My 31st Birthday Party

After a quiet birthday with James Bond and a Friday where I met up with the Norwegian crew in Beijing, it was time to celebrate my birthday in style. I had booked a table at Alameda in Sanlitun. Alameda is a great Brazilian restaurant that always gets rave reviews. It’s particularly known for its fantastic steaks. Our numbers had grown from 14 to 16, as I had met Mikael and Hilde on Friday at the Norwegian gathering and invited them along for the fun.

We enjoyed a sensational meal. We had some kind of soup as the first appetizer. Then I enjoyed a nice plate of scallops. My main course was a beautiful, medium rare, filet mignon. It was so tender that I could have eaten it with my spoon. For dessert I got a very nice Belgian Chocolate Tart with fruit and vanilla ice cream. Someone had whispered to the kitchen that it was my birthday, so when I received my cake it had a candle in it and as it was being served everyone sang the birthday song. Good stuff.

After dinner most of us headed over to Alan’s bar Annexe U, where we enjoyed a 3-for-2 Martini deal or all you can drink for RMB 69. Needless to say we were all feeling extra festive relatively soon. I went on an exciting Martini journey and enjoyed a few Martini’s that nearly knocked my socks off (both in terms of strength and quality).

We spent the remainder of the evening playing foosball, darts and of course  football on the PS2. It was a lot of fun and I could once again tick off a great birthday.

Oh yea. Alan gave me a cool foosball table, so that I can practice at home (apparently I suck in all football related things). Together with the football game on the new Playstation 2 I got from Tine and Jamie, I’ll be all set. Dave gave me a new Slayer t-shirt, so I can feel comfortable at the next metal festival. Good stuff!