i've been through 21 birthdays so far. and frankly speaking, most of my birthdays are really shitty occassions. i don't like to really celebrate or to even hold birthday parties. there will be all that incessant worrying about whether your friends will turn up for your party or not. and things like catering and balloons and music and whether to have the relatives present for your party. it's all too nerve-wrecking for me to plan. maybe when i turn 40 lah, when i'm a rich fuck, then i can throw money to someone who has the energy and drive to plan something like that for me. there'll be chippendales, leather chaps, free flow of Merlot, and chippendales in leather chaps flowing freely in Merlot. and who knows, i might just dress up as a religious leader and offend the whole of Singapore for kicks.

but it's kinda true that as you get older, each birthday seems to lose more and more of its significance. so much so that you have to actually look for some value-added meaning to your 26th, 29th, 32nd or 37th birthday. all these wierd 'in-between' numbers that indeed, are just redundant milestones of your life that you wish the LTA or HDB could have demolished along with their urban renewal projects. in fact, 22 is one of these uesless birthday years. like what in the world am i going to celebrate 22 for? i've just turned into an adult a year ago and i'm opening my eyes to all this shit in the world. and you want me to rejoice?

this year was a relatively quiet year apparently. the father brought the family out for dinner. the original plan was to go for Kushinbo (a japanese buffet resturant best remember for its irritating as hell advertising jingle) at Suntec City. but they were working late and by the time they got home, were too tired to go down to town. when i just arrived back from Brunei, the father also wanted to take us to Kushinbo. he came back late. the mother came back late. the brother was even later. in the end we had zi char. well, at least this one has a slightly better ending. we had Fish & Co at Jurong Point.

my family are not very lavish people. but they are awfully generous. and i swear that they are absolutley attrocious at buying a lot of gifts. everytime they visit someone in the hospital, it's butter cookies. church friend's birthday? some religious reading material. relative's birthday? regifting. christmas? MAJOR REGIFTING. and if they can do it to the relatives and outsiders where it's all about face and pride, then what more the son. my dad had a birthday budget of $150. and i'm thinking, hello! i'm your son, the one who vacuums your floor and does your laundry and tries not to live off you as much as possible. and all you can spend for me on my birthday is $150?

in the end, we settled for a $225 Swatch whereby i paid the extra $65 bucks. the brother chipped in an extra $10. new concept hor? you and the parents share money to buy your birthday present. maybe i'm being too much of a prick by asking for more than the parents can chew. because October is one of those months where there's a heavy birthday rate. i have at least 4 relatives whose birthdays fall on October, and that's not including the church people and outsiders.


(clockwise from upper left) fruit of the looms, fuchsia (how awfully gay!), some doggy toy, and regifting

and speaking of relatives, they've loaded me with another bunch of red packets. and i tend to equate monetary amounts from relatives with your general ratings with them. i've got 50 from the grandma, 50 from the god mother, 20 from the stingy auntie and another 30 from the affluent auntie. my cousins wrote cards and practiced very bad quality regifting for the birthday. they gave me a photoframe of bears and the box that came along with it had plenty of scotch-taping. oh, and a doggy toy. like what am i going to do with it? i hate impractical gifts. i swore to myself that if i ever get an impractical gift, something that i can't use, it goes straight to the regifting box. presents for the general public and relatives. as you can see, i'm not part of the inner circle when it comes to the relatives. i love my grandma and my godmother from the bottom of my heart. and that's all. the rest can just kick the bucket or something.

but it was really sweet of my two young cousins (they popped out from the affluent auntie), what with their birthday cards. grace (the younger one) drew pictures of fruits (pineapples, strawberries and i dunno.... dates?). while John (my auntie named him after me, which is a bad mistake, cos he's awfully gay for a kid: he reads, he hates playing with other kids, he laughs with his hand covering his mouth and he wears glasses), wrote greetings on fuchsia-coloured paper. that particular auntie has like a Degree or Masters in Childhood Educationor something like that. and she's always wanting the kid to be proactive and stuff. very 7 habits. i really wouldn't be surprised if they come out damaged some day.

so the birthday has come and gone. and all that's left behind is 22 years of pretty good living. and i'm praying for many more to come. thanks to all the people who sent all the birthday greetings. and thanks to Friendster for reminding all those horrid people who forgot about it.

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