Michael & Yuhui – Our Life Journey

Mic’s SURPRISE birthday party

I always had a thing about celebrating one’s milestone birthday in a more significant way than others. Mic was not particularly keen on a getaway to Sentosa for his birthday like he did for mine, and I felt I should do more than just a dinner / movie / spa massage etc, so an idea of a surprise party came to me and took shape in my mind.

It was not easy to plan for it as I had to anticipate all the possible giveaways and all possible obstacles that could occur every step of the way. I had to lure him out of the house on the pretext of a massage session at the spa while giving a friend, Jo, the keys to our place so that she and the gang could do up the place while we are gone.

For his actual birthday, I ordered a B cube cheesecake from nydc, which he blew out the candle at 12am but we left it till morning to eat as it was too late for such a rich cake. That’s NY cheese with brownie bits in it, which is pretty nice. Actually Mic’s all-time favourite is still chocolate, but I’m not too sure where I can find really really delicious chocolate cake. Any suggestions?

The initial plan was to catch a romantic dinner at Sizzling Rock at Boat Quay. However, as luck would have it, my mobile broke down the day before his birthday, which means I needed to get a replacement in order to be contactable for the all-important birthday party which is on the next day ie Sat. So in the end, we decided to forgo Sizzling Rock (for the 2nd time!) and check out the phone shops in Vivo City before we have a nice dinner there. We bought tickets for 9-ish screening of Quantum of Solace and ended up racing against time as we adjourned to Plaza Singapura to get a LG Secret handphone instead, leaving only 50mins for dinner. We decided on Shabuya at Vivo City and ordered a steamboat set meal, some salmon sashimi and sake and we made it in time for the movie.

The next day, we set off for our usual massage appointment at Elements Spa at The Cathay. It would already be half the battle won by getting him to agree and indeed go out of the house for this appointment without hiccup. Alas, I sabotaged myself by closing our bedroom door as we were going out, which aroused his suspicion as we do not usually do that. He questioned me and caught unprepared, I came up with some feeble and unconvincing explanation of having a secret surprise present in the room for him. DUH!!! He seemed to have bought it. I hoped he would quickly forget about it. haha. That’s Fumble no. 1.

After the massage, I used the excuse of having a headache to make him take a cab home. He suggested to grab some dinner before we head home but I came up with excuses to refuse and insist on going home straight away.

Finally we reached the lift. Phew!

Wait! What was that? The delivery bike from KFC, which was one of the food I had ordered for the party in advance!

Oh my! Don’t tell me that’s my delivery!

I prayed that we would not run into the delivery guy at my doorstep, which would have given the game away.

OK, he’s not there. Phew… lucky!

Mic unlocks the padlock of the gate, twisted the handle and yanked. It would not bulge. It then dawned on me what had happened. We do not have the habit of locking the gate but somehow, our friend Jo had thought to lock it…!

Oh my goodness, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry then. Despite all the planning, I had not thought to brief Jo about the gate! I stood frozen, not sure how to react to the situation. Mic was shocked. He fumbled with his keys and kept asking why the gate was locked. I kept quiet, yearning for the moment of discovery.

The main door swinged back. Our friends sang “Surprise”. Camera clicked and JW sprayed ribbons on Mic.

Mic was not one to be easily surprised. So it was also of no surprise that he was pretty expressionless when the action unfolded around him. And it did not help that there were so many incidents to prime him. Apart from the gate, my giveaway of the bedroom door and atypical behaviour about insisting to go home immediately also added to the spoiler.

Nevertheless he was appreciative of the effort made to organise this get-together with his secondary school chums. : ) Well, that’s all it matters.