Belated Birthday Brunch

My friends threw me a belated birthday brunch over the weekend, and it was glorious.

It was held in Jefrey’s place. He actually researched recipes and baked brioche and fritata and made a healthy fruit and yogurt parfait. I’m so touched!

Cate and Tatsie brought hokkien mee (prawn noodles) because it is Filipino custom to have “noodles for long life” in birthday celebrations.

Before we got to Jeff’s place, though, Cate and I dropped by one of the new cafes below his condo. Jeff had specifically mentioned that Old Hen sold really delicious cold brew coffee, so we popped in and bought 8 bottles. The cashier asked if we were having a party and if it was for a birthday. Cate said yes, and it was mine, and did they give free birthday cakes to birthday girls? To our pleasant surprise, he said, “Yes, pick a cake!” So I chose red velvet. Cate then asked him to pose with me.

When we got up we were pretty excited to eat and drink. Everything was delicious, but my favourite was the brioche. I also really really loved the cold brew! So much so that I drank 2 bottles. (I’m not even sorry!)

Here is a picture of us toasting with our cold brew bottles.

After we had eaten our fill of delicious food, Cate suddenly turned to me and said, “now it’s time for you to hunt for your birthday gift.”

“Oh no… you know I’m terrible at this!” I groaned as she laughed.

You see, for the past couple of years, I’ve been really terrible at either guessing where my gift is hidden despite the should-have-been-obvious clue, or figuring out what my gift was based on the note on my card (which you can read about in detail here).

This time around, there were no written clues. They just told me that it was somewhere in Jeff’s condo. Luckily it’s a small one. But I still wrongly guessed a bag of something elses in the living room to be my gift before heading into the bedroom.

I threw off the bed covers and rolled open the closet doors, and for one brief moment, I was afraid someone was hiding in it to yell “surprise!!!” at me. It was a very silly thought, obviously, but something I couldn’t help but think perhaps because back in 2009, a friend had surprised me by flying to Singapore and sort of doing that, although not from within a closet.

No one yelled from inside the closet, but I did, when I saw what was in there:

OMG!!! It’s the luggage I’ve been crushing on which I posted on my wish list! I honestly didn’t think they’d buy it for me because it’s a hassle to buy, isn’t it? It’d be much easier to buy the other stuff on that list, I think. In fact I had given up on it and just bought the travel pillow which came in the same pattern so I could at least have something in that design. Now it looks like the two are a matched set.

Thanks, you guys! I really REALLY appreciate your gift and time and effort!

We spent the rest of the time watching several movies on TV while eating donuts and cake and as I finished the dregs of my ice cold brew, I thought that if my life were a movie, at this particular moment in my life, the background song playing would have to be: “Cause everything’s coming up roses…”