A Birthday ‘Walk Down Memory Lane’…

Rebecca & I celebrated her 24th birthday last Sunday after church. I wouldn’t say that it was an extremely impressive birthday celebration due to my tight financial status, but by prayer & the grace of God, I managed to plan & carry out a reasonably interesting birthday celebration for her… with the theme focusing on remembering past memories.

I carried a big longish bag because I had to put the roses that I bought for her inside, without her being able to see it. In addition, I had prepared a nicely designed 10-page mini birthday card, with funny pictures, arrows & words… along with Bible verses from 1 Corinthians 13 about God’s love... & thus the love that we share between us. Lastly, I also made her a music CD from the Christian group called Breakaway Ministries. The worship songs were very nice & I liked it, so felt compelled to share it with her too.

Trying to settle the program & gifts in a short 2–3 days can be quite a stressful thing, but it’s always worth it doing something for the person you love.

Everything was fine on that Sunday morning… until something unfortunate happened later – when I was with my youth CG giving them Bible Study, the boys were tossing pillows around… which I suspected it was the dirt & dust that affected my left eye, making it a little red & uncomfortable. Strangely, I didn’t feel it till Rebecca & I left church.

I told her about my left eye discomfort & we prayed about it, while walking to Tekka Market to have lunch. We noticed that the sky was turning a little grey too… so I said a short prayer & asked God to not let it rain.

After we had lunch at Tekka Market, we proceeded to Suntec City to buy tickets to watch this comedy titled ‘Fun with Dick & Jane’. There was still about one hour till the start of the show (I planned it with this time slot), so I brought her to the Sky Garden, where we took photos & remember the last time when we went there to take photos during the first year of our relationship.

This time I decided to take the bold step of asking someone to take a photo of us together using my digital camera, instead of setting it on a flat surface with the 10-seconds countdown mode to automatically take a photo. And the photo turned out quite nice! Plus, we took a video clip & several photos by ourselves too… at the fountain, at the trees, at the playground, around the grass patches, etc. It was a nice time before we decided to go inside the shopping centre coz the sun rays were getting rather hot.

With half an hour to go before the show, I continued my plan of bringing her into Toys ‘R’ Us to have some fun with those soft toys & stuff. We played with the soft toys & plastic swords & weapons… laughing & taking photos of each other.

I like the photo where Rebecca was carrying this huge brown doggie that was so large that it almost totally blocked her, while I was trying to take her photo! Another funny part was when she looked up in shock to see like 10 soft toy tigers staring at her from the top of the shelves! Some of these tigers were white & others were the typical yellow colored ones. If I’m right, they are called Bengal Tigers. I learnt that from playing the PC game that Rebecca’s brother lent me, called ‘Zoo Tycoon’. I was very good at that game… & won like 10 awards & records for being the best zoo for several consecutive years… =)

As for those funny photos of me, well… I had my fair share of fun with those plastic kids’ swords & axes… trying to act hero inside Toys ‘R’ Us. Yeah, we do make a fool of ourselves outside sometimes, when we are out together, but that’s precisely the fun of it.... & something to remember… =)

After that, I intentionally proceeded into the cinema about 10 minutes early, so that I could give Rebecca her birthday surprise. After we were seated inside Cinema 5, seats K-9 & K-10… I asked Rebecca to close her eyes… then took out the beautifully decorated bouquet of roses & placed it in her hands. I felt very happy when I saw a small smile form on her lips, before she opened her eyes to see those lovely flowers!

Rebecca wasn’t expecting me to give her flowers, since the last time I gave one her during our first year together in a relationship. She was very happy & it made me feel happy too… all except this young girl who was sitting on the seat just right behind us. She probably saw the whole ‘event’ happening, like an extra ‘light bulb’. But it didn’t matter… I couldn’t be bothered by her anyway… coz I just wanted to surprise my girlfriend with a nice lovely flowers for her birthday! =)

As for the show, both of us agreed to watch it coz we thought that it was quite funny, from the movie trailers that we saw previously… & it was funny at the beginning… but wasn’t funny anymore towards the middle & end of the show.

