How wrong is it to be blogging about my birthday almost three weeks after the actual date?

*hides in embarrassment*

Here's the actual story. See, I have this awesome bunch of friends, and this priceless family. I would not give them up for the world. They made my 18th birthday special in so many ways that I cannot describe...yes, and I know this blog entry is starting to sound more and more like a Hallmark greeting card. Hee.

But, I digress.

So, due to the awesome-ness of my friends, and the priceless-ness of my family, there were just too many things going on during the birthday that I really needed to sit down, sort all my pics out and wrack my head trying to remember what went on. That, plus a bout of blogging inspiration kemarau, and another bout of lazy-ness.

Hey, at least it's just two weeks. It could've been more. Or never. You know how I am. :D


The B-Day, part 1.
...Italiannies @ The Curve, 5th of August, 3 days before the actual day.

You may ask, why celebrate so early? Let me state very clearly, first of all, that it was in no way meant to be a birthday celebration. We were supposed to go Laundry to chill, but the reservations got mixed up and we ended up next door at Italiannies. So we hung out for awhile, did our usual catching up and ordered. Laughed and laughed, and out came the camera and the immediate smiles that light up at the sight of a camera.


The girls - Pek, Ching, me and Sioki.


The guys - Drew, Jo and Sat - with the wine...


...which came in that jug. See, there was a pic of that jug on the drinks menu. So, when wondering how big one jug of wine would be...

Jo: (points to picture) Haha, maybe it comes in THAT jug!

All of us: (laughs) Nolah, where got wine jug like that one?!

*The wine arrived in that jug*

Everyone: -_-"

Jo: You see!

No, but seriously, what kind of a jug is that to serve wine in?

The food came, and we started the stuffing of the mouths and tummies.


The calamari finished before I even got a chance to take a pic of it. Damn.


Pizza, bay-beh.


The oh-so-good carbonara.


Don't you feel hungry?


Pekwah and Sat digging in.

Then one of my oh-so-brilliant friends got one oh-so-brilliant idea.

"Eh, let's tell them we're celebrating your birthday so that we get a free piece of cake!"

"Yah weih! Your birthday few more days only watttt."

"Ohmygoddowanlah."

No prizes for guessing who said the last line which fell on deaf ears.

I got a super duper loud birthday song, the chance to stand on one of the chairs at Itallianies, the opportunity to be stared at by the entire restaurant like they watching some movie. Omg.


I had to blow those candles out. From far, far away. It took me nearly forever.


At least the free bread pudding tasted gooooooood. Or else.


Black is a usual favourite.

Check out Sat's now-no-longer-existent mohawk, yo.


Jo. And his, errr, elbow.


One for the photo album.


The after-dinner at the Jazzfest.

*

The B-Day, part 2.
...Delifrance @ SS2, 8th of August, the evening.

My birthday day. :D

Got a lot of great sms-es from all of you guys at the stroke of midnight and I woke up to more the next day. Thank you all. Seriously. You all really made my day with your words.

Then, I got a second text from Siokkwan later in the day.

"hey babe. later wanna go hang out for ur bday? me n ching can make it. so just like old days la k?"

So, she came to pick up at about 4 and off we went to Delifrance.

Mana I tahu, it was all a SET UP!


Sk: "Ching still in uni, so she'll meet us there later la kay?"

Me: "Yeah, okay. Mary leh?"

Sk: "I don't know wor, because she having exams today. Not sure what time she finish."

Me: "But Marcus (who btw, is one of Mary's classmates) just called me just now to wish me wor. Should be finish already lor. How bout Jo and Sukkwan?"

Sk: "Jo not sure also. Then I think Sukkwan is busy or something lor."

Me: "(un-suspectingly) Oh okay."

*later, while going round and round looking for parking, I spot Sukkwan's car in front of Savemart*

Me: "Hey, Suk Kwan's car la!"

Sk: "Where? No lahhh."

Me: "Yes lahh, look at the dice hanging in front there."

Sk: "Really? (at this point she accidently blurts out - even though at that point in time I didn't know it was an accident) Eh call her and see?"

Me: "Okay, wait ar."

Sk: "Eh. Eh. (at this time, she is probably thinking, oh crap!) Uhhh, let me talk to her!"

Me: "(wonders why Siok Kwan is so excited all of a sudden) Err, okay. Nah."

*Siok Kwan talks to Suk Kwan on my phone*

Me: "So what she say?"

Sk: "Ohh, she say she helping her mother buy things from Savemart."

Me: "Oh, ask her to drop by Delifrance later la then!"

Sk: "Uhhh, she say maybe lor. She busy later mah."

Me: "(still unsuspectingly) Aiya, short while only la."

*Enters Delifrance and suddenly I hear a super loud HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEN!"

I turn and I see Mary, Sukkwan, Jo, Sharmin and Karen already sitting there.

Me: Oh my god! What are you all doing here?

Sukkwan: Are you surprised? Are you surprised?

Siokkwan: Did you suspect anything?

Me: Nooooooooooo! Not at all!

