Mise en scène: Record-breaking SIX birthday cakes! :D

I must say, turning twenty has been nothing short of fun, laughter, and a great deal of HAPPINESS! It's been almost like a week long celebration, and I so feel the L.O.V.E!

Let me recall the memories that I will definitely hold dear to my heart!

17 Mar (Wednesday)
I received a super long SMS from Eddie wishing me Happy Birthday. It was way too early and I realised that he got the date wrong, but still, it was a really sweet message and it was sure nice to hear from him again after a pretty long time.

It got me thinking: Hey, my birthday is really coming.

18 Mar (Thursday)
I had a test at 8pm, and it just got me feeling awfully drained. But at least I met up with Danny afterwards to hear his speech and that perked me up, because it was nice doing a bit of catching up with him.

19 Mar (Friday)
I was back in school for a meeting but dinner was with the Stats101 people @Brotzeit. Danny made a reservation at the Raffles City outlet but we decided to go down to the Vivo one because the ambiance there was a million times better. And it paid off, because indeed, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time there.

Alex

Clara

Danny

Zi Xin

The bunch of them surprised me with a white chocolate raspberry cake and although I'm not a big fan of the white chocolate coating outside, the raspberry inside was delicious.

And they bought me this really Punk looking bag from ALDO, selection choice courtesy of Clara. I love the bag! ;D It's gonna be my new companion at school.

It was definitely an awesome dinner, and the company was just GRRRRREAT! :D I think it's really lucky that by some stroke of fate, we came together for a Stats project last term and we just clicked. That's not something that happens often in Uni.

We chatted at the Vivo balcony overlooking RWS till late, before it was time to head back home to deal with the misery of schoolwork.

Alex sent me home and I actually passed my birthday while walking back home from Bedok Interchange with him; how "memorable". Haha!

20 Mar (BIRTHDAY!)
Alex left and Dickson actually drove over to the bus stop near my place because he wanted to pass me something and you know what! He actually gave me a birthday cake in the shape of a SHOE!!! How awesome is that?

Haha, quite exciting to receive such a cake (although I might add that to date, nobody has eaten the cake. That's the problem with something looking so nice, nobody actually bears to have it eaten!) And due to superstitions, he asked me to hand him a coin because that would apparently prevent me from "walking away from him" since it is believed that you shouldn't give people shoes because that would make them walk away from your life. Mm, I never knew that. I only thought the superstitions existed with clocks. He also got me a couple of seashells when he went for training in India. Funny though, I don't remember seeing shells when I went to India.

That same day in the afternoon, I had to head over to school for a project meeting for my BGS module and my group mates actually celebrated with me! This time, it's a blueberry cheesecake from BreadTalk. I'm not a big fan of cheescakes but this one was solid! Happily had my fill :D

They wanted to light the candle on the cake but luckily one of my group mates pointed out the smoke alarm. Imagine the horrors if we did it and the alarm went off; DIE. Haha...

Rachel

Joel, Alex, Rach, YongYi

After that, I had dinner with my family at this seafood place in Tiong Bahru serving cold crab, something my Dad loves. We headed over to my Ah Ma's place after that and she gave me a HongBao for my birthday, as well as to my older brother even though his birthday's one month away. SO cute!

Oh, my Dad bought his necklace from HongKong for my birthday and he kept going on about how some Disney princess actually wore this in a movie. He was talking about this while we were on the way to dinner and nobody in the car could really get who he was talking about until we finally realised he meant Alice in Wonderland.

In his words, he said, "Do you know why I got you this necklace that the Disney princess wore? Because in our eyes, you're our princess". I don't know if my Dad said it merely in jest or not, but when he said those words, I honestly felt really, really touched! My Dad actually said that aloud. I don't care if he was teasing it, but that meant so much to me! :D I could really feel the love! And my Uncle in HongKong actually got me a present too!

When I got home, Kelvin called me at 11.45pm and he said, "Can you come out now?" At that moment, I seriously went what the heck because it was so late already, and guess what, he actually drove over to my house. Waa. So I went out to meet him looking my worse; spects, slippers, and PAJAMAS! He had actually made me a cheescake and according to him, it's his first time. He also stamped this code using Egyptian hieroglyphics that spelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARMAINE. I was really damn surprised.

21 Mar (Sunday)
I met my girlfriends for lunch at Aston's @Katong and although it was a brief session, I had fun talking to them. I guess even though we meet up really seldom, we're always able to pick up from where we left off the last time. And to me, that's the beauty of friendship. Not quantified by how often you meet, but by the depth of the bond that you share (:

22 Mar (Monday)
I had a project meeting in school till really late but it's cool that Alex is in the same group as me and since he stays in Tampines, at least I have company on the way home. Or else, emo! Haha! While he was sending me home, I don't know how but we brought up the topic on his personal life. It was really quite funny, because he didn't really know how to speak about it. We chatted till so late until I got home at freaking 1am plus. And the next day was my major presentation so I had to memorise my speech. I did so and guess what! I couldn't fall asleep.

