Sunday, November 06, 2005

Ok, here's the birthday post, finally. Some of the pictures are a little blurred cos I took them on my camera phone. Others are missing cos YW hasn't sent them to me yet! But I will post them up when I get them. Beware: ridiculously long entry coming up.

First kicked off with a joint celebration with the 'shiny' ZZW on the 28th. Dinner at Newton and then Fullerton Bakerzin for his surprise! Dinner was really fun and the company was great. You can read all about it here. But I was very glad it wasn't really my birthday for various reasons, including the fact that I was wearing my nice, new, hand-painted Artiris top and did not want XinXin Extra Hot Chilli Sauce all over it.

Monday the 31st, 2 surprises in a row! On Sunday, Shawn had invited me to have dinner with him on Wednesday, but later on he changed his mind and wanted Monday instead. At that moment I didn't really think there was anything out of the ordinary; after all, we all know how indecisive that fella is. But then he said something pretty puzzling: could you keep Wednesday free as well, in case we can't get a seat at the restaurant on Monday? I know, like, HUH? And then he told me to meet him at Orchard MRT at 7, which was once again really strange for 2 reasons: 1) he positively HATES Orchard; and 2) when we go out he usually meets me at my place first. Something wasn't quite adding up, but I decided to just brush it off.

Anyway, on Monday itself, I called him at 6pm to confirm the time. And found out that he was still in school. I told him he was never gonna make it to Orchard in time by public transport if he doesn't leave immediately. He, in a very guailan manner, assured me that he 'sure can one.' I, in turn, threatened to kick him down a slope should he be even a minute late. In the end, I reached the place at 7.15pm, and he still wasn't there! So I called him to yell at him and waited at the side of the MRT, sulking. And started wondering if perhaps this was just a ploy by my friends to surprise me. (Now, this is not because I'm a presumptuous ass, but because for the past 3 years, my friends have always tried to surprise me in some way or another, but usually to no avail.)

And true enough, KL MH YW and El appeared at that moment with a little cake singing Happy Birthday. Haha, I love my sweet silly predictable friends. Their original plan was to go KTV (of course) but it was the eve of Deepavali so the prices were exorbitant and we spent the evening having dinner at Billy Bomber's, realising we were old and unadventurous, and ending up talking and laughing at McCafe til late.

Got back at about 1am and was about to enter the house when I heard someone call my name. It was Shawn, brandishing a birthday cake that he made (or rather, a Sara Lee cheesecake that he decorated with fruits, haha). Now this time I was surprised.

I celebrated my actual birthday with my family. After shopping at the Concourse for my brother's entrepreneurship competition (he's selling handmade jewellery at Causeway Point on 19 & 20 Nov! support him please!) and visiting my Grandpa's ashes at St Teresa, we headed down to Vis-a-Vis for dinner. Somehow the dinner was much more expensive than we had the previous time. Hmm. Good and I was stuffed, but a little not worth it. My cake was from Bakerzin.

On Wednesday I had dinner with Shawn at Wild Rocket. Very nice food at very reasonable prices. Check out the review here. I strongly recommend their Strawberry Cheesecake. Delicious! And it's only $7.50? You couldn't get anything better for under $10. Anyway we shared their Seared Tuna Salad, Cauliflower Cream Soup with Crab Meat, Laksa Pesto Spaghetti, Seared Ribeye and Strawberry Cheesecake. And I got a complimentary Chocolate Fudge Lava Cake cos they knew it was my birthday! They even put a tealight on the plate for me to blow out like a candle. Very nice touch.

After that, we went to Chijmes for drinks. The parking there is $8 per entry! So if you guys wanna go there, you might prefer to park elsewhere and walk over. Anyway the Irish pub looked pretty happening, but we went to that Spanish bar instead, the name slipped my mind. Chijmes is a beautiful place, but it feels a bit funny that the convent is now some nightspot.

My week of celebrations was finally rounded off by dinner with Matt at Crystal Jade. Had a very nice chat. Many of my friends either think like me or tell me what I want to hear. But Matt always gives me a very fresh perspective of things, and he says it in a nice way, so I tend not to be defensive and actually hear him out. And I got a lot out of it this time. Sorted out my thinking, and did what I needed to do, and everything else just fell into place. Sometimes you really just need to make that first step.

And of course, all my other friends, thanks for your various well wishes via SMS, MSN, email and snail mail! Appreciate the fact that you guys remembered! Especially the overseas Ching Chongs. Jane, you're forgiven for forgetting on account of your funny ecard. Haha, blur cock la you! Anyway hope all's going well in your lives as well.

-- tee @ 2:32 pm |