Cripes, today I turn half a year older and I just realised I’ve
not shared about how I celebrated my birthday yet this year! Yeah, unorganised?
So, thirty-five. Three point five DECADES old.
After a Facebook friend taught me three years ago that you’re
allowed to celebrate your birthday not only on the day itself but for the
ENTIRE MONTH, I thought that was a grand idea and immediately adopted it! XD I
decided that every meal I had out in March would be considered a birthday
celebration. Good thing I did too, because the parents were complete party
poopers and only lemme out for ONE meal with ONE friend to celebrate my
birthday with! *sigh* I seriously for the life of me cannot understand why
mother tries so fricking hard to keep me socially isolated; she claims
it’s dad who sets the rule but she’s the one who so gleefully enforces it.
>< Sometimes I can’t help but very strongly suspect she does that so she
can jeer @ me that I’ve got no social interaction … *sigh*
I chose to celebrate that with Annie, who’s a nurse just
like mother! We decided we’d stuff ourselves silly with Korean fried chicken
for dinner. Since mother actively prevents me from eating out much, I only knew
that you could get Korean fried chicken from Momo’s but Annie said let’s try a
place near Bella’s Fruit Market called sth like Haeduri; I’ve heard it’s
actually authentic and that’s where Koreans themselves go for fried chicken.
The only problem’s that I’ve definitely got inferior
tastebuds; I preferred Momo’s! XD But Korean fried chicken’s Korean fried
chicken meaning I wasn’t gonna complain~
After dinner we went back to Sweet Treats for dessert but
because Annie had picked me up very early for dinner (before
“Anything you wanna do?” Annie asks me. I joke back, “Let’s
go sing karaoke!” Annie Googles around on her mobile and finds us somewhere
nearby; turns out you pay by number of songs sung and not how long you sang
for! That was the first time I’ve ever sung karaoke in a CUPBOARD before:
seriously, when Annie opened the door of where we’d rented to sing karaoke,
there was one seat for her, one seat for me beside her and the screen in front
of us; that was literally it!
Turns out that place had pretty bad acoustics; while we were
choosing new songs to sing, we could hear a bunch of like drunk Asian guys
bawling some Chinese song outta tune! Like,
I didn’t recognise the song but there were several people trying to sing the
same tune and their voices were all clashing singing different notes. XD I
joked to Annie that I could do better than they could, pulled up Linkin Park’s
‘In The End End’ and BAWLED “I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end,
it doesn’t even matter; I had to fall, to lose it all…” Annie just doubled over
laughing. XD
She actually chose some Taiwanese songs! I think the written
Taiwanese language’s simplified Chinese? Since I can read a very little
Chinese, near the end of one of the Taiwanese songs Annie had chosen I could
sing one/two words. XD
Two more people that I enjoyed lunch with to celebrate my
birthday: Mr. Hall (a high school teacher) and Mrs. Dent (my primary school
librarian teacher aka. my Australian godmother).
While I look like my dearest dad; apparently my voice sounds
like mother; silly Mr. Hall ALWAYS mixes me with mother whenever he rings!
This year was no different: I answer hello? when the phone
rings, and Mr. Hall just ploughs right ahead with sth like, “Hello Ling, it’s
Greg Hall here. How you doing? Listen, I remember it’s Emily’s birthday coming
up, and …” Last time he did this, I interrupted him with, “Hey sir, it’s Em
here!” but this time I just let him waffle on until he talked himself to a
stand still. Then, he goes, “I’ve got it wrong again, haven’t I?” I
laugh. “Like I told you before, sir, next time you ring and you think mother’s
answered say hi Em but if you think I’ve answered, say hello Ling! Besides,
you’d only mix us up for the initial hello; afterwards surely you can hear
mother speaks accented English but I sound like an Aussie.” XD
We chat briefly, before I yell upstairs for mother, who
comes downstairs and then arranges a time later that week when we’ll meet for
lunch at The Glen.
At the restaurant, we browse the menu for lunch options and
in the end I choose a pizza but lemme warn everyone that the Glen doesn’t cook
pizzas well: after the pizza arrived, I lifted the first slice to start eating
it, and … flop! The whole slice just dropped down limp! XD I’m not a chef: does
anyone know how to make a pizza base tougher/thicker?
Nice, Mr. Hall’s a believer of dessert after meals; we both
order sth sweet to munch while mother declines since she’s not a fan of sweet
things. Over lunch we just all chat about how the year has been and I tell Mr.
Hall how I got the Alumnus Of The Year award at
This year, my birthday fell on a Sunday. Not just any
Sunday, but the Sunday ESS held a celebration to commemorate Reverend Chris
being our church pastor for one whole DECADE!
In true Chris fashion, we all gathered at some local park
and pigged out on KFC and bubble tea! Several people (one was Dr. Lee) also
spoke briefly and shared about how Chris had been a good influence to them,
etc. I didn’t speak, but if you’ve read editions of my yearly Xmas Greetings
before, you may remember how Reverend Chris featured when he totally freaked me
out one year when he gave me his Voice Of Authority. XD
I felt very loved that somebody actually got me this
adorable red bean/green tea cake! I’m guessing ‘twas Mel Tang who did that
because I remembered she Whatsapped me once asking hey Em, do you like red
bean? I’d replied not really but I love green tea!
Almost forgot! The entire day was one of meals out, because
it just so happened that our small group was having a breakfast social at Cache
Cache! Alfee was really sweet: she gave me a pet pot plant! I named him Leafy
(coz I’m so creative with names XD) but I’m very embarrassed to say he’s not
part of our family anymore because I forgot to water him and he perished.
>< XD
Yay for having birthday cake for breakfast! Pastor Grace
found this adorable tiny little cake from somewhere that was biscotti
flavoured; I’ve actually never heard of biscotti before but presumed it’s
related to biscuits and ‘twas absolutely DELICIOUS! :D
My birthday dinner was back at Impressive Dumplings with the
parents and Aunty A, after which she came back to our place and we all munched
a slice of the cheesecake mother had baked for me. Lol, it’s been MORE THAN ONE
DECADE since I last enjoyed a birthday cake from The Cheesecake Shop; like
every year I ask mother can I please have a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Shop
as my birthday cake and year after year she refuses, saying she’ll make me one
instead. Apparently, store-bought cakes are really bad for you coz they contain
lotsa added bad stuff? She couldn’t be specific on what the bad stuff is,
meaning I can’t help but suspect she refuses to lemme buy a birthday cake and
insists on making one for me by herself so that people can praise her and say
what a good mum she is, etc. *sigh*
Next post here …either a movie review of the Minions2 movie
and the minions in general/how I got the Alumnus award at
Cheers~
