Hmm … I may be starting a trend here: this is the second
consecutive year I haven’t posted about how I celebrated my birthday until I’m
almost half a year older! (I’ll be 29.5 come September the 20th/tomorrow)
Oh well, you may call me unorganised. XD
Not being a Jehovah’s Witness, I like to celebrate my
birthday, and what better way is there to celebrate your birthday than to meet
up with your friends to celebrate over a meal out?
I’d contacted one primary school friend and was in the midst
of contacting another, when mother suddenly appeared. “What are you doing?” she
asked me, reading over my shoulder.
“Contacting Cass and seeing if she’s free to celebrate my
birthday with me over a meal together.”
“Well, you didn’t ask me first, so no you can’t.”
What the heck?! Argh, it’s just my awful mother trying her
hardest to deny me any social interaction with anyone. >< At least I’d
already contacted Anna … hopefully Mrs. Dent (my Australian godmother) would
contact me, as would Mr. Hall, once the term break arrived (my birthday falls
around exam time for Term One and he’s usually too busy then, but in past years
he took the parents and I for a belated celebration once the holidays arrived).
I immediately asked her could I please at least contact Kylie, Mel and Bentley
from high school (all together) but she was horrid and refused. *sigh*
Actually, my birthday this year fell on a Sunday … does
anyone know if the leap year forces your birthday to skip a day? Because I’m
certain my birthday last year happened on a Friday (I got out of UQ physio last
year coz my dearest dad had taken mother and I up for a short holiday
somewhere! Coolum, maybe?) and your birthday usually happens one day later the
next year … aww, I was hoping that my birthday would fall on a Saturday this
year so that I could get Besta (my Saturday morning carer that gets me out of
bed when mother’s gone to work for half a day) to take me to Garbo so I could
get all the free things that you were entitled to receive once you proved that
the day was your birthday with photo ID! I learnt that from Pastor Chris, who’d
gone to get all the free stuff one Thursday arvo when I met him, Pastor Grace
and baby Naomi (not that she’s a baby anymore; she hit her terrible twos back
in March!) for lunch one Thursday at Garbo (this was before horrid mother
cancelled my Garbo shopping trips. *sigh*)
Anyways, Pastor Grace and baby Naomi arrived first, saying
that Pastor Chris had gone to get all his free stuff for his birthday. When he
finally joined us, I asked him and learnt that you can get free noodles from
Hakataya on your birthday, a free juice from Boost juice and a free ice cream
from New Zealand
ice cream, once you provide photo ID confirming that that day was really your
birthday!
Seeing that my birthday last year was on a Friday, I’d
thought, “Perfect. That means next year, my birthday will be on a Saturday, and
since Besta comes over every Saturday and minds me for three hours, hopefully
she can take me to Garbo and I can get all my free stuff!”
Uh, not quite. For some reason, when I checked the calendar,
I found out that this year, my birthday fell on a Sunday! Saturday got skipped
… Does anyone know why? I’m guessing that it’s got something to do with the
fact that 2016’s a leap year?
Anyways, after service on my birthday, Letty came over and
asked did I have any plans to celebrate for the rest of the day. I told her I
was hoping to find someone who’d take me to Garbo so I could get all my free
stuff and she was like, “Sure! Lemme go get my parents and we’ll all go together!”
I think it’s quite adorable how Letty drives both her
parents around~ ^^ After mother handed my parking permit over, Aunty Jessica
ands I piled into the backseat, Uncle Leung jumps into the passenger seat, and
Letty tootles us off to Garbo!
Our first stop’s Hakataya for lunch, coz by then, it’s like
already past 12:30pm . Lol,
apparently the only valid photo ID I’ve got left’s my passport; my uni ID and
my driver’s licence expired years ago! After showing the photo proof to the
female manning the counter, she pointed at their menu board. “What would you
like?” she asked me.
I was at first confused, coz mother had told me you’d only
get the most basic noodles with two paper-thin strips of meat, but it turns out
she was incorrect, because you can choose ANYTHING on the menu for free on your
birthday! That being the case, I chose the noodles with the extra slice of
meat. The Leungs all chose spicy ones, I think.
While we were waiting for our lunch to arrive, Letty told
me, “Let’s go get your free Boost Juice now.” So she walked behind me to the
Boost Juice Bar, located somewhere near the food court. After showing my
passport and asking for a free green tea mango mantra, I discovered that I
couldn’t get a free Boost Juice coz I wasn’t a member?? Well, could I become a
member immediately and get the free juice right away? Again, no, coz apparently
you’ve gotta confirm your membership online or sth picky like that.
