or: Birthdays are a good reminder to thank all the brilliant people

My Birthday Festival this year is another one that will be in my memory for a very long time.

It was my first birthday in Mauritius and I know a few people had the goal of making it particularly special due to this.

They did an incredibly good job.

From a cake baked to look like my scuba tank, which was presented as a surprise at a combined birthday barbecue (a few of us had birthdays this week), through to finding treasure underwater on a dive I led (chest contained a new dive mask and various other dive-related bits and pieces plus some coins), various meals, phone calls, messages (some of the diving-related ones were particularly funny too!) and general catch ups, it’s been awesome.

At this time of year, I’m also reminded that I have met many great people and am lucky to have them all in my life. They come from all walks of life, spread across every continent except Antarctica (though a few of these friends were met on the way to there where our friendship was cemented through either sharing a room or a kayak – that’s another story!) and one of the things they all have in common is they are genuinely thoughtful, friendly and awesome people. Some may think they only meet one or two of these aspects. I think they all meet all three and then some – these are just the ones they have in common.

I am so impressed and touched with what everyone has done for me over this week that it is another one of those rare occasions where words are not as forthcoming for me as they usually are. 

This is beginning to happen a little too often so perhaps I need to start reading a dictionary again!

All I can say right now is “Wow!”

 

Thanks to Icehouse for the title to this post.