A New Year, A New Beginning

For the past 3x years, I have been ushering in the New Year by celebrating my birthday. This year was a bit different because I had so many friends from primary school to secondary school to colleagues and family who wished and celebrated it with me.

I had my early birthday present from Miss R who gave me this pair of earrings on the 29th Dec.

Then I received a birthday wish from a primary school classmate, Pn F, whom I have not met for 25 years.

Then on the 30th Dec, I had another surprise from an old friend, Mr.V. He gave me this pair of earrings. What a surprise! I had 2 pairs of earrings this year. How do they know I'm a crazy fan of earrings, though I have to admit sometimes I'm just too lazy to wear them?

On the 30th itself, I was chatting with Miss J and I asked if she'd like to join me on a shopping spree on the 31st of which she agreed. So the 2 of us met at Sunway Pyramid at 9:15am. People must think the 2 of us are mad...shops were not even opened yet. Anyhow, we had breakfast first and then at 10am our journey begans. First target was Esprit.

We did a lot of walking. But couldn't seem to find anything suitable. It's either the size is not right or the price is not right. Jalan-jalan until past 2pm only did we realise we had not had our lunch. While eating, I got a call from Mr.J who said he is dropping by and told to meet him in Starbucks.

Before going over to Starbucks, Ms J wanted to get some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. And guess what? She got some for me for my birthday. So sweet of her.

So, we met Mr. J. And he gave me this.Very nicely packed. Another surprise. I didn't expect him to get me anything. We only reconnected like a month or so as we have lost touch after our secondary years.
Then come midnight. I received extremely many well wishes from so many people. I got up the next morning to find a sms from my brother, which after reading it I felt so touched that I cried.

My brother, whom I hardly talk to and even if we did, it is just a few words. My brother, whom I always fought with like cat and dog. I realised even though we don't share the same opinion, even though we don't agree with many things, we are after all siblings and when any of us are in trouble, we just stood by each other. His sms clearly tells me that he cares and love me. It's just that we do not express it openly...not a tradition in our family...so shy la to say it out loud.

Come evening, he and his wife came with a birthday cake. A birthday cake!!! What in the world...I don't want to blow candles and have people singing me birthday song. I'm not 3 years old. I am thirty something, for crying out loud. Anyway, after some debate with my aunt over how many candles to put on the cake, my mom finally said, birthday girl makes the decision. Yeaa...thank you, mom.

And so my birthday cake has 1 candle.

After the birthday song ( yes, can't escape that one) and cake cutting, I carried on with my bicycle cycling.

What more could I say? I feel so blessed and happy. I don't need expensive gifts or a big celebration. I have friends from all over who wished me. Those who knew me remembered my birthday. And I have friends who were just by my side whenever I am in need. What more could I ask for?

I have only 1 sibling and what he did made me so happy. I am so lucky to have all my family and friends around me. Life has its ups and downs. With good company, the downs would eventually become the ups.

And so, in the end I have earrings to make myself look pretty, I have doughnuts to fill up my stomach while I lay on the couch with a good book to read.

Thank you all of you. It is a really good beginning to year 2010. Let's all prosper and have a blessed year ahead.