Anyone who knows me well knows that birthdays hold a special place in my heart. I believe that you are given one day a year that's yours and that you should be happy, if not on any other day of the year, then at the very least on your birthday. I feel that friends and family owed it to you to make it special. People always say, "Nah it's just an ordinary day, don't make a big deal out of it." but everyone will always be pleasantly surprised when you do something special for them... which is also why I like going to extra lengths to arrange surprises and celebrations particularly for my (sometimes lonesome) expat friends here in Beijing.
But as November 3 rolled in, I did not know what to expect. And as always is the case when one does not expect, I was very pleasantly surprised... all day long!
Three "anonymous" bouquets, two surprise birthday cakes, one delicious ice cream cake, wonderful gifts, text messages, emails, Friendster messages and comments, Multiply guestbook entries and PM's, Yahoo offline messages, posts on my Facebook wall and countless other greetings later, I headed home feeling more than happy... I felt extremely loved.
For a single girl who lives alone and who's celebrating her 25th birthday in a foreign land, I really could not ask for more. :)
I was looking for last year's birthday entry, here it is: A Day After, and I am happy to report that compared to the tone of last year's entry, this year's birthday was much happier. :)
Photos here!
Here's a blow-by-blow account of what went down on November 3, 2008:
12:02 am - First greeting received
1:00 am - I get to bed, feeling like a grade school kid anticipating a field trip. I couldn't sleep, for whatever reason!
6:30 am - Parents wake me up for a birthday call. I complain that I didn't need to be up until 8:00am! (But of course I was still touched; Papa's outrageously off-key rendition of happy birthday was just so funny!)
8:00 am - I drag myself out of bed, not having had enough sleep. Get ready for work.
9:00 am - I get to the office. First time I check my mobile phones. A bunch of messages have come into both China and Globe numbers. No one from my team greets me by the way!
9:30 am - Joyce comes over to wish me a happy birthday and gives me a box of Krispy Kreme donuts all the way from Hong Kong! Still no greeting from anyone in the team.
10:00 am - Haifa and I start planning the birthday dinner.
10:40 am - Invitations sent out for my birthday dinner @ Saveurs de Coree, a Korean place in one of Beijing's hip-happening hutongs.
11:00 am - Receptionist gives me a call, saying I've got some flowers. That put a smile on my face. =)
11:02 am - I walk out to reception to pick up the flowers and boy was I shocked. They were huge! Bouquet no. 1 had more than 4 dozen red roses in a giant arrangement. There was no card.
11:04 am - I return to my desk with the roses. Of course everyone in the team starts wondering why I got them and who they were from. I finally received birthday greetings then. Hehe.
12:10 pm - Me and my friends and some teammates leave for lunch. We were meeting Haifa and Gauri at the Thai place downstairs at 12:15 pm.
12:20 pm - I was starving so decided to not wait for Haifa and Gauri anymore. I ordered all my favorites–yum yum yum! I was happily eating.
12:30 pm - Already halfway through lunch with still no signs of Haifa and Gauri. I give Haifa a call and she says they're on their way and arriving in 5 minutes.
12:40 pm - Still no sign of Haifa and Gauri. I was starting to get suspicious. Also because the waiters were acting very weird as well!
12:45 pm - My friends walk in and of course they were singing and holding a lighted cake! Everyone was looking but we didn't care (suki na kami sa Thai resto na yun e) and I blew the candles on my first cake of the day. Black Forest from the China World bakery - yum!
1:30 pm - I return to the office to find a second bouquet of roses on my desk, with a card that read: "I know what you did last summer. Happy birthday! Love, Anonymous." Hahahaha that cracked me up, more so because I could recognize the handwriting! For sure it was either Gauri or Haifa, which they denied, of course.
3:00 pm - All of a sudden the lights go out, and in comes a couple of my teammates with Cake #2 for me. :) Blew the candles on cake #2, with the same wish I had for Cake #1. Who knows, maybe the more times you wish it, the better the chances of getting it!
6:00 pm - Left the office. Joyce helped me carry the giant bouquets home.
7:30 pm - We arrive at Nanluoguxiang for the birthday dinner. Food was quite good and that hutong (small street) is really cool.
8:00 pm - I receive a call from some Chinese guy. Another delivery is waiting in my apartment. I wonder who it's from. I ask it to be delivered to a friend's place since I'm out.
8:30 pm - Kuru says my 450D and LV don't go well together so I open my gift - a new Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home camera bag. :)
9:30 pm - We finish dinner and head to Haagen Dazs for some dessert. Cake #3 is blown - again, I have the same wish. :)
11:00 pm - We walk home from Haagen Dazs and I enter an apartment filled with gifts and flowers. Such a nice feeling.
11:30 pm - As my birthday draws to a close, I reflect on the day I have just had. I think about how I'm going to write about it. I select the photos I'm going to post. But above all I relish in the warm-fuzzy-wonderful feeling of having family and friends who make me feel extremely loved - despite distance, time zone or cultural differences. Then I say a prayer, thanking Him for the past year and asking for guidance and protection for the next, not only for me but for my family and friends too.
All in all, an awesome birthday on all counts. I don't know how turning 26 can top that! :)
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