I was disappointed and ready to turn back and return to
Hakataya, but awesome Letty suddenly buys me one anyway!! :D
Back at Hakataya, we tuck into our lunch once our noodles
arrive. I feel loved because the guy passing me my bowl of noodles adds, “Happy
birthday!” We add sesame seeds to our noodles and best of all, today the free
extra serve of noodles are available! Obviously, my tummy’s very happy with me~
XD
After lunch (I eat at my usual snail’s pace; Letty says
there’s no rush and indeed, Uncle Leung and Aunty Jessica go for a wander in
Garbo after they’ve finished eating while Letty keeps me company), our next
stop is the long walk all the way down to new Zealand Ice Cream to get my free
cone! Alas, again it turns out that the birthday promotion exists no longer,
but again, awesome Letty buys me a free single cone! She gets herself one too,
while Uncle Leung and Aunty Jessica get coffee/the like from the Coffee Hut and
we sit down and chat for awhile.
All finished, we return to the Leung family car and Letty
drops me back off home. I sincerely thank them all for helping me enjoy my
special day!
While I’m sitting over the loo, mother comes inside and
says, “Let’s go buy your birthday cake.”
Sure thing! Before we went, however, I needed mother’s help
in readjusting my AFO. See, while that boot I wear over my left calf and ankle
allows me to walk short distances, with every step I take, my idiot ankle still
twists out, but it’s just because before it can twist out all the way, it
bashes against the side of the boot, which holds it in place. I’m presuming you
can understand why, that with some prolonged walking, my stupid ankle inverting
and crashing into the side of the boot with every step, why my idiot ankle
might start to hurt? Still, it wasn’t anything major; mother just takes the AFO
off, I gingerly move my ankle up and down several times to loosen it, then
mother puts the AFO back on. There, all fixed; now for the cake!
I’d asked mother could we please go to The Cheesecake Shop
(there’s one @ Pinelands Plaza, basically beside where Vincent the physio’s
clinic used to be) coz one of my favourite cakes are cheesecakes; for some
reason, mother refused and tootled me off instead to Sunnybank Plaza.
First up, I checked Sunni Bakery. There were the standard
Asian sponge cakes with fruit and cream and tiramisu cakes, but no cheesecakes!
Instead, I hike all the way up Sunnybank
Plaza
Cake bought, and me all set for my birthday, we head home. I
take a shower then plop online.
I was born @ 6:22pm; this year, when 6:22pm rolls around, my
dearest dad’s on the phone, but I still walk myself slowly and safely to the
kitchen, where mother’s there also, and celebrate the fact with them that I’m
now twenty-nine!
I would’ve thought that since it was my birthday, I’d get to
choose the dinner place, but apparently not. No biggie, my birthday dinner was
at Warrigal Square ’s Little
Nonya Singapore
with Aunty A and we had Peking duck!
Aunty A comes back to our place with us after dinner, where
we all tuck into the yummy cheesecake.
And that was my birthday for another year! But no, that
certainly wasn’t the end of me celebrating it!
Remember how I mentioned my Saturday morning carer, Besta,
earlier this post? She gave me an awesome birthday present: breakfast in bed!!
When she’d first offered it, I thought she was just joking, but when she came to
mind me from 10am till 1pm the Saturday following my birthday and gave me
fifteen more minutes snooze time with Daddy Bear, when she came back inside, I
couldn’t be bothered rolling around to face her and so just used Daddy Bear to
wave his arm at her.
“Oh, teddy!” she laughed (Besta just calls him teddy,
although I’m pretty sure she knows his name’s Daddy Bear). “Tell Emily to sit
up; breakfast is served!”
Wow, she really remembered!! I immediately sat up, saying,
“I can’t believe you really remembered!”
“Of course I did!” Besta replies with a grin. “Now, please
move over; may I sit down beside you?”
I move my legs out of the way, and Besta comes and sits
beside me. Breakfast is half an egg and ham sandwich; thanks to Besta who cooks
the bread yummy (instead of just putting the bread into the toaster, Besta uses
butter and cooks it on the saucepan! I taught her this trick but I actually
learnt this method from Rhi, my former Saturday carer from Kyabra) with half a
slice of cheese and one mug of white tea with two teaspoonfuls of sugar.
As I’m tucking into my small breakfast, Besta asks me,
“Haven’t you ever had breakfast in bed before?” I think quickly, and then
answer, “Technically, yes. Back when I was in the Mater Private at the end of
2008 and the beginning of 2009, there wasn’t a dining room table like there is
in the insane asylum (Besta’s aware that I call the Brain Injuries Rehab ward
of the Princess Alexandra
Hospital
Besta nodded, laughing. While I munched my half a sandwich
and drank my cup of tea, we just chatted away.
