We are celebrating The Man’s birthday tonight!
Which means the rest of us are busy organizing a party for him this week. Surprisingly, I realized the group has become very efficient these days. There are around 8 of us, which means, we have at least 8 birthday parties to organize each year. Of course, some of us have more than 1 party each year. The Toe says my birthday is like an Indian wedding.
ANYWAY, as I was saying, the group has become very “chop chop curry pok” when it comes to organizing birthday parties for one another. We have done the maths and got it down pat. We have come to the conclusion that you just need to decide on 7 key “elements” (see below), decide who does what and you are sorted.
Moreover, with age, it is easier for us to decide on these 7 elements.
Key Elements:
1. Venue – In our 20s, birthday celebrations are always in a club at around midnight. In our late 20s, we started going to restaurants - and then to the club afterwards. As we progress into my 30s, the celebration stops at a restaurant. Now, in our ripe 30-something, we settle for house parties… so that we don’t have to (1) find parking, (2) deal with the general public, (3) worry about the noise we are making, and (4) pay corkage or exorbitant wine prices. Most importantly, since most of us have stop living like students and have our own pad, a house party is an obvious choice for privacy.
2. Food – I’m embarrassed to say this, but although we are certainly old enough to cook or get our own food, we have been making Toe’s mother cook for our house parties. She makes the BEST nyonya food. Once, she made us ingredients for poh piahs and we had a poh piah party where each of us were wrapping our own. For the Man’s birthday, Auntie Toe is making us mee siam (with gravy), chicken wings and a banana dessert wrapped in fresh pandan leaves from her garden. YUMS! We love Auntie Toe!
3. Cake –We will usually ask the birthday person what their favorite flavor is and nominate someone to do the cake run. For a few years running, we were hooked on pink Lychee Martini cake. Of late, it is Awfully Chocolate cakes. Either way, we usually try to be a bit fancy in terms of the decoration. Last year, we drew a portrait of The Man on his cake. This year, he asked for a AVATAR-themed cake with little blue creatures running around a magic tree. None of us can muster the energy to go look for tiny Navis so instead, we have decided on something different but still quite him. Can’t reveal yet since he might read this. Manda is going to be the cake decorator for The Man’s cake this year. I’ll post a picture when it is ready.
4. Alcohol – With the exception of the vile absinthe I had on my 30th, usually our alcohol of choice is BYO bubbly or wine.
5. Gift – We don’t like surprises, and we hate getting useless gifts so we usually just ask the birthday person straight up what he/she wants, along with details such as size, color, etc. Well, some of us may have a list of presents instead; small items that adds up to the price of one expensive gift. In such cases, the birthday person will issue a list of preferred presents and the Head Organizer will delegate members of the group to get certain items OR in some cases, the Head Organizer may go ahead and get all the presents herself in a bid to win over the birthday person’s favor. (If it is not obvious to you yet, the person who started his trend of asking for more than 1 present is…….??) Anyway, The Man needed shoes this year. The sole of his current Onitsuka Tiger has worn out and when it rains, you can see him slipping and sliding along the road. Toi and I went shoe shopping for his new Onitsukas last Monday, and we even took pictures and emailed it to The Man for approval before purchasing. The whole exercise took about an hour. Very efficient.
6. Guest list – Easy. Us.
7. Date & Time – Any day but school nights. Usually start early, end early. Speaking of which, the youngest member of the group (Manda) had something on tonight and will only be able to come by at 11pm and she asked: “Will you old folks still be awake by then?” Instinctively, Toe and I pursed our lips and gave Manda a scowl. After the scowl, I immediately turn to Toe:
Frou: What do you think? We can stay up so late meh?
Toe: I don’t know. I think we should be able to. Do you think so?
Frou: We can try. I don’t know. Should we start the party later then?
Toe: So that we can have disco nap?
Frou: Yes. Except we are not going to a disco.
Who’s old??
Which means the rest of us are busy organizing a party for him this week. Surprisingly, I realized the group has become very efficient these days. There are around 8 of us, which means, we have at least 8 birthday parties to organize each year. Of course, some of us have more than 1 party each year. The Toe says my birthday is like an Indian wedding.
ANYWAY, as I was saying, the group has become very “chop chop curry pok” when it comes to organizing birthday parties for one another. We have done the maths and got it down pat. We have come to the conclusion that you just need to decide on 7 key “elements” (see below), decide who does what and you are sorted.
Moreover, with age, it is easier for us to decide on these 7 elements.
Key Elements:
1. Venue – In our 20s, birthday celebrations are always in a club at around midnight. In our late 20s, we started going to restaurants - and then to the club afterwards. As we progress into my 30s, the celebration stops at a restaurant. Now, in our ripe 30-something, we settle for house parties… so that we don’t have to (1) find parking, (2) deal with the general public, (3) worry about the noise we are making, and (4) pay corkage or exorbitant wine prices. Most importantly, since most of us have stop living like students and have our own pad, a house party is an obvious choice for privacy.
2. Food – I’m embarrassed to say this, but although we are certainly old enough to cook or get our own food, we have been making Toe’s mother cook for our house parties. She makes the BEST nyonya food. Once, she made us ingredients for poh piahs and we had a poh piah party where each of us were wrapping our own. For the Man’s birthday, Auntie Toe is making us mee siam (with gravy), chicken wings and a banana dessert wrapped in fresh pandan leaves from her garden. YUMS! We love Auntie Toe!
3. Cake –We will usually ask the birthday person what their favorite flavor is and nominate someone to do the cake run. For a few years running, we were hooked on pink Lychee Martini cake. Of late, it is Awfully Chocolate cakes. Either way, we usually try to be a bit fancy in terms of the decoration. Last year, we drew a portrait of The Man on his cake. This year, he asked for a AVATAR-themed cake with little blue creatures running around a magic tree. None of us can muster the energy to go look for tiny Navis so instead, we have decided on something different but still quite him. Can’t reveal yet since he might read this. Manda is going to be the cake decorator for The Man’s cake this year. I’ll post a picture when it is ready.
4. Alcohol – With the exception of the vile absinthe I had on my 30th, usually our alcohol of choice is BYO bubbly or wine.
5. Gift – We don’t like surprises, and we hate getting useless gifts so we usually just ask the birthday person straight up what he/she wants, along with details such as size, color, etc. Well, some of us may have a list of presents instead; small items that adds up to the price of one expensive gift. In such cases, the birthday person will issue a list of preferred presents and the Head Organizer will delegate members of the group to get certain items OR in some cases, the Head Organizer may go ahead and get all the presents herself in a bid to win over the birthday person’s favor. (If it is not obvious to you yet, the person who started his trend of asking for more than 1 present is…….??) Anyway, The Man needed shoes this year. The sole of his current Onitsuka Tiger has worn out and when it rains, you can see him slipping and sliding along the road. Toi and I went shoe shopping for his new Onitsukas last Monday, and we even took pictures and emailed it to The Man for approval before purchasing. The whole exercise took about an hour. Very efficient.
6. Guest list – Easy. Us.
7. Date & Time – Any day but school nights. Usually start early, end early. Speaking of which, the youngest member of the group (Manda) had something on tonight and will only be able to come by at 11pm and she asked: “Will you old folks still be awake by then?” Instinctively, Toe and I pursed our lips and gave Manda a scowl. After the scowl, I immediately turn to Toe:
Frou: What do you think? We can stay up so late meh?
Toe: I don’t know. I think we should be able to. Do you think so?
Frou: We can try. I don’t know. Should we start the party later then?
Toe: So that we can have disco nap?
Frou: Yes. Except we are not going to a disco.
Who’s old??
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