There I go, with my selectively sharp business again. Lol! But seriously, I didn't suspect a single thing throughout the entire time. Not a single damn thing. Got more surprises when Ching and Ming walked in, and later on, Nick, and then Angeline.


(Ch + M) ing. Algebra, okay.


Jo and Mary.


Suki and I.


Sharmo, with the very-talked-about nose piercing, and Karen.


Nick in his tie, and Siokkwan. No, he did not wear the tie for the occasion okay, he had a presentation in class, lol.

Damn lah. Forgot to get a group pic. Laughed and just hung out for the rest of the evening, teased Joweng and the waitress, etc. Normal stuff like that, hee.

Stayed till about six thirty, and left for home because daddy was making me dinner.


Siok, Nick and I in the car on the way home. Cam-whore time.

I wanna thank everyone who was involved in surpring dear ol' blur me. I DID NOT realise a thing, and damn it, I should have! Must be more alert next time. :D

*

The B-Day, part 3.
...11-A @ SS2/57, 8th of August, the late-evening.

Went home for my dinner which my father personally cooked. Awww. He only does that for special occasions, so I felt so special, okay. Everyone rushed home early from work to reach back in time, sit down and have a nice family dinner.


The big feast.


Me and the foooooooood.


Evelyn and I.

Because my family is so huge, we seldom get to see everyone at once. I can go for days without seeing Evelyn or my brother, David, because they both work late nights sometimes, or my sister and her husband because sometimes they leave before I get home, and I, on the other hand, am not always at home, hee.

So it was awesome that we managed to sit down and have dinner and fight over food. It's a family thing that we always take turns saying grace before dinner. Su, my sis-in-law, said such a beautiful prayer before we ate that I started tearing up. It touched me, so much. She thanked God for helping me grow into the wonderful young woman I am, and that he will continue to guide me on my path in life. And when everyone said Amen, I just started crying, because I was so touched.

I am lucky because I have been blessed with my family and my friends. They've seen me at my highest highs and lowest lows, and although we have our differences and disagreements, I love them. With all my heart.

So, those of you who know me well probably know that I'm tearing silently when I'm typing all of this out, but I blame the emo-ness (but of course, this is best type of emo-ness ever, because I feel love, and so loved) on it being the time of the month, so you'll just have to bear with me. :D



Eve the Tai Soh, me with Joel and Josh on my lap, Su the Yee Soh carrying lil darlin' Amelia, Aaron and lil sis Vanessa.


The kids are actually all eyeing the cake, hah. Don't let their angelic faces deceive.


Yummm.

It was just lovely. The entire thing with my family. I have had parties for the past two years, and it was always a big thing with a lot of friends coming over, but it was nice this year to just sit down and have a dinner with my family. I loved it.

*

The B-Day, part 4.
...Swensen's @ SS2, 8th of August, the night.
...Murni's @ SS2, 8th of August, the after ice-cream.
...Karen's house @ SS2, 8th-9th of August, the nostalgia.


Karen and I. Do you see the white shirt behind us? That is an England jersey, and the guy who was wearing it was OMG-hot. He looked like a slightly hotter version of John Terry. Aihhhhh.


Open wide!


50% off on Earthquakes every Tuesday, slurp.


Digging in...


...and dug. Within the matter of minutes.


I know no shame.


It was like a Standard 6 reunion or something, lol. The good old days.

Left for Murni's after that and stuffed ourselves silly with Roti Hawaii goodness, mozzarella cheese naan sinfulness, and indo mee. Omg. I ate all throughout my birthday. Normal mamak activities - the laughing, the gossiping, the catching up. I love mamaks, did I ever tell you guys that? They are so amazingly and wonderfully Malaysian. I'll miss mamaks so badly if I go to Aussie next year.

Went to Karen's house to hang out after that. Got caught up reminiscing about primary school and how much people have changed, things like that. Got all nostalgic about the things we did, and although it sounds weird, the music we used to listen to. Lol. All the teenybopper stuff. The Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, things like that. We can still remember the members' names, god.

It was great to just hang out at Karen's house. Because we used to do that all the time after primary school since her house was just behind school. We sat in the exact same spot as we always did and just talked.

It was awesome.

*

The B-Day, part 5.
...shopping @ 1Utama, 9th August, the day after.

Money makes the world go round? Shopping with money that's not yours does. Hee. My darling darling darling chi muis brought me shopping for my birthday pressie from the gang. I think we walked around 1Utama in all its entirety at least three times due to my indecisiveness. Sorry, yeah.

Ching left early because she had to go for class, so Mary, Siokkwan and I took a break from all that walking and went to spoil ourselves with the best chocolate cake in the world at Ms. Read's.


Ahhhhhhhhhh. Heavenly.

Oh and we watched The Lake House. Sooooo good. Must go buy the DVD and force future-husband to watch with me over and over again, hee.


Extra marks if you can guess where this pic was taken.


The pride and joy of our shopping trip.

Major major thank you to the chi muis who had to tolerate my hmmm-ing and hahhh-ing for the WHOLE day while deciding what to buy - Siokkwan, Mary and Ching - and the rest of the them who left the task of buying to us - Sukkwan, Andrew, Jo, Ming, Wenxue, Wei Soon and Pek Wah.

