Of trains and watches

I turned a year older last thursday. There were many memorable moments. I thought I'll jot them down before they are all long forgotten.

1) So the big day started with a lunch celebration with my most favourite friend, Ann.


We have not caught up one-on-one for ages. Our catch up was way overdue. Our catch up took place in a relatively new established tucked away in an alleyway off Little Bourke Street, near Hardware Lane. She was my sugar mummy for the day as I forgot to bring my wallet out. She paid for my meal plus a glass of house white =)

I briefly looked at Ann's blog earlier today and clicked on her old archives (starting 2006). We were so young and carefree then. Trips to Victoria Market, GoldCoast, Vietnam, birthday celebrations and weddings. And then, there was my 21st celebration, followed by hers 8 months later. Oh my, how much have we grown!

Our amazing friendship commenced across the corridor where her room was located opposite mine. And then, our friendship blossomed over meals in the huge communal dining hall, walks to biology classes and on the basketball court in Carlton gardens. How I love the summer in Melbourne when the sun sets at 9 pm! Imagine if I stayed on a different level from her, I wouldnt have been as close to her as I am now. How different would life be! *shudder*

2) Just before dinner, I was lying on my bed surfing the web. My brother knocks on my room door, smiles sheepishly, pauses for a bit and said, "I got you a present!" I was pleasantly surprise because it was unexpected. He wrapped the gift up really neatly (in old newspaper). I didnt know that boy could wrap! I shook the box but failed to guess the contents. I unwrapped the present and a CK box was revealed. My first thoughts were, "perfume again?" as he got me a perfume for my birthday last year. He said, "Nope, its not a perfume." I opened the box and found a CK watch! At first glance, I loved the watch. The strap and face was completely silver and resembled a thick trendy arm bangle. Nice!

3) Half hour later, J came by to take me out for dinner. I spotted a forever friends paper bag in his hand. My first thoughts were, "Nooo..tell me its nott a soft toy." I have too many given to me already and I didn't really want another one in my room. Fortunately, he reassured me that it is not a soft toy. I was pretty curious as to what the present was. For the past couple of days, he has been telling me that he was worried I might not like the present and it is rather expensive, so he is hoping I'll like it. I reassured him that I'll like whatever he gets. Sooo, what is this present that he bought for me?

I asked him whether I could open the present then. He said that he thought of giving it to me over dinner. But after a while, he changed his mind and told me to open the present. I took the box out of the bag and saw the words written on it. "L-o-n...g-i-n-e-s..." I tried pronouncing the words. "Don't you know what that brand is?!?"

"Hm....not really," I answered.

"Are you serious? It's a really really expensive and established watch brand. The lady at the counter assured me that you will definitely know that brand..."

I thought, "Watch??? Another one???" The initial expression on my face registered surprise - like shocked-surprise rather than pleasant-surprise. Didn't I just receive another watch 30 minutes ago? It was way too coincidental! I never wear watches and suddenly I had two brand new ones in the span of 30 minutes.

J was upset because it was definitely not the reaction he was hoping. Everyone he met, including the girl he bought the 'forever friends' paper bag from, the guy who did the engraving behind the face of the watch, the lady who was lining up behind him when he did the engraving, all said, "Wow, Longines, she is gonna love it! She is so lucky"

And here I was, not knowing what sort of brand it was and with a new watch sitting on my left wrist. On hindsight, it was almost comical.

I felt pretty bad because I knew that he went through greath lengths to surprise me on my big day special.

Despite my unexpected initial reaction, I do love the watch and I think its absolutely exquisite. Here it is:



There are diamonds on the face of the watch

3) Half hour later, I got ready to head out for dinner. Before we headed out the door, J sighed and said, "Since the Longines watch strap has not been readjusted, you should wear your brother's watch." So, I grabbed the watch, ran out the door and into the elevator. I then put on the watch in the elevator. Guess what happened next? The lift hit the ground floor and we stepped out the lift. That was when we heard the loud CLANK. J said, "Your watch fell down the lift shaft!"

I said "No it didnt. It's still on m....Oops," as I pulled up my jacket sleeve to reveal my naked left wrist. We stared down the lift shaft, and there it was, shining back at us....many many many feet below....my 1 hour new watch! Die! Brother will hunt me down.

Sigh. Not my fault. What's the probability of me dropping an object down such a small confined gap!!!

4) Moving on. J planned a nice dinner for us which involved us dressing up pretty formally =) The destination was a surprise till the taxi driver said, "So, you guys are heading to the tram restaurant?" when J told him which road to drop us at. "Urgh," he cries. "All my surprises are not working out."

5) I was extremely excited that we were eating at the tram restaurant. Just a week before, I asked J whether he has tried the food there. He said no and I said no too but we should check it out one day. Although, the concept seems pretty gimicky, I heard the food was surprisingly good.

We were to board the tram outside Crown Complex. We were slightly early and had time to kill. I turned to him and said, "Nice tie. I really love the colours. J said, "Thanks. The florist thought so too!"

"Huh? What? Florist? What florist? You bought flowers?!?"

"Urgh....I'm so silly. Yes, it was meant to be another surprise but I blew it. Everything is not working out!" he sighs in dismay as his plans went awry.

6) The tram finally arrives. Away from the cold and into the toasty tram!




Definitely not your typical daily tram - No shriveled apple core rolling on the floor, no crushed Mcds paper bag stuffed between seats and no smelly body odors.





The food was definitely up to expectation. Didn't fail to impress at all. If you are a big drinker, you can definitely milk your money's worth as all alcohol on board is free flow.

