broylim Birthday ~22nd: LITTLE MONSTER~ PART 2 ZHADAY

LITTLE MONSTER | PART 1 IS PLATOON | PART 2 ZHADAY | PART 3 プレゼント

So, did y'all read the previous entry? Did you did you? Well I don't really care if no one did because I enjoy blogging all these anyway. Hahahaha... But it would be a bonus, yes? That people are actually reading the nonsense that you constantly churn.

Anyway, here's the continuation to my birthday celebration. Unfortunately for me though, this year, I celebrated my birthday one day before the actual day and one day after the actual day (as featured in this entry) because sadly, no one wants to celebrate my birthday on the actual day with me other than my sister. But that doesn't affect me (well, maybe it inspired me to write LITTLE MONSTER but still...) because I have amazing friends who surprise me time and again.

And this time, boy did they surprise...


It all started out with my meeting up with Alvin at his house, dropping my Macbook at his place so that I don't have to go around the entire northern area of this cloudy island on April 7, 2012 carrying a laptop that weighs a tonne. So the plan of the day was to catch this film first...

Mirror Mirror
Source: http://www.movietvnews.net

Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts as the wicked witch with a fabulous sense for fashion. This comedy is light hearted, unlike the ones that I've been watching these days. Tells the story of the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in a different tone and of course, with some twists and amendments to the original story. Good comedy but definitely has room for improvement in my opinion. For instance, why find such a gorgeous looking witch?


Moving on... The movie was actually not part of the grand plan, according to the Alvin (and the "Chipmunks" behind this whole plan). I knew that he had something up his sleeves because he did say that he would bring me somewhere else after the film but no matter how much I tried to get hints from him, he kept pretty quiet and laughed my questions away. Oh well~ It's a surprise for myself so I should respect that, yes? :)

The movie was just to kill time, really. After the movie, we headed down Woodlands MRT station to catch Bus 856. I tried to search for clues while taking the bus like looking at it's end destination and all but couldn't really get an idea because the bus heads over to Yishun and I can't think of what we can do at Yishun.

But something made me suspicious though... I knew that he had something up his sleeves but I don't know what. All I knew was that the place is going to be indoors (because it was raining at that moment and I asked him if it would ruin the plan) and that we have to be there at 6:00pm sharp. Given these clues, what would you have guessed? Difficult right!!

Determined to get more clues, I started throwing random locations at Alvin and the first one that came to my mind was "Sembawang". I guessed if we were heading to Sembawang. He laughed. He didn't even make the attempt to tell me that it's not Sembawang so I gathered that we're probably heading to Sembawang.

The extremely long bus ride didn't give any clues neither because most of the areas that the bus covered were mainly factories and places that you wouldn't go to celebrate someone's birthday. But I knew for sure that the bus would head to Sembawang but didn't expect it to wind through an entire estate of factories...

Indeed. We arrived at Sembawang Shopping Center and everything seem to fall into pieces because I know that the shopping center has this...

What else? TEO HENG!! I think it's a known fact, like gravity, that I love singing and where else would be a better place to celebrate my 22nd year on this miserable planet than to make things better by singing our hearts out at this karaoke place? And since singing is most fun with a gang (unless you're singing with just Raven Chua then it's a different story ;D), I knew immediately who else I would see inside...

These fun loving ladies! Hazel, Ain and Yahya! Initially, I thought that they had forgotten about my birthday because I had not heard from them since the last time I met them back in January. Normally, they would plan for everyone's birthday so I thought that maybe they were busy with work and couldn't plan for mine but I was wrong! In fact, I feel a little guilty to think that they would actually forget about me. :S

And of course, the handsome ones also turned up for the celebration - Alvin (mastermind of this entire "sinister" plot), Chong Yee and Daniel. Was really glad to see them because it's been quite awhile since we had caught up with one another. Yin Zhi couldn't make it to the K session but he met us afterwards for dinner so we basically had full attendance that evening! Because of everyone's busy schedules, it is challenging to get everyone together to meet up but I'm so happy and surprised that they all took time to celebrate my birthday with me. So thankful!!

