Birthday Gals

Guess whose birthday it is?

Do you know that Singapore used to be part of Malaysia? It was only for a short period from 16 Sep 1963. On 9 August 1965, Singapore was booted out of Malaysia.

And that was how August 9 became Singapore's National Day. Oh, Singapore turns 50 today. I am 51 so that means I'm 1 year older than Singapore. I've always wished my mother had given birth to me 1 year later so I could say I'm as old as Singapore. But my mother didn't have the foresight.

It being 50 years of independence, for most of the year, Singapore has been in a state of semi-celebration celebrating anything remotely connected to 50 years of Singapore. The President even gave us 1 extra day of public holiday on Friday so that this weekend is a long one for everyone. Every year on August 9, there is a National Day Parade and the audience attending the live show are given a fun pack of goodies. This year, it being SG50, the organisers wanted every Singaporean and PR household to get a funpack except there are fewer contents.

I got my funpack in July. You don't get to pick and what you get is based on your luck. There are 50 different designs of totebags and this was mine. It's not too bad. Some of the others were pretty hideous.

Here are the contents. You know what? I really appreciate the gesture and the effort of the volunteers packing the funpack for everyone. But I was really disappointed with what I got - 3 flags, a balloon in a plastic thingy, stickers, some vouchers, snacks, games, erasers, water and some sponsored items. After all the hype, it was a letdown.

These are the snacks we got.

New Water - no surprise.

Pick up stitcks.

Detergent and coffee? So random.

Singa figurine. Singapore means Lion City in case you don't know. This is the only item I like.

Every year my mother celebrates her birthday close to National Day. I don't know when's her exact birthdate since she uses the Chinese calendar so it doesn't tally with our calendar. Yesterday my extended family went out for dinner to celebrate her special day.

Here's me and mom. My mother has this standard thing she says whenever someone takes a pic of her: "My hair isn't nice."

We didn't take many photos but here's one of me and my sisters with mom and my little grand niece. I think I have a total of 8 grand nieces and nephews.

Want to know what we ate?

Birthday buns. Inside is lotus paste. I didn't eat these because I avoid anything made from rice.

Duck skin wrapped in crepe. I only ate the duck skin and gave the crepe to hubs.

Soup. I don't know what kind it is but there's crab meat, some yolk and other stuff inside. Quite good.

Prawns with asparagus. I love this dish, especially the asparagus.

Steamed fish with garlic. This was awesome. I eat a lot of fish nowadays and I wish I can make my fish as tasty.

Pork belly. I only have a small amount because I'm not a fan of pork. Hubs ate a ton.

Beancurd with mushrooms and vegetables. I only ate the mushrooms and vegetables. I don't eat beancurd. My mother probably forced me to eat a lot of beancurd when I was young.

Dessert - something sweet and sour. I only ate the non-sour stuff.

There was the obligatory noodles with duck meat too but I had to skip that on account of the noodles. No noodles for Jane!

It was really nice to see my family again and I didn't get any headaches at all!