I’m A Really Big Girl Now!

I thought changing a small part of the banner and adding two words to my blog title was

rather apt. 🙂 Seeing that I’mTWENTY-ONE now, I figured that I can’t be hiding under a pan-cute blog title for so long. I mean looking at it makes me cringe because I am ANYTHING but a LeeDle GuRl eEn A ReVeRiEeEee. You must forgive the 16 year old Jolene who came up with this title which surprisingly stuck for so many years.

I’ve been meaning to change my title to Not So Little Girl In A Reverie ever since I was 19. I waited SO long to do this okay. 🙂 Now I’m no longer perasan but just indulging in some plain ol’ self-depreciating humour as always. 🙂

And yes… I celebrated my 21st birthday. 🙂 I couldn’t possibly imagine seeing it come and go just like that. I mean it’s my 21st!

It’s a pity that my exams will be the following week. It’s like that every year but oh well, there’s only two more times till I can celebrate my birthday without exams looming ahead.

Interestingly, I recall writing something about turning 21 in my national service blogs back in 2005. I was still in camp at that time and have only just received the offer letter from my university.

A page from one of my last few national service blog entries. 🙂 Email me if you want the whole set.

So, it if wasn’t for the exams, I would’ve rented a place or hold a mini party at my rented home and invite people I know over for a nice meal(I can’t afford alkie drinks here on my own tab. 🙁 Which is a pity. I’m legal and broke. Sigh.). I pushed the idea to the back of my head and told Lie Yuen sadly that I guess I won’t be up for much. Just have dinner as usual with the usual bunch and go home to study for the coming exams.

I felt really sad because this is how I get as the year comes to a close. Be it my own biological year or the Gregorian calendar year, there is this sense of under-achievement and unresolved goals that haunts me each year. What a terrible habit to have, eh?

A concerned Lie Yuen patted me on the shoulder, “Let me do something for you on your birthday,” and I just smiled and said, “It’s okay laa….exams coming.” Then she was all, “Whyyyy?!”

I went back into my funk and she turned to me and said, “Actuallly….we wanted to throw you a surprise birthday party. I even booked the whole upstairs of Old Town White Coffee. But I can’t tahan already as it would be so difficult to hide it from you. I even wanted to call Chee Kiang. I’ve already messaged him on Friendster but he hasn’t replied yet.”

I laughed and moaned, “WHY DID YOU TELL ME?!!! And about Chee Kiang, he doesn’t check his friendster account anymore. Message him on Facebook! Hahaha.. but he has only just started classes. He won’t be able to come.” But I was genuinely touched at the thought and now at least I have an excuse to have dinner with a crowd of friends(classmates and juniors). At least something to commemorate my 21st. 🙂

So I just cheekily allowed her to arrange everything while pretending I didn’t know anything about it. But no need to act lah, everyone knew it was foiled already. Hehe.

At 6.30pm on the eve of my birthday, we gathered there for dinner. Very good food I might add. It’s sad to note that most of the new eateries popping all over Sungai Petani sucks at best.

We were just taking photos as usual. I was being unusually quiet because that’s how I am on my birthday. Quite shy being the reason for the dinner. Hahaha, I know, so unlike me right? They thought I was sick or something. It’s so unlike me to be shy! If I was a brand my tagline would be, “JOLENE. NO SHAME.” So powerful ya?

A few of the juniors were already there. 🙂
L-r: Me, Phebe, Charis and Alex.

They had to join all the tables up. 🙂 I always like it when there are many people. Just quite shy that it was for me.

l-r: Jimmy, Chee Wen, Xin Yi, Angela. Thanks for coming guys…especially with the exams so near. Thank you so much. 🙂

l-r: Poh Yee, Nien, Maxis, Chwan Horng, Ee Chean (Hahahha so cute!)

Then more of the juniors came!
L-r: Ei Leng, Phebe, Shing Hui, Charis, Cassandra and myself

Myself with a whole bunch of my classmates!
l-r: Yan Rui, Lishen, Ee Chia, Steven, Jimmy, Me, Chee Wen, Xin Yi, Sock Nee and Angela

It’s like my wedding or something eh? going around taking photos with everyone. 🙂
L-r: Poh Yee, Zhu Zen, Myself, Nien, Maxis, Chwan Horng, Ee Chean

Gosh, I love this photo!
Me with Wuan Phing, Narjit and Cze-Yin. I’ll put this photo in the photo album that you guys bought for me! Thanks, Jamie, for the photo album! It’s so damn cuteeee. 🙂

Then they turned off the lights and I put on a cheeky expression of glee because they were bringing out the cake! My favourite, Blueberry Cheesecake! (Actually I like all kinds of cheesecake.)

They started singing the birthday song as the cake was brought up the stairs.

Okay. Promise me you’ll watch the video BEFORE you proceed to read the rest of the post. To prevent you from cheating, I’ll just asterisk-asterisk a whole chunk of empty blog post space so that you can only read what happened at the bottom. Hehe.

WATCH THE VIDEO. WATCH! See my face!

Thanks Brenda for filming it!!! 😀

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Alright, hope none of you cheated.

BUT SO SWEET RIGHT!!!!!

I saw Lie Yuen climbing up the stairs with the glow of birthday candles behind her. It was held by a guy. Did she get one of the waiters to help her? But the guy looked too casual to be working there. Was he a junior? Doesn’t look like a junior coz he wasn’t familiar in a one-of-the-people-in-uni kind of way. THEN this is the part where you saw my OH MY GOD face. It was my BOYFRIEND LAM CHEE KIANG climbing the stairs!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!! HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE IN SINGAPORE!!! WHAT’S HE DOING CLIMBING UP THE STAIRS OF OLD TOWN WHITE COFFEE??

I super super need to wear my glasses ALL the time. Hahahahha, super wtf. Own boyfriend also cannot recognize from a far.

I immediately reached up to kiss him full on the lips to the cheers of my friends. Hehehe, shy lah but I WAS SO HAPPY. OHMIGOD I WAS SO EXTREMELY HAPPY.

🙂 Turns out Lie Yuen DID message him on Facebook and has been in contact with him ever since Saturday. 🙂 Andy picked him up from the Sungai Petani bus stop and brought him to the restaurant for my surprise. I LOVE YOU GUYS!! YOU ARE ALL TOO NICE TO ME. I really did nothing to deserve this. Thank you for the effort!! Thank you for bringing my boyfriend to me on my birthday!! It’s the first birthday where I have him by my side. (not technically as it was still the eve of my birthday BUT IT’S DAMN KAU SPECIAL LAH OKAY!)

The poor boy took a flight from JB to Penang and arrived around noon on the 15th. He then milled around Penang the entire day(when I was actually lepaking at home, it being a public holiday and all AND with a car, I can go pick him up from Penang if I wanted to.) and played tourist and used cybercafes to kill the time. At around 4pm, he took the ferry to Butterworth and from there he took the bus to Sungai Petani where Andy was waiting for him. 🙂

I’m SO TOUCHED. I was really on the verge of crying, they all wanted me to cry so badly. LOL. But I just stopped myself in time; not in front of everyone! So embarrassing! 😀 But I was still in a daze because Chee Kiang looked so out of place in Sungai Petani,you know? It’s so different as this time it was without me picking him up from the bus stop as usual.

Everything around me faded into a blur as I was delirious with joy and usually I’m more sensitive to what people are doing or saying around me but it was as if I lost all my senses at that very moment and could only hold on to Chee Kiang’s hand, not wanting to let him go. He would leave at 10.30pm that very night for a bus that goes straight to Singapore. Just in time for his morning lecture, Introduction To Pharmacology. Which he missed by the way, since he got stuck at the causeway jam. 🙁 🙁

So everyone was arranging themselves for a photo and I just sat there, still shell shocked. Hahaha. I was also absent mindedly prodding the beautiful cake with the super blunt knife that was provided, much to Narjit’s chagrin. It must’ve looked so disgusting.

But he came!! He’s here! It was so surreal!!

It was Nien’s brainchild, Lie Yuen’s brilliant execution skills, Andy’s generous help and Chee Kiang’s darling determination to come make me happy on my birthday. 🙂 Thank you everyone!! Thank you to the rest of you as well for being in on the secret and managing to keep it away from me. I didn’t suspect a thing!!

I tell you, my boyfriend is super cheeky. True to his name. CHEEKIang.

Have a look at the exchange of smses between the both of us earlier in the day:

From him:

From me:

Continued:

Him:

Me:

Continued:

Him:

Me:

Continued:

Him:

Me:

Continued:

Continued some more:

Him:

Continued:

Me:

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m still glowing with happiness. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Me blowing my candles. I was so shocked that I forgot to make a wish.

TWENTY ONE! Actually, I’ve been gloating about me being very young to so many classmates and juniors for a long time now that most of them are under the impression that I’m only 20 this year. -_- Overkill!

Cutting the cake unsuccessfully. Actually I was cutting the cake before blowing off the candles. That was how blur I was!!

And I huffed and I puffed. TWENTY ONE!

A happier photo! Should have used the flash though. 🙂

One of me with the juniors. I know I should have stood up. 🙁
l-r: Shing Hui, Ei Leng, Phebe, Charis and Cassandra.

A group photo with the rest of my classmates. 🙂 I was, as I said, too blur to know who was standing behind. I didn’t know it was only my whole class. 😀

Chee Kiang and I. 🙂 🙂 Sometimes, the best birthday gift doesn’t come with a price tag.

Lie Yuen and Cze-Yin wanting camera-time. Lie Yuen was being my camerawoman the whole night. Sorry about me being so dazed, Lie Yuen. 🙁 I feel kinda bad. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Me with the junior boys.
l-r: Kelvin, Samuel, Melvin, Tee Lun, CY, Andy(not a junior!)
Andy and I were jokingly taunting the juniors saying how we DON’T EVER want to be their classmates even though we like them very much. Hahaha. Being classmates with them would mean another 20k-30k from my parents and another year of dentistry. NoOooo.

The bill that I wanted to foot for but somehow got stolen from me. Damn you classmates! Stop being so chinese! Let the birthday girl pay! It’s not like it was Rm700(that one you pay yourself lah..hahaha)

I was really angry at the waiter because he didn’t want to give me the bill. I thought he couldn’t understand English but in actual fact he was told by Lie Yuen NOT to give me the bill. He received some really bad abuse from me too. I’m stricken by guilt as I type/you read.

To sum up the whole night, it was such a wonderful gathering and of course, that amazing surprise who left his towel here(which smells of him, makes me feel so much more sad that he’s not around now) and his tribal bling bling(bracelet made of wood). 🙁 🙁 He left pieces of him behind making me even more sad. 🙁

Later at night, Lie Yuen and I realised we didn’t get a photo together. Well, here’s one to the girl who made it all happen. Thank you so much girl, thank you I love you!!!

And of course, 🙂 the 16th of January is also my darling DADDY’s birthday. He turns 51! Why, I remember when he was just a 35 year old boy. 😀 Hahaha, I LOVE YOU DAD! This year I promise I have enough money to buy you a nice gift. But that BMW still has to wait.