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I have been organising for a birthday dinner for one of my friends since three weeks ago. Her actual birthday was on 11 March but she was just too busy lately to have the dinner with us last week. 

So, we had to postpone the birthday celebration till one week later that is today to have a be-lated birthday celebration for our young friend.

Sometimes, I think it is not so easy to be the organiser of certain occasion to gather friends together. Reason being that everyone of us is busy with our own work and family so we may not be able to find time to meet up.

Besides fixing the date, we also have to choose the type of food that we want to eat and the restaurant that we want to go to. The food choices could range from Sushi to Arabic food to Asian delights.

The mode of communication involves email, SMS and phone call. Sometimes, you just don’t get a reply back from a very busy friend. So, you have got no choice but to send several reminders so as to ensure the other parties really get your message.

It’s time to turn up for the appointment once your message manages to get through. Thus, the four of us have finally met up at the Grand Hyatt hotel’s Straits Kitchen restaurant this evening to enjoy the Peranakan buffet dinner.

I think it is always fun and enjoyable to get a few good friends together for dinner. It is a moment for everybody to catch up with each other and see how everyone is doing lately. How I wish we could meet up with each other more often!

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One day after the Valentine’s Day is one of my sisters’ birthday. It is easy to remember her birthday since hers falls on 15 February.

We have actually had a celebration for my sister last Sunday when our family had been to a Chinese Shark’s Fin restaurant to have our Chinese New Year feast. So, we just have a very simple birthday celebration today by buying soya sauce crabs and satay for her.

Soya Sauce Crabs :

Satay (Pork) :

Satay Rice and Cucumber :

Satay Sauce :

One of the reasons for buying crabs is because my chubby nephew loves to eat crabs very much. We had been going round and hunting for crabs yesterday’s afternoon but was to no avail because most of the seafood restaurants only started their business in the evening.

So, I think today is a good day to buy soya sauce crabs for my nephew as well as for my sister to celebrate her post Valentine’s Birthday 😉

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My friend was having her birthday two days ago so my two other friends and I decided to have a birthday celebration for her on 12 Jan evening . 

All of us have not met up for a few months, we take it as an opportunity for us to have a gathering as well as to have a little birthday celebration. So, we decided to go to a Thai restaurant to have our dinner. 

When we got settled down, I realised that my friends had bought gifts for the birthday lady except me. I did not buy anything and it made me feel so embarrassed. I quickly picked up the menu and got myself hiding behind it. I was too forgetful to buy a gift although I had thought about it. 

Anyway, this did not spoil my birthday friend’s mood on that evening. As usual, we talked, laughed and exchanged information while having our delicious Thai dishes. All of us enjoyed the dinner as it was such a memorable birthday celebration.

As for today (14 Jan), I had another gathering with my colleagues at a seafood restaurant. One of my colleagues will be leaving the company soon so we organised a farewell dinner for him this evening. It was quite a big group as there were altogether 12 of us enjoying the steamboat buffet.

It was a stressless night as we talked, laughed and passed around our seafood for each other to eat. I think we should arrange more of this kind of gathering for friends, family and loved ones to get together. After all, work is just a part of our life. We should treasure the time we spend with friends.

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One of my sisters is having her big day today as her birthday falls on 27 Dec. Wow, there are altogether 3 birthdays celebrated in this month. I think that December is a month for having celebrations for many occasions, ie. birthdays as well as Christmas.

We went to a Chinese cuisine restaurant this afternoon to have our lunch. This place is called The Soup Restaurant which is my sister’s favourite restaurant as she likes the food there very much. Her favourite dishes are Samsui chicken, Lotus root soup, Scallop with broccoli and so on.

After having our lunch, we went to the Angie The Choice confectionery shop to buy a birthday cake for our sister. She chose a durian cake with a diameter of 20cm. Quite a big cake which is enough for more than 8 persons to eat.

Durian Cake :

Hmm…the durian cake is really very yummy. I like the taste of the fresh cream, the durian and the spongy cake. I think it would be nice if I could have a durian cake for my birthday too 🙂

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As I had said 2 days ago, 18 Dec is the special day of my youngest nephew. This little skinny boy turns 8 years old today and he is so excited about it.

As we have had a birthday celebration for our eldest sister 2 days ago, we made it a simple one today. My sister bought a chocolate cake for our nephew to celebrate on his 8th birthday. 

Chocolate Cake :

We also bought his favourite food, ie. KFC fried chicken, for him to eat.

KFC Fried Chicken :

KFC Fried Chicken Sticks :

I had already brought my nephew to the arcade game outlet yesterday to play so I didn’t buy anything else for him. I gave him some money for him to save in his piggy bank instead.

I can tell that my nephew was very happy especially when we were singing the birthday song to him. How I wish everyday is a birthday for everybody!

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Today is the birthday of my eldest sister and we have had a little celebration for her. We bought her food that she likes to eat on this special day of hers as on 16 Dec.

We bought a mango cake for her and here is a picture of how the cake looks like.

Mango Cake :

We ordered a buy-1-get-1-free Hawaiian pizza from a nearby Canadian pizza outlet. It took about 30 minutes for the pizza delivery man to deliver the pizzas to our house.

