Birthday Gifts from Sephora and Victoria’s Secret

Just when I thought I had received all the birthday gifts I could possibly get, I got more.

First, I got this email from Sephora:

I got this because I’m a Sephora card holder, which I signed up for completely for free. How awesome, right? So before meeting my friends Betchie and Arlyn, I dropped by Sephora in Ion Orchard and collected this pretty little makeup palette. How cute is that birthday greeting on the box? I love that it’s so small and compact, making it perfect for bringing along everyday. I don’t have something like this yet, so this is a very welcome birthday gift. Thanks, Sephora! 😀

I was supposed to be booked for the free Benefit brow wax today but it rained buckets, so I didn’t want to leave the house. Maybe next time!

I met up with my friends just across the road from Ion Orchard, in Lucky Plaza, where we tried out a Filipino restaurant we had never been to before. It’s called Inasal, and it’s at the fourth floor.

Betchie and I had tapsilog (beef + rice + egg, a popular breakfast dish) and halo-halo (a popular dessert) while Arlyn had bangus (milkfish). The food was quite good and in fact I finished most of it so that I was so full afterwards, I didn’t even want to eat dinner anymore even though this was my only meal for the day.

Then while we were eating, they presented me with a gift, a passport holder from Victoria’s Secret!

Oh gosh isn’t it so pretty? I’ve actually looked longingly at this passport holder before, but I didn’t buy it because it was kinda pricy. Arlyn said she had also seen a pretty pink one but chose this design over it because it was more “me.” And yes, she’s so right! Animal prints are my favorite!

Afterwards we decided to check out Betchie’s new place. The moment we got out of the cab, I was shocked to see a monkey sitting in front of one of the buildings and I pointed it out to them. They didn’t believe me at first and we were all quite surprised because monkeys are not a usual sight in Singapore. We walked by fearfully, and made sure not to make eye contact with it. We’re afraid of monkeys thanks to our experiences in Bali. The worst is that of Betchie, when one of them stole her slipper and she had to have a tug of war with it and lost. Someone eventually came to her rescue though.

We bought some chips and drinks at a nearby Fairprice grocery store and when we passed that spot again, the monkey was gone. Weird, I wonder where it went to, and where did it come from in the first place?

When we walked into Betchie’s place, we fell in love with it! It’s so wide and spacious and the decorations and furnishings are very tasteful and opulent. I love the contrast of the purple and black wall behind the giant TV, don’t you?

We sat on the couch and watched TV while drinking freshly blended grape juice and chips (a weird combination of healthy and completely not). It was very very relaxing, the perfect way to spend a Saturday night.

I also realized that the popular Filipino singer Bamboo had become really cute and now understood why a lot of my girl friends were swooning over him. When did that happen? I had seen the guy in person more than once before, and he seriously wasn’t that cute before!

After a while, I was surprised when Betchie came out with a creative birthday “cake” for me. The “cake” is actually two pieces of kakanin, or Philippine pastries made of sticky rice. Haha. Of course this reminded me of the time we got creative with Arlyn’s birthday “cake” which was made of macarons and chocolates.

It was a very happy belated birthday celebration for me, one that made me forget, even for a while, about the war going on in my hometown. (So I guess you know what I wished for when I blew out the candles, huh?)