My left eye had become a little redder at the corner after the show, so we went to Carrefour to buy Eye-Mo to treat eye irritation. When I applied the first few drops, my left eye stung! It was a biting sensation… & I knew that there had to be something that happened… which was how I drew my conclusion about those dusty pillows being thrown around the Youth Rom.

After applying the eye drops at a few more instances, my left eye discomfort was reduced, but the redness was still there. Well, it wasn’t very red… just red at the corner of the eye. So unless I look to the right, the redness cannot be seen, which is good… so it won’t scare anyone.

We had some time before dinner, so we strolled around the Suntec Convention Halls & took some photos along the aisle. Rebecca thought of visiting the wedding exhibition at one of the convention halls, but as we approached, we saw that there were very few people inside, so we decided not to go inside… coz if we did, we would end up being surrounded by many sales people trying to promote their wedding packages! So we quickly walked away from that convention hall, due to past unhappy experience with hassling wedding sales people who kept trying to urge us to sit down to look at their photos & discuss about their wedding packages.

On the way to our dinner destination, we checked out Haach & took a pamphlet, coz Rebecca is in the midst of finding out a reasonably priced spa couple package for our coming Valentine’s Day. See… she’s so nice, right? =)

After that, we walked to Chijmes to have dinner at this restaurant called “Bobby Rubino’s” where we ate some years back. Along the way, we saw this café or restaurant (also inside Chijmes) called ‘Insomnia’! We laughed & joked… wondering if drinking at this pub would give us insomnia… & especially since I have been having insomnia since I was asked to leave my job at StarHub.

The ambience inside “Bobby Rubino’s” was nice… cozy & quiet… very unlike the noise that we hear at food courts, hawker centers & even fast food restaurants. But of coz, the price of the food is expensive here too… & maybe that’s why.

We each ordered one of their delicious potato soups… which Rebecca had been anticipating since the last time we ate here some years ago. Believe me, it’s nice. In fact, I think both of us ate a lot of potatoes in this restaurant, coz we had potato soup, as well as potato side servings with our main course!

I ordered the breaded fish, with mashed potatoes & french fries as my two side servings. Rebecca ordered a chicken dish (can’t remember the name coz it’s not in English) with mashed potatoes & salad. So it was a lot of potatoes! But we loved every bit of it… & if you are crazy over potatoes… you’ve really got to try their potato soup! It’s heavenly! =)

We took a few photos inside the restaurant & this kind waiter came over to ask if he could take a photo for both of us! As it was a little dark inside the restaurant, my digital camera flash function didn’t work very well… & the taken photo turned out being too bright. After switching to another flash function, this nice waiter managed to take a decently nice photo of us, by the 4th attempt. *Phew!*

After our very filling dinner (which both of us couldn’t even finish), we strolled around Chijmes, chatting & taking a few photos here & there. We had lots of fun taking photos while we did funny actions & poses at one particular corner of Chijmes! Some of the passer-bys must have thought that this couple is crazy! But seriously, I didn’t really bother… coz we weren’t doing anything wrong… just taking funny photo shots, that’s all. It was a fun time… =)

Rebecca’s Mum gave me a piece of Rebecca’s birthday cake that was remaining from their family celebration the day before. It was a congested piece of chocolate cake, with such a chocolaty taste that caused me to eat slowly! It was too rich… but fabulously tasting chocolate cake! YUM!

I really thank God for answering our prayers & not letting it rain that day. Plus, we managed to fully follow through my planned birthday outing program! Rebecca was very happy & we were relieved that her parents didn’t comment anything about the flowers that she had kept in her room. In fact, her Mum even placed it on Rebecca’s piano, coz it looked nicer there! I hope they would accept me as her boyfriend soon… maybe when I get a job… & save up enough… Help me, God… =)