why do all good things come to an end

today we had a small birthday celebration in office cafeteria hall during lunch for those of us that were born around this month, which includes me. they ordered in canadian pizza (mainly because its buy 1 for 1 free policy), some calamaries, garlic breads and of course, (and i'm so glad it's not fruit) chocolate cake.

i'm fortunate to have such group of friends as colleagues. it makes life in the office not as dreadful. not that it's a living hell in the office but at least it gave something to look forward to today other than the american idol with jennifer lopez. we already missed 'heroes' as they are busy creating hype for its finale end of the month.

i enjoyed the food. ok, considering the calories i consumed from all the cheesy pizza and sinfully-creamed cake especially now that i'm already lack of exercise after my everyday car trip takes away my power walk when i used to commute, i think i enjoyed the gathering more.

more so than the fact that it's my birthday. gone are the days i would wait till the clock striked 12 at midnight before sleeping and wear bright coloured underwear for good luck going to work the next morning. i guess, we all get used to birthdays after some time in our lives to only treat it just like any other day. i mean, do you see an 80-year old blowing candles? (which is a good thing, really. imagine how many smoke detectors would get ignited everytime there are birthday celebrations?).

instead, during my actual birthday, we went to see this movie "sunshine" after work, starring, well, some guys and michelle yeoh. to tell you the truth i've never heard about this movie before, definitely not the way i'm anticipating spiderman 3 or the latest pirates of the carribean movie. i actually won this movie tickets from this shaw contest website that my friend sent me the link to.

which in my life's context, is very unusual. i rarely win anything. ever. well except movie tickets from starhub periodically but that was because i'm their hub club member. if any, i hope this win would be the indication of what my luck will be this year. i mean, could there be any more optimistic movie title than sunshine?

although the movie was just ok for me. they talked too much. einstein could have spoken less explaning his theories. i guess when the whole movie is based inside the spaceship (and about a second or two on the sun surface), there isn't much space to create actions into. one moment michelle yeoh was holding this plant and before you know it, she was stabbed from behind and die. where's the excitement??

luckily i already got all the excitement i've ever yearned (for now at least) during my bbq party the week before, so you see i was not expecting much. hey at least this is much better than 4 weddings and a funeral which i fall asleep to. and have i mentioned they got michelle yeoh?

i organized the bbq by the pool at my place on saturday night. i ordered satay and sambal stingray from bbqwholesale.com, prepared fried macaroni myself so at least i have something personal to take credit for and i got this popular strawberry chocolate cheesecake from cheesecake cafe in siglap (i know this place from surveying forums in the net).

but the real blast was my dearest friends, including 2 from bangkok who flew over specially to attend this. could there be friends any cooler? not only that, this guy pulled a santa clause later that night distributing presents to us from bangkok, obviously regardless to the fact that we were definitely not being holy last year. it was not even winter.

i got a cool home planetarium. gosh i just love it. now instead of pathetic cartoon-like fake-looking 2-seconds-glowing thingy i have on my bedroom ceilings, i can have a galaxy worth of stars. now i wish for shooting stars.

i swear it looks better on my ceiling than here, but you got the idea

ok back to the bbq. we bbq'ed (if that's a word) and ate intensively for like half an hour and then acted crazy for the next 2 hours. we laughed 99% of the time it was a wonder we could munched food in between those howlings that made a banshee sounded sentimental. i ever glanced at the next pit and they looked all quiet and dull. i mean, it's a bbq for god's sake, not a funeral.

i think all the surrounding blocks could hear us playing poker card game bluffing, which i ended up becoming the champion. never did i know that i'm such a natural at lying. i must remember to incorporate this talent more frequently in my daily life, or at least in my resume.


the strawberry chocolate cheesecake we had

not wanting the night to end so soon, we then decided to head up for karaoke in orchard cineleasure k-box the whole night. it was an impulse. in normal day, being potentially deprived of the night sleep and yet being charged 30 dollars for it almost sounds blasphemous, but that night it felt like a right thing to do.

well, until the next morning anyway. i have had my share of a party hangover before but not as bad as this. my gastric pain kicked in, either from the screamings all night long which simon cowell could drop dead to, or from overeating during the bbq.

i don't know. what i knew was it made me not even able to stand straight, nor consume any food without feeling nauseous. if i don't know better, i'd say i'm having morning sickness. to my horor, on my way back after deciding i could not accompany my bangkok friends to roam around town any longer, i even almost dozed off while driving alone the PIE.

i am very lucky to be alive.

and that's something worth celebrating for. you know, for not being dead rather than just being born.

that's what works for me now.



...ed