Quarter Century Surprise

It’s official. Mervs turns a quarter century old today. Here’s how it was celebrated.

As mentioned in the last post, it was going to be a very busy weekend. And having my birthday fall on a Monday, I didn’t think it was convenient at all to plan any sort of celebration and that at the very most, it’ll be dinner with either family or friends tonight. Boy was I ever wrong.

On Saturday I was scheduled to accompany Joanne for her friends’ wedding (congratulations to Sherman & Kristy). It was an interesting wedding dinner held at Sime Darby Convention Center at Bukit Kiara. They even had a lion dance troupe performing. Unfortunately, due to certain unforeseen circumstances (unforeseen by me only actually), I did not get a chance to meet the bride and groom to congratulate them.

What I mean by “unforeseen circumstances” – Joanne schemingly asked me to go down to the car park to pick up a paper bag of stuff for the bride’s sister. Of course being me, off I went without a second thought to it. The instructions – brown paper bag in the trunk of the car.

As I got down to the car, my mind was distracted by the sight of a scratch on the very recently sprayed bumper. Unknown to me, I was about to be jumped by a bunch of friendlies hiding between some of the other parked cars.

I opened the boot and the first thing I saw was a chocolate cake sitting there with the unlit candle in it. Duh me… it still didn’t hit me as my eyes scanned the car for the brown paper bag I was supposed to fetch for Joanne. Suddenly Robert, Soon Yean, Zetuan and 2 Elaines jumped up from hiding yelling “Surprise!!! Happy Birthday!!!”.

I literally froze in shock. Period. And I can only imagine my own look – jaw hanging half open with half a smile across the face.

It still took another moment before I pieced it together – “so that’s why the cake was there”. I was thinking the cake was for later or something, and I had driven the car all the way there from home with the cake displayed so nicely in the boot. Silly me. Actually the guys were given a spare key and they placed the cake in there right before I was sent to the car.

When Joanne finally joined us in the heat of the car park, she broke the news to me… there’s more. My evening at the wedding dinner had come to an abrupt end and we would be continuing the evening at Mont Kiara. I trailed Soon Yean’s car to Somo, the relatively new chill-out place I hadn’t yet visited. I seriously didn’t expected to see so many familiar faces sitting there waiting to celebrate with me.

In no particular order
Robert
Soon Yean
Sau Yan
Annette & Alex
Jane & Seong Min
Lynn & Jeng
Chiang
Daryan & Ren Lee
Kenny & Foon Yee
Zetuan & Elaine
Edwin
Elaine
Teck Liet
Jason & Tomo
Dennis & Sonia
June, Shirley & Jason

I hope I got everyone in there. If I left out anybody’s name, I blame the alcohol. Courtesy of Zetuan, I was really tipsy within the first 15 minutes of reaching Somo. I remember drinking 3 different shots of I-don’t-know-what (burnt my lip too), one after the other followed by a mug of beer to wash it all down and mess me all up. If any of you have any idea what was in the shots, please enlighten me.

For the record, I have never had a surprise birthday party thrown in my name. I’m deeply honored & touched that you guys were someway, somehow a part of it.

Also thank you Grace, Jessie & Chee How for your wishes. Sorry you guys couldn’t make it but glad you called/messaged that night.

And to the culprit Joanne, I never saw it coming. Thank you so very much. Love you lots!

Up to now, I’ve also received wishes via SMS from Shona in AU & June who couldn’t make it on Saturday, e-cards from Lynn & Irene, and Robert wished me on his blog. Thank you all!

I know this post is very long and unexciting. I’m waiting for Soon Yean to give me some pictures and the video of the surprise.