I love everything loads and I have already used everything more than once. :D

*

The B-Day, part 6.
...Pyramid @ Sunway, 11th of August, three days after.

Went to Pyramid after class, and belanja-ed Mel, Bryan and Zhen Han to a movie. Watched Click, that comedy with Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale. It was a typical comedy, I suppose, with the silly jokes, physical slapstick, some emo-moments which made me cry (yes, I cried at Click, shut up and stop laughing lah) and the ending which makes you kinda irritated that you spent the entire last two hours watching it.

Walked around after that, and they bought me a super-chun awesome sling bag from Converse which said England on it that I've been wanting for ages even before the World Cup started. Now, I can proudly parade it around. So what if they didn't win, I'm still proud, okay.


Mel and Bryan. Check out the insides of Zhen Han's purple Kancil. :D


So obviously, being the camera-loving person I am, it's only fair that I pass the love on to my uni friends too, no? Zhen Han, who has a whuddahellaretheydoing look, me, Mel holding my pressie, and Bryan's first try at squeezing all of us in.


The second more successful try by Bryan, who is now officially cam-whore skilled.


See what they bought me? Awwww. Thank you guys.

*

The B-Day, part 7.
...Food Foundry @ Section 17, 12th August, the PLANNED celebration.
...Ms. Read @ 1Utama, 12th August, the after-dinner.
...Castle @ Bangsar, 12th-13th August, the partay.


Brought the gang to a place called Food Foundry in Section 17. It's this really cool small restaurant with good food and good ambience, and its owned by one of Evelyn's friends. Call me if you want directions.


Siokkwan, Weisoon and Mary.


Pekwah and the Aglio Beef Pasta.


Jo and I.


Aglio Beef Pasta.


The delicious carbonara with bacon and turkey ham, mmmm.


The club sandwich before Ching started korek-ing all the tomatoes out.


Pan-fried Dory fillet with pasta.


And the chicken cordon bleu.



Piggy and I.


Group pic minus Ming, who's manhandling the camera.

Finished dinner early and decided to head for the best chocolate cake in the world at Ms. Read's. So, we bundled off into the cars and went off for more mouth-stuffing at 1 Utama before hitting the club.

It was crazy jam-packed and finding parking was just mad. I've never seen cars being clamped in the 1U parking lots before, so, imagine how bad it was. Finally got a not-so-legal parking next to a Pintu Rintangan, and daringly decided to not move, despite the clampings.

There was tons of people gathered around the concourse area when we got there, so being the typical and true Muh-lay-see-ans we are, we obviously stood behind and tiptoed and tiptoed like crazy to see who was here. The entire thing was in Mandarin, and well, because the bunch of us, errm, don't really, err, understand it IF it is spoken too quickly, we didn't know what the heck was going on.


We decided to take self-pics while waiting for unknown dude.


After lots of tiptoeing, we realised that the unknown dude is actually pretty darn cute, and that his name is Wilber Pan.


So, we tiptoed around (or rather, Mary tiptoed around) and ta-daa, we have a picture of Wilber Pan, who was unknown to us before that day. Hah.


Suki, me and Sioki on the couch at Ms. Read's.


Pek, Mary, Jo and Ching.


The best chocolate cake in the world. AGAIN. How sinful.

If you've been to Ms. Read's in 1Utama, you'd know that the outside area's really comfy, and there are plants blocking off the taxi stands in the new wing. So, when the cake came, my bunch of jakun-yet-still-amazing friends decided to sing a very LOUD birthday song.

-_-"

A bunch of people waiting for buses and taxis decided to join in. Gulp. Loud and off-key, might I add, lol.

Ahh, the nicety of Malaysians.


Haiii-yahhhh! P/S: Pekwah just won her latest taekwondo competition last weekend! *clap clap clap*


Sioki and I.


Pek, Mary, Jo, fork 1 and fork 2.

Cleaned the cake plate and zoomed off to pick Nick up, and off we went to Bangsar. No pics for this part, because, well, because lahhh.

Castle was way too packed. It was still rather quiet when we got there, but when it fills up, it REALLY fills up. Omg. Just getting on the dance floor was an amazing feat in itself. I know Castle isn't really all that nice, but since we went in a big group, the company mattered more. Diane, Eugene, Foon Yee and her coursemates, Sharm and Stephanie, Munfong and her friends, Amanda and her college friends, all met us there. In consolation, drinks and cover is always free for ladies. The perks of being a girl, sometimes. =P

Oh, and I had my first legal...drink. On my first legal...time inside a club. No difference. Way too many illegal times.

Left at about 2, all sweaty and high from the dancing, and left to mamak in SS2. Clubbing always gets people hungry, so we ate somemore. What a bunch of pigs we are.

*

It was an amazing week. Usually people only celebrate for their birthday, but I felt like I had an entire birth-week. :D And for that, I (again) want to thank all of you. You know who you are, and what you did, whether it was a simple SMS, a call, spending time with me, coming out to party, or anything else in any way; a million, gazillion thank yous. You all made me feel so special on so many levels and you know, I really don't think anything else can top my 18th.

Lots of love,
Wen.