Birthday birthday girl

Apparently, if you travel across the International Dateline on your birthday then you don't grow any older. But if you go across it backwards - as C did last week - you get two birthdays!
C insists that she is only one year older than before, but somehow still argued for two presents and two parties. So we spent the first part of our 36 hour long Sunday in Tokyo lunching with Chani, Dani and Figgi; the second on board a Japan Airlines plane (no upgrade, before you ask); and the last part on the beach at Vancouver with Mark and Ling and a serious case of jetlag.
It was great to see M&L, nearly two years after the left London. They are now living the good life close to the beach, blending in with lycra-locals and claiming to be completely used to the alarming chirpiness of west coast Canadians. They've just opened a funky gaming store (www.cheekymonkeygames.ca) but still found time to take C handbag shopping and indulge me in a little beach-side "frisbeer".
The surprise birthday present for C was a half-hour seaplane flight across the water to Victoria BC followed by a whale watching trip. I think I'm still in credit for that one. We followed two Orca killer whales dipping in and out of the water for an hour, spotted an eagle and heard the story of lucky Thomas Argyle, a favourite story among the locals.
Argyle was the lighthouse keeper at Race Rocks in the late 1800s and so poor he had to swim for abalone and mussels in the freezing water to feed his six children. Then one day he started buying supplies from the mainland with gold coins. When he died he still had not spent all the treasure he'd found from the wrecks around the rock (bit of a conflict of interest if you ask me).
After that we visited my old Windlesham and Salamanca friend, Andrew Trinder, his wife Lara and baby rugby-player, Julian, before flying home for a pub quiz with M&L and a spot more jetlag.
We're now in Seattle, highlights so far: having our picture taken outside the original Starbucks (hmm, perhaps we spent too long in Japan); seeing fresh fish being caught at Pike Market (they throw each fish sold across the store front) and watching a honky tonk piano man busking in the sunshine.
Next stop - the SOUTH
G