the sweetest PAST. the crumbled PRESENT. the uncertain FUTURE.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Countdown to Hatch Day with My Birthday Fairies

And I thought I turned 23 just a couple of months before.

This year's countdown to my hatch day was as different as could be from previous years.

Starting from 'Celebration' 1: THE Adidas Sundown Marathon 2009.

Yes, the full 42km of it. Nope, I did not manage to keep running throughout the 6hours plus that I took. Walked a good part of the last 10km. But still, I'd think that completing a full marathon for the first time counts as a milestone in my 23 years on planet Earth.

My partner and me - fresh at 2357hours, just 2 mins before the flag off:

And there's the 2 of us again, with our finishers' medals this time, exhausted at the end of the gruelling run:

Yeap, that race 'kickstarted' the countdown to being 1 year short of a quarter of a century old.

Celebration 2: A (real) candle poked into a fish with Old OLD Buddies @ Iluma

At 2257hrs (Singapore Time) last year, I was in a budget business hotel room in Osaka, Japan, with moo, packing my stuff when I heard a knock on the door. Moo was at the far end of the room and casually asked me to open it. I did so, and found the other 3 holding a star-shaped 'cake' with a chopstick on which a hand-drawn candle and 'Happy Birthday' was stuck to. They promptly burst into song, while moo scrambled to video down the scene. I do believe I was grinning ear to ear, touched by their planning (they had bought the 'cake' a couple of days before) and creativity/innovation (the chopstick and the hand-drawn candle).

This year, they had a real candle, while the star-shaped 'cake' evolved to a fish-shaped, red-bean-filled 'cake'. =p They never fail to surprise me and set a little fire aglow somewhere inside.

11 years of friendship and counting:

Celebration 3: Home-made Cake in the Office

Yeap, you read right. Both 'home-made' and 'Office'.

My dear senior, who a couple of people have taken to referring to her as my 'godma', went home early on Thursday night to make a cake for me. =) She not only made the cake, but took pains to get disposable plates and spoons, and 2 different types of candles!

Her very professional looking cheese-sponge cake:

I even got to choose the number of cherries to put on top. For the record, I decided on 9 cherries as nine in chinese sounds like 'long', in line with my wish that everyone will be happy for a long time.

My godma, the cake and me:

Sectional view of the cake:

Funny incident:
One of the special candles that my godma bought was this bigger than normal sized musical candle which was supposed to play a birthday tune when lit. It was silent for a couple of minutes after it was lit and we were about halfway through the birthday song when a horrible tune rose into the air (FYI, my office is open concept). The strangled tune continued for about 30seconds or so before it finally bore some resemblance to the birthday song, but meanwhile, I was quickly making my wish then blowing out the candle amidst tearful laughter. To our horror, the mangled tune did not stop and my godma had to resort to ripping the wiring out from the candle to silence it. >.<

Celebration 4: Home-made Mee-Suah

This is one of the 3 things that really touched me among the 5 celebrations, the other 2 being the home-MADE cake (see celebration 3) and a home-BAKED cake (see celebration 5). My dear xiaodi, after hearing that I've never had meesuah on my birthday, got up early to prepare the dish, complete with meat, prawns, vege and 2 hardboiled eggs stained red, to surprise me at the DB training on the afternoon of my day. FYI, it is a chinese tradition to have some variation of soupy meesuah on your birthday to signify longevity.

I also learnt that the birthday boy/girl has to peel the egg by himself/herself:

My xiaodi (aka my DB coach) and me:

Celebration 5: Home-baked Carrot Cake, complete with Cream Cheese Topping

Was really really pleased with this cake.

And really touched too.

The week was quite hectic and tiring, the oven and electric mixer was only bought on Saturday night, and the ingredients on Sunday itself.

The cake was born on 8th June 2009 about 2+am. Nevertheless, it ranks way wayy up there as my best birthday cake ever. It's not about the taste or even the look (for the record, I do like the 'snowman' look very much). It's about the process and the heart. =)

Thank you, my lovely fairies. For making this year extra special for me.

josh, signin off.

Labels: birthday

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