I thought that signalled the end of my birthday celebrations
for 2016, nut no, not quite yet! See, apart from contacting a few friends to
see if they’re free to celebrate my birthday over a meal with me, I usually
also like to contact Mr. Hall, my year ten maths teacher, whom I kept in touch
with after graduating high school. Around that time, usually he’s too busy with
marking term one exam papers to catch up, but usually come term break one he’ll
contact me and we’ll have a belated catch-up then.
What with horrid mother not letting me contact anyone to
celebrate my birthday with me, I’d hoped that Mr. Hall would contact me once
the first term break arrived. When he didn’t, I mentioned it to mother, asking,
“Do you think he’s gone on holidays or sth?’
Horrid mother answered, “Probably not. I’m guessing he just
didn’t wanna contact you. Some people are like that, you know: they put up with
you just for one meal, but they’re really secretly relieved when they don’t
haveta contact you.”
I’d been slightly offended; after all, I considered Mr. Hall
a real friend! But what could I do, considering that he really hadn’t contacted
me over the term break?
Fast forward to June. I’ve just turned 29.25 years old and
am showering one afternoon, when he really does ring! After I get out of the
bathroom, I ring him back and he apologises for not contacting me earlier, but
now that he’s returned from overseas somewhere, he’s gonna take my parents and
I out to The Glen Hotel restaurant for my belated birthday dinner!
After I hang up, I happily tell mother that she was dead-set
wrong; that Mr. Hall really did remember my birthday and he really was a
friend!
“What are you talking about?” mother scoffs. “You must be
suffering from memory loss; I never said anything like that.”
Well, nowadays, my memory lapses are more like I’ve
forgotten what vegetable I had for dinner the night before; I’m not hardly
gonna forget something as nasty as what mother had said! XD Anyhow, I digress.
My final, just over three months belated birthday
celebration with Mr. Hall at the Glen
Hotel
Like all Australians I know, Mr. Hall wolfed down his
chicken mains down really quickly, then just sat and we all chatted while I
munched down my delicious meatballs at my usual slow pace. When I finally
swallowed my last mouthful, Mr. Hall immediately announced, “Right. Dessert
time. Here’s the menu.” For dessert, I had a PIZZA! Well, technically, not a
pizza, but a pancake served as a pizza and with one scoop of vanilla ice cream
and some crunchy biscuit crumb things on top! Mr. Hall had originally ordered
one scoop of vanilla ice cream without topping (when I asked him why he didn’t
add any topping with his ice cream, he replied, “Why the blazes would I choose
one flavour of ice cream only to ruin it with another flavour of topping?” XD)
but when it didn’t arrive, he went to chase it up. Turns out the restaurant had
overlooked his order! When a waitress finally bought his ice cream, she said
brightly, “Here’s your one scoop, then an extra scoop on the house for you!”
After she’d left, Mr. Hall tucked into his ice cream, but then said he wouldn’t
be dipping the restaurant tonight because he’d been highly offended by the fact
that they’d forgotten his dessert! Well, fair enough. XD
I also got a belated birthday present from Mr. Hall: an
atlas! See, whenever he tells me he’s going overseas to (somewhere) for the
holidays, my answering inevitable question will always be, “Where’s
(somewhere), sir?” When Mr. Hall growls at me how come I lack even basic
geography knowledge, I defend myself with, “Sir, I only did geography back in
2000 for six months with Mrs. Minnikin, got a B- then never touched the subject
again. Sorry, that’s probably why I don’t know where anywhere is.” Mr. Hall
would then grumble, “Girl, I’m gonna get you an atlas for your birthday next.”
So when I took out my new atlas from the Dymocks bag he’d bought it from, I
laughed. “Thanks for this, sir! The first place I’m gonna look up will be Rio .
I think it’s in South America somewhere, but I’m not too
sure where, and I better, coz isn’t the Olympics held there later this year?”
Mr. Hall again mutters about my incomprehension of where
countries are on the world map, but then thankfully lets the matter drop. XD
So thus ends the tale of how I celebrated my birthday this
year! Apologies it’s taken me so long to get this post typed out; yes, I’ll be
29.5 years old tomorrow. XD
Next post here … apologies; I’ve been really slack with
posts this year, haven’t i? I know I’ve started two movie reviews; maybe my
next post will be one of them! So until then~
Cheers,
Em. ^^
