Happy New Year!

J: So Lester, how old are you now?
ME: Look at me and tell me what you think.
J: Hmmmm... 27!
ME: Joe!!!
J: Ok, sorry. 25.

That was one of the many highlights of my birthday today. Hahaha.

Actually, it was full of highlights and firsts since the clock struck 12 midnight. From Mark's birthday phonecall (the first birthday well-wisher, even if he had to be awake at 1am Japan time to do so), Claire's birthday card (the first one to arrive, followed by Mom's), Biboy's text (my first text greeter, albeit a bit early), to the gift I got from the post office this morning, again from Mark. (That deserves a separate entry, though.)

The rest of the day, my phone was ringing non-stop. Calls and texts from family and friends kept my phone a-buzz all day. It's was wonderful reading and re-reading each message and recalling each conversation. It really reminded me of how blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life.

Fiesta introduced us to the concept of saying "Happy New Year" instead of "Happy Birthday." Her rationale was that a birthday is another new year in a person's life, and should be called as such. Needless to say, Fiesta's greeting to me was:

"Happy, Happy New Year. Hope this is year is better than last year."

Speaking of new things, today is a new experience because it's my first time to celebrate my birthday out of the country. Last year, I spent half of my birthday in Manila and half in Hong Kong, and this year, it was HK full on. It's a bit strange to not be with my family and loved ones today, but they made their presence felt so strongly that it felt like they were just here.

So what did I do on my birthday? My colleagues treated me to lunch at a dimsum place and that birthday lunch left us wobbling like penguins. Then in the afternoon, we had our usual Verve Cliquot and cake celebration at the office. Between that and dinner with friends, there was a lot of work - which is a bit odd after being used to the concept of "birthday leaves" in Manila.

As I look back on the "old year" I continue to realize how blessed I am. He has blessed me with so much and He inspires me to share that blessing with people around me. If I list down all the ways He has blessed me, and all the people He has blessed me with and how these people are blessings to me, I might end up writing a blog entry until 2013. That's how much I am thankful for.

And as I look forward to the "new year", I just realized that it might be the perfect time to do something new again. After all, it's been a while since there was a new and exciting change in my life. I've got things running in my mind as early as today, and after I filter and visualize these things the next few days, then I'll know what the "next new big thing" in my life should be.

It's a new year! And I'm excited to start it.