lplp: BiRtHdAy 2007

We had tonnes of ironing to do this week because we haven't been ironing for 2 weeks in a row! Back-breaking chore....

But the simple but great evening that followed more than made up for it.

We had steamboat for dinner. And because we started at about 6pm, we could savour the sliced pork, sliced fish, sliced liver, prawns, sotong balls, meat balls, fish dumplings, various yong tau hu items, 3 different greens plus tang-hoon and yellow noodles, all at a leisurely pace. Phew! What a mouthful that was, right?! :)

Of course there were also items which I don't take - eg cuttlefish slices. And there were 3 different chillie sauces, but my favourite was still the dark-purple yong tau hu sweet sauce. Somehow, this always tastes so good with the tang-hoon and yellow noodles. Mmm.....

There was plenty of time to relax after the steamboat. The kids migrated to Mother's room "automatically" for their GameBoy sessions. Poor WF wasn't allowed (by the older boys) to take part, so he shuttled between Mother's room, the living room (where he switched the TV channels every now and then, much to our dismay and irrirtatedness) and the kitchen (where he would ask to be given a cup of F&N orange - each of which he said would be "the last one"!).

Father returned from work after we all had finished dinner. So instead of enjoying his dinner over the steaming-hot pot, he had his dinner cooked for him by Mother. Mother said she had prepared the OL's dinner the same way earlier too.

WS had another serving of his special soup. Some Chinese herbal concoction which is usually taken by boys close to onset of puberty. Said to 'lengthen' and 'strengthen' the skeletal frame. I think Mother also gave it to HA last time, if I remember correctly. And as was done for the previous 2 servings, WS got the privilege of having multiple chocolate bars to accompany the super-bitter brew. Except that this time, cheeky and bored WF hijacked one of the bars for sharing with YP. Hahahaa....

Shortly after the soup had been drunk, we proceeded to take out the Secret Recipe cake which YP had bought, for the cake-cutting. Heeeheeeeeheee....... I think YP will now always remember how I had criticised some other cakes she had tended to buy off the shelf on an impromptu basis last time.

(But isn't it true that as we become more exposed to other brands and places, our tastes and experiences will become more 'sophisticated', so our expectations will also go up mah! And because we need to be more conscientious not to over-indulge calorie-wise, we should now be more selective and try out new or better options rather than simply heading for BengawanSolo or AngieTheChoice or Emicakes etc only, correct? It's definitely not a price issue, because the BengawanSolo, AngieTheChoice and Emicakes are also not exactly cheap, hor. Anyway, simply said, to me, it is a reflection of the thoughts which have gone into the cake lah.)

So this time it was Mango Delight from Secret Recipe. All of us enjoyed it. Mother was especially full of compliments for the cake - she said it was not chocolate-y at all (she doesn't like the chocolate-y ones) and not too sweet. Even Father enjoyed his slice 'gleefully' ('gleeful' because Mother had teased him about giving a birthday angpow lah).

So, this is the pretty and delicious Mango Delight we had for my birthday in 2007: