low-key birthday celebration



this being my 59th birthday - according to the chinese way of calculating ages - i was told to keep it a low-key event or better still, a non-event. my chronological age is actually 58. what we had was a small, family celebration with a durian cake from emicakes and some bought foodstuff.

so, unlike in past years, when i would invite members of the exco to my place for a makan, i did not have a big do this year. neither did i buy food for the office staff to eat for lunch. for the past two years. diana, in 'cahoots' with my wife lay bee, had surprised me with a birthday function. they were not so thrilled when i did not seem very surprised.

a day before that, we went to the teochew cuisine restuarant at bukit batok for a family meal. ordered the teochew imperial set, steamed squids and fried spring rolls. ida, who was at wheelock in the afternoon, bought a ralph lauren wallet for me. she insisted that i started using the wallet right away. had to empty the content from my old wallet to put them all into the new one.

personally, i do not attach much significance to birthdays, either mine or others. i did not celebrate when i was younger, not until i was way past my twenties did i have any celebration. and that also because others insisted on celebrating for me.