Now that was just terrible. I was super wide awake even though I had to sleep badly and I finally could close my eyes at around 4am. HOW SAD IS THAT!

23 Mar (Tuesday)
BGS Presentation day. We had rehearsals at 9am in school so I had to wake up at 7am. Madness, to think I only slept 3 hours odd. And that very morning, the rain was coming down in sheets.

Very unfortunately, I got stuck between a door and my hand was struck so it hurts real bad (till today!). I was in a rush and forgot to bring my slippers so here I was, in my formal wear and heeled shoes, marching in the rain to head to go for a presentation. OOHH MYY GOOSHH. I felt so sad for myself, I must have been a dreadfully forlorn sight.

That said, the presentation didn't go excellent as planned because we tripped up on a point and the Prof marked us down severely for that. Morale low. That evening, I had my rehearsal for my LTB presentation the next day.

Prof, Eugene, Daniel, YongYi, Felicia, Yu En, Jamine, WanYin, ShunHong, Edwin

They actually surprised me with a very cute looking slice of tiramisu cake. I'm usually quite perceptive but that evening, I had no clue that they were gonna have a cake! It was so sweet of them. I totally appreciated it!

The entire team of eight of us camped in school till late to finalise everything and by the time we had our very first run-through, it was 10.30pm. Our teaching assistant shot us down very badly by the time we were done.

Uh-oh. A major revamp of the project was much needed. It was 11.10pm by then. I wanted to go home! So it was settled that I would help edit the slides, which means, no sleep. I was actually surviving that day on 3 hours of sleep the night before plus a presentation that didn't go too well that afternoon, imagine my energy level. Negative.

I took 36 to Marine Parade and then, while I was waiting for the other bus, I called home. Wrong move. My Mum answered and I asked her if she could fetch me home because I was really so tired. I knew she would say "no", yet I still called, and when I actually heard her say "no", I felt like crying. It just makes me sad everytime this happens.

I started to tear. I needed to talk to somebody, and I called Wee. And then, I started to cry. Haha, it's funny because I was crying and Wee didn't know. By the time he did, he honestly felt at such a loss. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I just needed somebody to talk to and I'm glad you were there.

It was awfully late by then so after catching the next bus which dropped me at some place a distance away from home, I walked home in heels. Waa, lang bei to the max. I was so, so, so goddamn freaking tired by then. Poor Wee had to hear me sniffling my whole way home. LOL. Sorry! ;p

Back home, it was 1am.

24 Mar (Wednesday)
I stayed up late to do up the slides for my project and finally got it done at 3am. By that time, I was so drained. Sleep hit me the moment I my head hit the pillow. But I got up early that morning to complete some assignments and all. And off to school I go.

I had a lesson before my presentation but I had to skip it midway because my presentation had caught fire already. But what do you know! My awesome team and I actually pulled it off and the presentation went really well despite it being so last minute! :D Yay.

Finally, things were looking up. I met Wee after my lesson ended and we took 12 from SMU all the way to Downtown East. Freaking 1.5 hours. Haha, sit and talk nonsense until tired man.

Just before I met Wee, Sean's girlfriend actually spoke to me! So exciting! Haha, first time I'm speaking to her. She could give me a lift to the chalet because Sean had invited her. However, she had a meeting and would only come later so I went off with Wee first. She has her own car! Omg, richness.

At the chalet at Aranda, I had a fabulous time. But of course, afterall, I never once felt bored in the company of 2E1. I swear they're awesome! Every Single One Of Them :D *LOVE!

It was actually a chalet that Willfred's parents booked and so they were there helping with the food. It's so nice! Very close knit affair. When I first stepped into the chalet, I was so surprised to see my students there, then I realised it was Lynn's classmates. Haha. Took me a moment to get it sorted out.

When I least expected it, they actually surprised me with an oreo cheescake. There's something about cheesecakes that make people tick! So many cheesecakes this birthday. As much as I've never been a huge fan, I'm beginning to learn to appreciate the yummy-ness of it! :D

And then, of course, there are the people who made that day just so very special!

Steven

Raymond

PangCheng

YuZhong

Girlfriend Xue, Sean

Wee

GuoSheng

SayKok

Willfred

And his Mummy!

Willfred's mum was so happening! Instead of cutting up a slice of cake for everyone, she suggested I handfeed all of them, one-by-one. It was so funny! The whole scene was just pure craziness, and coupled with the hilarious remarks made by everyone, it was DAMN MEMORABLE. I will never forget it.

And after the "feeding" session was done, there came the traditional smear cake on birthday girl time! Haha, I only have Ong Pang Cheng and Lee Guo Sheng to thankf or the cake the landed on my hair.