The day started out a wet one. Then, finally the skies cleared about one hour before we arrived at The Cage. So the evening turned out to be a cool and breezy one.
A total of almost 20 children came. Most were WF's classmates in KHS; others were classmates from SHHK ACT and Yamaha. A handful of these brought their siblings along. It is always amazing to see how children of tender ages can mingle and socialize so easily when they meet children of similar ages for the first time.
We arranged for a coach to organise the children and guide them in their soccer attempt. This is an excellent option because that left us more time and energy to deal with other matters, such as F&B and photo-taking. The coach seemed very experienced handling the little ones, what with warm-up exercises, practice rounds and various challenges before finally getting the children into a 'match'. Throughout the 1.5 - 2 hours of play in the pitch, the children were given frequent water breaks.
It was good that we had prepared the drinks early. So the chilled bottles of water, straw-packs of Ribena and cans of chrysanthemum tea were a big hit amongst the kids and adults alike. The labels which we had prepared earlier also came in handy because everyone was then able to identify their drinks the next time they were released for water breaks.
When the game ended at about 9pm, unknown to us, the waiting parents, the coach organised the children into a 'train' and moved off to the outside of Pitch 6 to autograph WF's poster! I was very touched by this gesture of The Cage because I had thought that all they would have wanted to do was to simply give us the poster.After that, the children washed up. We tried very hard to organise the children to take the group photo with the birthday cake. It was tough because some famished children had already started to help themselves to the food on the table. Eventually, we were able to get them to stand properly for a photo shoot after some cajouling.
Food served included the birthday cake + mini chicken pies from Prima Deli, chicken wings + curry puffs + sotong balls from Old Chang Kee, kaya buns + butter buns from The Fresh Bread and keropok from the uncle vendor who sells all kinds of keropok from a van parked near my office. Everyone loved everything. (And fortunately, except for the buns, all the food were halal and so the coach and his colleagues were also able to share the food.)
At the end of the evening, some parents (who are closer to us) also had 'take-away' of some of the food at our urging. All thanked us gracefully except for one father, who uttered some nonsense that I found extremely offensive. I will let his wife know how rude he had been uttering such nonsense, the next time we meet.
We cleared up the place at about 10pm, and left The Cage feeling exhausted but great and happy at having had a wonderful party that evening. We left a very satisfied customer of The Cage.
