Thursday, August 28, 2008

As you'd probably know by now, I turned 21 on the 2nd of August. When I was in my late teens, I was quite ambivalent of the whole birthday affair. Like, "What's the big deal?", y'know? But when the day drew closer, I realised that like many things, your 21st birthday is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. If I didn't do anything special on my 21st, I only have myself to blame if I start regretting not celebrating it.

"No shit, sherlock," one corner of my mind* said. "You celebrate one birthday every year. What makes this one specialer** than the rest?"

It only has meaning because we humans gave meaning to it. It's the legal age for you to sin; you can start drinking, gambling, and voting... Not that age has ever stopped people from doing the former two***. Furthermore, 21's a winning hand in Black Jack.

Lastly, why the hell not? The prospect of regret seems more undesirable than possible boredom of not enjoying myself.

Celebrate my 21st it is, then.

30th July 2008 - Birthday dinner with family
Thankfully, my parents had a little something planned; Wednesday night dinner at this place in Damansara Uptown called Izzi. The food was okay but their pizza was rather good. Should've gotten more pizza.






1st August 2008 - MNSM BBQ Party
Originally I wanted to make this a biannual event, but there wasn't enough time to get it going. Also, I did not plan for the party to coincide with my birthday though the coincidence was a bonus. Anyway, we had much fewer people this time around; by Friday afternoon, only about 45 people have signed up, compared to the 90 or so last year.

But when the party already started, the turnout ballooned to more than 70 people. Yet, we only had food enough to feed around 50 to 60. Consequently, we had to make two extra shopping trips to restock our supplies.




When it was around 10.30pm, Peck Yun announced my birthday to everyone and made me stand on a chair while everyone sang Happy Birthday (thanks, mate!). As the song was about to end, they revealed water guns in their posession and proceeded to soak me (thanks, mate!).


I really appreciate the improvised celebration, guys. [sarcasm]So much so that I spared you all from staying back and cleaning the BBQ pits with me.[/sarcasm]

Okay I admit, I had fun.

2nd August 2008 - My "real" 21st birthday party
Peck Yun aka Darren has known me since we were 12. Who would've thought that nine years later he'd be throwing a BBQ (again!) party at his house just for me?

Okay, not just me, but Jason too, who celebrated his birthday a couple of days earlier.



Of course, tradition states that on your birthday, you have got to remove candles buried in your birthday cake using just your teeth:



And to top it all off, Jason and I got these wicked babies as birthday gifts:




He drank and partied so much that the moment he went back to his room, he KO-ed on the bed

At the end of the day, I gained 3 kilos, received lots of presents, shotgunned a can of beer (beer sucks!), bottoms-upped a glass of whiskey, and overall enjoyed myself like a kid in a candy store. Once again, great thanks to Darren Peck Yun for throwing the party; I really appreciated it.


Well, all in all, I think it was an extremely productive 21st birth-week with little to be regretted. I'm already looking forward to my 30th birthday celebrations.

"Alright, you win. I'll keep my thoughts shut for now..." went the aforementioned corner of my mind.

*The pissy corner of my mind; the one that makes me dread going for classes, whine about the littlest of things and always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed in mornings.
**I just discovered that "specialer" is a real word.
***Age doesn't stop me from drinking and gambling. Money (or lack thereof) does. That and the fact that beer sucks monkey butt.

(NEW!) The Zimbabwe Dollar Watch:
By now, all of you should know of my strange interest in Zimbabwe, its failing currency among other things. When I last posted figures, the RM was trading with the Z$ at a rate of 1.00 to 2.48. A mere 26 days later, and this is what you get:

The Z$ has decreased in value by almost four times its value 26 days ago!

Pointless Fact of the Day:
Unless I think of something better; the Monash Ball is this Saturday and I'll be emceeing. If you're a student, go for the ball and check me out! *Cough* Tickets are still on sale near the cafeteria.