I must admit that this has been the best birthday I've had by far, apart from being the recipient of so many white lies ;p
I received an overwhelming number of smses and phonecalls when the clock struck 12 midnight (in Melbourne and Singapore), much to my surprise :) Thank you ALL for remembering. Especially those who sent me greetings at 12 midnight Melbourne time sharp *wink. The small gesture is MUCH appreciated, for I know it means you've to count down ;p Thanks also to those who emailed, msn-ed etc etc. I somehow only realised just how numerous the forms of communication can be, but each and every greeting is much appreciated! :)
Early in the morning I dragged myself out of bed to supposedly attend a HPKM group meeting. Can't believe I actually fell for that, or the fact that one of my hsemates, Becky, had to leave the house early to meet the Dean. But yes, I did. And was greatly rewarded (so sometimes it pays to be niave? ;p). Kel was walking alongside and I had closed my eyes temporarily to conserve some energy when he suddenly nudged me and signalled that I had missed something. I was puzzled; I didn't drop anything, as far as I knew. However, this little wooden star atop a stick jutting out from some fence caught my eye. Picked it up and hey, a birthday greeting was written on it! Realised that there were lots more along the way, from all my beloved meddie friends. Awww. I felt like Hansel and Gretel picking them all up along the way to school (yesyes even my descriptions must fit the fairytale theme ;p), where the end point was marked with (thankfully not a witch with a boiling cauldron ready to stew me but) the whole group of them standing around a cake singing a little happy birthday song to me.
It was a long day of school right after, but even the OCFers surprised me by celebrating my birthday in front of the whole cohort live band style, and even got me a really exquisite bag. Was so touched. These guys are really like 2nd family to me. Three cheers for my cell group!! Can't wait for our next outing!!!
The fun did not end there though. I came back to a house full of love expressed in multicoloured balloons flooding the floor, blown by the housemates, Mel and Yeo. These guys literally blew their lungs out for me [bear hug]. We camwhored and reluctantly seperated only to meet each other again a few hours later for another whole day of fun. And here, I think I should scribe no more and let pictures do the talking.
Kel displaying his olympic talents at Murray's Lookout.
The Enchanted Maze.
Onward, seagull!
Love makes a house a home.
Beautiful sunset.
Food, glorious food!
I'm on the top of the world :)
And yes, that's about it. All in all, I guess that because I'd already celebrated my birthday, I was less expectant and that made anything anyone did for me these few days even sweeter. Really felt showered with love - the amount of gratitude in my heart much more than I dare express.