Saturday, October 14, 2006
im listening to sarah mclachlan's blackbird and the melancholy tones seem to perfectly mimic my mood as of right now. i am calm, calmer than i have been in awhile, and somewhat floating on clouds. hehha. what a day.
i turned twenty today. at the risk of sounding overexcited (i AM writing an entry entirely on my turning a year older), i have to relate this day to a feeling of luckiness. for as long as i remember, birthdays had snags. little shots of negative moments. but today was PERFECT. it was a perfect day. the perfect day to celebrate one's birth.
lets start from the top. ekin and i woke up amazingly late, and missed sahur yet again. golek2ed for what felt like forever, then finally woke up and watched a dvd of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, which was sometimes ridiculous but artsy still. elijah woods extra-round eyes were class, though.
afterwards, went to send the team off. i managed to get souvenir bags and keychains for each of em. i was talking the coach about turning twenty when cedric s. overheard and said, TODAY??. and so they started their first redition of happy birthday in french. when min arrived we took a video of them singing happy birthday to me (yes, again in french). min made em give me birthday kisses which gave me a nasty stubble rash across both cheeks.
haha and as i were thanking them individually for the kisses, i mentioned their names. jean-david looked utterly surprised that i knew his name. either that or he was surprised at my (correct or incorrect?) pronunciation of his name. and benjamin sed happy 20th which made him sound so un-french. hahha. after much exchanging of accreditation cards and emails, they boarded the bus, and we bid adieu.
honestly, i was quite sad. happy that 10 guys sang happy birthday to me superloudly in french in a dodgy part of town but sad that the aforementioned men who ive started to warm up to were leaving. hmm. hehe but i had a great week with the lads. great times. perhaps a trip to angers is in order. hahha.
hmm and so afterwards i booked a karaoke room in ukiyo and went jajan shopping in dunnes. i suddenly had this sudden urge to have japanese for my birthday (in lieu of compulsary birthday family dinners) and so i went on an unfruitful hunt for aya. with minutes to spare, i went into yamamori and requested for a table for one. even though there were people queueing, i managed to get a table immediately (hence the luck part). oh yep i also managed to get the ramblers extended from 14 to the 18th. so i received a 5-day rambler for free, and then managed to use the card for 10 days. what are the odds?
anyhoo, had tempura allsorts and miso with rice and some japanese tea, which left me so kenyang. the bill didnt come up to much, which was great for such nice ambience. the food was highly authentic and flavourful. yumm.
mak called me the moment i started to berbuka. haha. we had a nice chat and she told me cik was better when everyone arrived. that was a relief and i felt really happy because everything seems to be going my way. mak hints of there being a bday prezzie in the mail, and that there is a card meant for me in krish's posession right now. ayah was very sweet on the phone, and it was just great to hear from them. the fact that they're all in kedah makes it even more interesting coz my family is with family on my birthday. its like an exponential effect. a greater good. a bigger perspective of family.
afterwards atah, min and i went to bewleys at grafton to kill time. the toilet in bewleys was like a mile away and you have to climb up so high rasa cam smpi kat spire. we had the bestest caramel macchiato and thence proceeded to ukiyo.
karaoke rocked. there were eight if us, after much tapis-ing due to a ten pax limit: danial, kamarul, ekin, zaim, myself, min, atah and eisa. kelakar gile. zaim and atah went OTT for sinatra's my way, and us gurls rocked dc's survivor. kamarul has a fantastic voice! it was fun in all, and we all ended up hoarse-voiced and happee. haha and i managed to video em singing happy birthday to me. hehe best nye lah.
strange thing is that im rambling about the goings on in my life today but what im thinking about most is how i feel. its a different feeling, turning twenty. almost a regret for not being a teen anymore and a slight abject curiosity at being older and being treated as a grown up. i feel happy for how i handled certain things. saying goodbye, for example. or facing new, unaccustomed scenarios, such as being asked outright what i want for my birthday. and most importantly, i felt contented to be surrounded by people who cared enough to spend the day with me, and the best thing is they were willing to enjoy themselves on my big day. that meant a lot. the notion of celebration. i felt alive.
it is not until you experience the wonderful that the others pale in comparison. we are all in a world of subjectivity, and to the birthday girl’s subjective POV, the day rawked. hell yeah. thanx guys for making it special. fatin firman, 14/10/06.
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