It was a nice little birthday celebration last nite

when 5 of us went out to Chili's at BSC for buka puasa.


In this picture: Gerald, Julia, Azira. Partially hidden: Azira's sister Nadia. The glum-looking guy on the right is the birthday boy.


Birthday boy's face finally lights up during this photo op.


This is what some of us had. It's really huge! I couldn't finish mine. Note to self: next time ask for their Happy Meal instead.

My birthday was actually on Sunday but I decided that Sunday was for me to stay home with the kids.

Also, Sunday was race day in Shanghai so it was just a nice excuse to laze around the house watching F1.

I can't remember when was the last time I celebrated my birthday with people other than my family. Usually it's just a quiet affair: we'd go out for makan and that was it.

It has always been a quiet affair because we are quiet people.

But this year was different. On Sunday Julia called and asked "are you free to talk?" and I said yes. Then she and Chris sang the birthday song over the phone. And they did that in public, at a bus station somewhere in KL.

Nobody had ever done that to me so that really made my day.

The next morning at the office, there was this coffeetable book on my desk, 'Living in Finland'. Apparently Joan left it there the week before in anticipation of my birthday.

Maybe becos I was always telling her about my Finnish (girl)friends and she remembered. Anyway, that was a nice gesture on Joan's part, especially since it was also her last week at NST.

And that night at Chili's was really fun. The pictures don't tell the whole story. These people really are a bunch of nice people to hang out with. Too bad Gary couldn't make it. And Chris, cos he went to Perhentian.

To top it all off, after we were done devouring our food, Chili's staff came out marching with a small cake, singing the birthday song. Guess who it was for? God, this was too much already! I waited for them to finish the song and I honestly thought they were gonna go, "happy birthday dear whathisname" becos there was no way they could know my name.

But they did!

Maybe they saw me on Facebook. :P

p.s: on that note, if any of the BSC Chili's staff is reading this, thanks guys!