Just had to take a photo with the cheek mastermind behind this surprise. Though I managed to figure out mentally and solved the puzzle before actually arriving at the location, this is the first time that a surprise of this scale involving collaboration with other friends was planned for me and therefore, I'm really touched!! Well, this photo also shows off my flawless skin after digital touch up so if y'all are hiring someone to make your face look flawless, hire me!! :)

We sang for 2 hours and after that, headed back to Causeway Point to get some dinner at the Manhattan Fish Market. Here we have Ain trying to hide her face from the camera for the nth time of the evening. I wonder why she's been trying to hide her face from my lens though... Maybe because everyone knows that I'm the King of Unglam Photos? *evil laughter*

I find this photo amusing because Daniel's face looks really adorable - almost like he's sad at something trivial. I forgot if he purposely made this face for the camera or this is just one of those sudden captures but if it was a sudden capture, then it proves my ability as the King of Unglam Photos! *evil laughter again* But again, this isn't actually unglam in my standards anyway... 

SUDDEN THOUGHT: Maybe I should start a blog featuring unglam photos of people? Now that's a way to make yourself a public enemy... :P

The catch of that evening (at least the ones that I managed to get on film)! Fish and chips, chicken pasta in a cream sauce, mussels in cream sauce accompanied with bread and the seafood olio pasta. I had the seafood pasta because of the mussels and I think that it's really tasty but a little too peppery. The squids were tender and the mussels were so gooooooddddd~ Highly recommended if you want to have something other than the classic fish and chips at Manhattan. But again, with their wide array of food on their menu, you can pick whatever pleases you that day. :)

I thought that the surprises they planned for me were over after meeting them at Teo Heng but I was wrong... After stuffing our faces with seafood goodness, we went over to Civic Plaza and found a random spot on the ground and parked our puwets there to chit chat. But before that, Ain went to the toilet and seem to have fainted inside because she never came back and I was stupid enough not to be suspicious. But in the meantime...

Yahya suddenly whipped out her ultrabook (I must say, that ultrabook is really cool-looking, no?) out from her seemingly small bag of wonders and started working on her "homework". Well, since we're all sitting around and talking nonsense anyway, why not use that time productivity right? So while Daniel and herself are trying to figure out how to do the "assignment", I started shooting photos non-stop to kill time as well. 

Well it appears that the whole "Ain-got-stuck-in-the-toilet" thing was actually a cover up for Yin Zhi and Ain to go get a birthday cake! So we were minding our own business, sitting around like a bunch of gangstas in the middle of nowhere, Ain and Yin Zhi appeared out of from the glass walls of Civic Plaza with a cake in their hands and of course, I was surprised - again. I have wonderful friends, no? :)

And the "homework" was actually a screen of them wishing me happy birthday! So extremely sweet!! I think we should totally start like a detective company because everyone's so sneaky around and all. Or maybe because I'm way too gullible but I refuse to acknowledge that fact~

Nowadays when I give presents, I rarely wrap the because wrapping papers are so yesterday. Are you guilty of giving presents out without even bothering to wrap them? I bet some of y'all are~ This is the first and only present that I've received this year that didn't came in a plastic bag or came unwrapped (unless you consider the boarding passes the IS platoon gave me wrapped in an envelope counted...). Want to know what's inside, stay tuned, yea? :)

And just when I want to take a group shot of everyone, I ran out of juice for my flash gun so I had to settle for the built-in flash instead. No thanks to Alvin using my flash gun like some toy, firing bursts of light into innocent people now and then~ :P Oh well~ At least the memories are still well captured here, yes? :)

Before I end...

A BIG THANK YOU

to Alvin, Hazel, Ain, Yahya, Chong Yee, Daniel and Yin Zhi

for this wonderful birthday surprises! I'm honestly very surprised and extremely touched by your efforts to make my evening so eventful and memorable! I appreciate all your efforts in getting me to do the extremely long bus ride to Sembawang and all the thought that y'all had put in. :) I hope y'all like the photos on Facebook yes? :) Thank you thank you~~ :)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's continuation of LITTLE MONSTER for more interesting (I certainly hope that these matters do interest someone...) stuff, yes? :) 

LITTLE MONSTER | PART 1 IS PLATOON | PART 2 ZHADAY | PART 3 プレゼント