Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated my younger brother David's birthday. He has turned 54.

How time has flown. It doesn't seem that long ago when he was a toddler, with a tuft of fine baby hair, following the cows back to their cow sheds. We got a good tongue lashing from our mum when she realised that we had been busy playing marbles out on the laterite road instead of keeping an eye on our little brother.

Now he is 54 years old, father of two teenagers.

It was a wet evening with horrendous traffic snarling the roads in Petaling Jaya but my daughter was very skilful in manouvering her way through and we got to the restaurant in time to see my other brother and his family just about to enter the lift.

We had three large tables set in a big room so there was more than ample space for the two little boys Aidan and Ishan to run around in. The rest of the new generation were unable to make it because of prior engagements.

As is the norm for Chinese dinners, it was a gastronomic banquet with course after course of deliious food. The only dish that I didn't partake of was the escargot baked with cheese. I don't take cheese but fortunately my niece Lali didn't mind having my escargot. There was Peking Duck, herbal kampung chicken soup, cod fish, prawns fried in salted egg, the baked escargot, longetivity noodles followed by a dessert of a sea coconut concoction and steamed cake.

He had two birthday cakes last year but this year he had three! All of them had rich chocolate toppings and one came with little cupcakes surrounding it.There was so much cake and food left over that we had quite a few bags of "tah pau". So those who were unable to make it also had their share of the cakes and the prawns.

As is the case, when sisters get together there was lots to talk about especially when we don't all live in Kuala Lumpur. Janet is here having come in from Melbourne, and myself from Kota Kinabalu. The younger generation had their own table where they had their own pow-wow. Of course the two members of the new generation had a whale of a time, running around amusing the older generation with their antics.

Lots of photos were taken and mine have already been uploaded to Facebook. This was an evening to remember and fortunately the roads were also clear of traffic when we headed for our respective homes.