than 200 RMB. It became clear to her that I wasn't about to pay those prices and quickly came down to a reasonable price.

Now I just have to strengthen my wrists!