birthday downgrade

Tomorrow is Mama’s 72nd birthday...and to my dismay, I can’t keep my promise to her that we’ll celebrate it with a meal at Burj Al Arab. Actually, money wasn’t the issue because I already had some savings put away for it...well, it is, but because we need to help out some family members, we had to sacrifice and give way to a more needed expense.

Mama understands, though. In fact, when I told her my plan, she said that she didn’t need to have an extravagant dinner to celebrate the occasion. She was content on having a special dinner at home or we’ll just eat out at a regular restaurant. I was the one insisting on a 7-star dinner because this might be her last birthday with us here in Dubai; but when she said that most probably she’ll “extend her contract with us” and spend her birthday here next year, I finally (unwillingly) relented.

I don’t want to celebrate in a restaurant in one of the malls, though. If we can’t have dinner at one of the poshest hotels here, we should at least have a 5-star dinner. After all, Mama deserves nothing less than a first-class birthday meal.