Canadian Hawaiian Pizza :

Crab is our favourite seafood so we bought a packet of Black Soya Sauce Crabs from the nearby seafood house.

Black Soya Sauce Crabs :

Satay is another favourite food of ours so we bought 50 sticks of chicken satay and 50 sticks of pork satay plus 4 packets of satay rice wrapped in pandan leaves.

Chicken Satay :

Satay Rice wrapped in Pandan Leaves :

Cucumber :

My sister bought pastries and buns too for the birthday celebration.

Pastries and Buns :

It is always fun to have celebrations for all occassions. We will have another birthday celebration 2 days later as my youngest nephew will be having his 8th birthday on 18 Dec. I’m looking forward to having fun again 🙂

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I was having international buffet dinner with three of my friends at the Carousel restaurant of Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel tonight. This is a very popular restaurant and we usually have to make a reservation about 5 days in advance. So, in order not to miss the boat, I had in fact made the booking last Wednesday, ie. one week in advance.

We went to Carousel restaurant last month and there were three of us as one of my friends was not feeling well during that time. We like the environment and the buffet spread very much. So, we decided to go back to Carousel restaurant to have our next gathering in November after getting my bonus. 

This time round, we have a gang of four persons. The four of us had been enjoying our food and our conversation so much that I didn’t have the time to take a few pictures tonight. Never mind, I think we still have the chance to go back to Carousel restaurant in the near future to enjoy the nice food there. 

All of us have been busy working and don’t have the time to meet up with friends. I think we have to find time to catch up with friends once in a while and to find out how everybody is doing. This will be a moment to share our joys, laughters, stories, frustrations, sorrows, angers and so on.

Most of the people think that work and family are more important than friends. They would rather choose to work long hours or stay at home looking after the family than to have gathering with friends. But, don’t forget that true friends are hard to come by. Wouldn’t your friends worth your time to be spent with them if you have the time to spare? 

For me, I would definitely find time to spend with my family as well as with my friends no matter how busy I am. Would you?

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You might have noticed that I have not been updating my Blog posts for the past 2 days. Reason being that I was too tired when I reached home after working late on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, I sent my nephew to his tuition at around 10am and then fetched him home in the afternoon.

He was supposed to have another tuition at around 2:30pm but the lesson was cancelled due to his teacher was sick. Frankly speaking, I was glad to know that the lesson was postponed to the week day of next week so that I can spend more time doing my own stuff in the afternoon.

I had an appointment in the evening as my Muslim colleague was having an open house for the Hari Raya celebration on Saturday. She was inviting me to her house from 7pm onwards so I took my dinner first because I was too hungry and didn’t take much food in the afternoon. Then, I drove to my colleague’s house and reached there at around 8pm but I was considered late because other guests were already there since 7pm. 

My friend has a very nice and cosy house. I like the decoration and unique furnitures in the house. Her house looks very clean and makes people feel very comfortable. We ate cookies, cakes and some other food that she had prepared for her guests. Her 13-month old daughter is very adorable and active. She had been running about the whole night and playing with her mom’s friends. My friend and I think that the cute little girl might be a “star of tomorrow”. Hmm….we shall see.

All of us just had so much to chat. We talked about our frustrations at work, talked about cars, talked about the weakening global economy, talked about our next gathering and so on. We didn’t bother about the time although it was quite late already. Then, we realised that it was past midnight by the time we left my colleague’s house. 

So, I was again feeling very tired when I reached home. Then, I went straight to my bed to take a nap. However, I was just too tired and was sound asleep even without taking my shower 🙂 Needless to say, I didn’t write my Blog post on Saturday after missing out the post on Friday.

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My colleague passed me a phone call yesterday while I was busy fixing the desktop PC problem in my office. The caller was my other colleague whom I used to work with on the same project 2-3 years ago. He is now posted to work on the site to support the customer. Thus, I hardly have the chance to see him in the company nowadays.

What’s up? I was wondering why he’s looking for me since we don’t work together in the recent year. He told me that he’s getting married and would like to invite me to his wedding dinner. I congratulated him for getting married and sincerely felt happy for him. Guess what? He told me that he had in fact left me out in his guest-inviting list. He felt as if I was the missing piece of a puzzle. So, he said he will get someone to pass me his invitation card the next day which is today (Friday).

To my astonishment, he told me that his wedding dinner will be held on this coming Saturday at the Double Happiness restaurant near City Plaza. Meaning to say, he informed me of his wedding just two days before his wedding dinner. Wow, what a rush and last-minute wedding dinner invitation?

Anyway, let us not be judgemental about my colleague’s sincerity. I know I might just be a spare tyre for filling up an empty seat at the dinner table since this is a very common practice for wedding. You see, I have been going for dinner after dinner recently. One thing for sure is that my pocket is going to be burnt with a big hole after attending all dinners. How to save more money if this goes on and on? Hmm…I wonder.

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The second day of October is my lovely niece’s 12-year old birthday. The family had already made an early birthday celebration for her by lunching out at a Chinese restaurant last Sunday. So, today’s celebration is just a simple one.

My niece will be having her PSLE examination soon. I wish her doing well in her exams. May all her wishes come her way. 

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