BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS

Yesterday was the 80th birthday of Tanya's father, and to celebrate we invited seven monks to their house for a blessing. It's not just a case of them turning up, chanting for a while and then leaving - you have to feed them and give them gifts too.
We actually started preparing for this event a few weeks ago - making sure we had seven sets of spoons, forks, plates, etc, and ordering the food and flowers. The head monk is already a friend of the family and regularly stops by in the morning to collect food, and he was joined yesterday by six of his fellow monks. The 'second' monk actually spoke good English and asked me what I thought about Thailand and Thai food. I joked with Tanya that I thought he was trying to convert me to Buddhism.
I've said before that I find the Buddhist chants quite relaxing and theraputic, and I guess there must be something in it if 95 per cent of the people of Thailand treat it as such an important part of their culture and daily life. I will be posting more pictures from yesterday during the next few days, but this (right) is Tanya's father with a Black Forest Gateaux birthday cake (complete with candles) and a birthday card from my mum and dad. Some 'Western' touches to a traditional Thai birthday celebration.