7 July
I am very privileged to be spending my nightwatch wrapping birthday presents for my oldest, who is turning 7 tomorrow (or after sunrise today). As I am wrapping the presents I think of how far some of them have come. Dragging along a big box of LEGO (WHY do the boxes always have to be so big??) from Kuala Lumpur, on public transport – taxis, trains, busses, transfers, resort transfer shuttles – without him seeing or noticing. Others were collected in the small town of Port Dickson, in the Department store, or the local supermarket where we walked to. The M&Ms come from the duty free island of Langkawi, and some other presents from Penang. The planning started months ago already, as we realised we were not going to be able to do last minute shopping before his birthday, as we will be at sea.
Everyone who knows me, will also know that I am more of a “living for the moment” person, and long term planning is not really included in my daily vocabulary. But, onboard today, I have birthday presents which I am sure he would love, wrapped in different colour wrapping paper, I have flour to bake a cake, eggs (at a price of Aus $9 for 12 from Cocos Keeling islands. The salesperson explained they were fresh that’s why they so expensive), icing sugar, food colouring, sweets to decorate, and we are even going to share 3 Sprites! What a party!
If we are lucky, we could even end the day with fresh sushi at sunset!