I Am A Happy Camper...A Great Birthday Weekend

I had a great birthday celebration this year. For a start, I received countless birthday wishes through email, Facebook and SMS. Made me feel great that some people actually spared a little of their time to wish me great things on the special day. The customary birthday card from the family was equally touching.  Lin & the kids also organised a "miniture" birthday party at home on Friday for me.

I'm 39 today....!!!!

I even had an earlier birthday celebration at Rahim’s house on Jan 1 together with those of us in my “Navy Rugby Circle” celebrating birthday in January (Navy Rugby Circle: guys on my 7’s team during the glory days – Rahim, Azmanor, Man Damin and Wan Zarihan aka Yin Yin and their families).

Early celebration on Jan 1

Things started off pretty ordinary in the morning of my birthday. We spent the whole morning at Manjung Hospital for one of my daughter’s appointment. We left for Klang Valley after Friday prayer, specifically to celebrate my special day. Well, actually we left only after I took a short nap so it was more like late afternoon.

200km later, we arrived at TGI Friday's at Subang Parade in a great mood for my birthday dinner. The place was lively, it was Friday nite afterall….you’d want to be at a lively place. Friday nite at TGI Friday's was just perfect. We had buffalo wings and nachos as appetisers. For main course I had New York strip and Lin had Sirloin steak. The children had chicken fingers and spaghetti marinara. We also ordered Chocolate Oreo Mint Crunch (Irresistible velvety, chocolate-mint custard covered with crunchy Oreo® cookie crumbles), Strawberry Parfait (Delectable, creamy-rich vanilla custard crowned with a juicy-fresh strawberry) and and Snickers Treat (Decadent, sweet chocolate custard covered with chunks of chewy Snickers bar) ~quoted from TGI Friday's menu~.

The nite was rounded off with the TGI’s staff singing me happy birthday. They actually asked me to sing a song first, but I didn’t think I’d want to change the otherwise lovely dinner into an unforgettable disaster, so I passed. Sorry to disappoint all you my fans. A big cup of vanilla ice cream covered with whipped cream courtesy of the restaurant was the substitute for my birthday cake. Thanks to my wife for arranging the whole thing, though the secret plot was accidently ruined in advance when one of the staff came to the table and asked Lin, “Is it for him?”.

My birthday fiesta continued on the next day with a trip to RGT Technology Sdn Bhd, No 2 Jln SS7/16 Kelana Jaya. I bought a CG12 48 degree wedge along with some other golf accessories. A great shop for golfers. Game on........

CG 12 Product Description

The CG12 combines classic wedge design with advanced manufacturing processes. On each CG12 wedge, the grooves are milled to maximum conforming dimensions using a proprietary CNC mill bit to create envelope-stretching geometry. To improve shot consistency, the new groove geometry was coupled with an innovative plating process – making ZIP Grooves Cleveland Golf’s most consistent, precise and visible wedge technology to date.

We then made our way to Sunway Pyramid. After buying the movie tickets for Alvin and The Chipmunks 2, we went for lunch at Mr Teppanyaki. I had Beef Teppanyaki which was lovely. The beef was tender and juicy but with the teppanyaki being prepared only 10ft away from where we sat, all of us ended up smelling a little bit like “teppanyakied meat” when we left.

The movie turned out to be okay, nothing spectacular. The kids are never Alvin’s fans anyway. They enjoyed it, but based on their lack of enthusiasm to speak about the movie afterwards, I’d have to assume they didn’t rate the movie in the same league as the Princess and the Frog they saw a few weeks earlier.

We spent more time shopping after the movie, and with the kids asleep it was easier to move around. We got an alphabet bead necklace for each of the twins. It was “Zana” for Adik and “Hana” for Kakak, and they really love them. More shopping till we got really tired and the children became a bit cranky. We decided to rejuvenate our spirit by having some drinks and cakes at a place called Fullhouse Lifestyle Store and Cafe. You are supposed to feel right at home here, literally. A posh English home as the concept I guess.

Finally, we had dinner at at Pappa Rich kopitiam where we were joined by my mom and my sister. I had dry curry noodles which was heaven. I’d definitely come back to this place. We went home to my in-laws’ well after 11pm. I was tired but fully content with the experience we had throughout the day.

I woke up surprisingly early the next day (Sunday). I made my way to Shah Alam Lake Garden fully motivated to complete at least 30 minutes of jogging. Unfortunately, my knees had a different idea. They were really in pain as a result of the previous day’s activities. As a compromise, I did brisk walking for almost an hour to burn all the wonderful calories my body had accumulated from the birthday pampering. Lunch was simply awesome, with masak lemak rebung as the main attraction...yummy. Still a little room for indulgence to round up the brilliant weekend. We ordered Domino’s pizza, one large Extravaganzza and a regular Pepperoni which became our dinner when we arrived back in Lumut.

Yes, I had a great birthday weekend.

What a better way to offset all the fun than having to go to the office that Sunday night and worked until 1.30am. How about then having to wake up at 4.30 to shoot off to KL to present it....and eventually arriving back in Lumut at almost midnite on Monday.

No..no...I won’t let it dampen my spirit......I am 39 years old and I am still a happy camper. Yeah......and Alhamdulillah.