Here's the menu for those who are interested:

Appetiser
Cream, liver and cognac pate crowned with pink peppercorns
Roasted red capsicum dip served with assorted crisp bread

Entrees
Grilled kangaroo loin brushed with lemon myrtle, thyme and honey, served on vegetable and chive frittata with bush tomato chilli jam
Winter warming soup jerasulem artichoke and potato soup topped with toasted sour dough gremolata

Mains
Macadamia chicken grilled chicken breast on sweet potato mash and baby spinach with a macadamia pesto sauce
Victorian farmed eye fillet of beef on a sweet potato and herb rosti, with seasonal vegetables and wild mushroom jus

Cheeses
Selection of australian cheeses served with pear paste, fruit bread and water crackers

Desserts
Warm Sticky Date Pudding topped with butterscotch sauce served with cream
white chocolate and passionfruit mousse with praline and vanilla raspberry coulis

Beverages
Wine Selected Victorian Red and White Wines
From the Bar Beer / Whisky / Brandy / Gin / Vodka / Bacardi Rum / Dry Vermouth / Bourbon
Coffee / Tea
Liqueurs Port / Cognac (v.s.o.p.) / Drambuie / Frangelico / Cointreau / Tia Maria


Butter in a traditional silver container. Made us feel like royalty =) My butter at home comes straight from a plastic container.


Grilled kangaroo loin


Potato Soup


Warm chocolate and passionfruit mousse


Variety of cheeses

7) After a hearty meal (we couldn't finish our meal but most other patrons looked like they licked their plates clean. How do they do it!), we cabbed back to the city. J presented me with a bouquet of tulips - yellow and purple. (I was surprise! Not. haha) My first ever bouquet from him. Absolutely lovely combination! He proudly admitted that he picked out the colours himself =) Mum loves the tulips more than I do. She now suggests that we should buy fresh tulips every single week as they brighten up the house and makes our home look neater. Flowers do make a difference!

8) I messaged R on gmail chat and said: "It's my birthday today. You forgot but i remembered yours yesterday =( Sing me a birthday song."

He promptly called back and said: But I remembered. I just didnt want to disturb you.

Me: Is that how you want to play it now? Ooo....I'll always remember that line...Sing a song or tell me a joke.

R: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to..whats-your-name-again....Now, thats a song and a joke.

haha...I got to give it to him. That's a good one =)

9) I hopped onto twitter and saw Kenneth's tweet that went "Today seems like a jaded day." I replied him and wrote "Today seems like my birth-day".

Kenneth is one of my most favourite friends in Melbourne. We have known each since we were 9 years old! He used to be this small. haha. (i should stop because he always threaten to tell horrible childhood stories about me to my new friends. About my geeky and tomboyish days) He took me out for Japanese yesterday at a restaurant located near my place and we proceeded to Bennett's Lane, a cozy jazz bar off Little Latrobe Street. We have both taken a liking to jazz music ever since we first patronised that establishment many years ago.

10) O, my other favourite-st friend, Wei Chee, sent over a lovely toga, off-white dress to me. It was absolutely lovely. Many of my clothes sitting in my wardrobe has been either bought or picked by her. We will walking in shopping malls when i go, "I'm tired. I want to sit down. Why don't you pick something for me and I'll just put it on." She loves to dress people up and I love her to dress me up. We make a perfect pair. Must I give you any other reason why we have been best friends since forever =)

11) The one and only Cheryl (whom I affectionately call Salad and also my other favourite-st friend. I can't help it if there's so many people in my top list) sent me a very very cute e-card. I loved it so much that I think I've viewed it 10 over times. I wish I could put it up here but unfortunately I cannot. Salad is someone whom I speak to practically every single day over msn chat and gmail chat. She is someone I rant to all the time from "I'm sad. I have problem a b c" to something random like "I'm eating chicken". During a particular school term break, we used to hang out almost everyday for an entire month. Its still a wonder that we didn't get sick of each other - from ice skating, playing playstation to sleepovers. Great fun!

13) The day before my birthday, Jesse and I were planning to have a game of tennis together. On the way there I said, "Hey, do you know its my birthday tomorrow?" I love seeing people's reactions when I tell them =)

Jesse: No, its not. Don't lie.

Me: Really it is.

Jesse: No, we celebrated it a few months ago

Me: No we didnt! It's in September

Our argument went back and forth for almost 5 minutes.

Finally, he believed me and said, he will treat me supper. The Chinese special combination fried rice was yummy! (why does every single Chinese restaurant name that dish "special" combination? Whats the logic behind it?)

14) Two days ago, Ives, Steve and Ann took Sue and I out for dinner to celebrate our birthdays at a Thai restaurant along Johnson Street (Sue's birthday is today). As a group, we have captured many happy memories before in that restaurant, including Ann's 20(?) birthday. That restaurant has pretty much witnessed our growing up.

15) I've deactivated my facebook a few weeks ago but I turned it back on two days before my birthday to check for a certain event invite. Subsequently, I thought I re-deactivated it but I guess not. A couple of days ago, I tried logging into my facebook and found my wall and inbox flooded with birthday. A big thank you to everyone. P/s: especially Wing yan who smsed me on my mobile and then wrote on my wall. I'm sorry, I have been procrastinating and kept forgetting to personally thank you. So, I'll do it here. THANK YOU =)

pps: We managed to retrieve the watch. Very fortunately, some guys were scheduled to do some lift maintenance work a few days after that incident. Otherwise, it will be 300 dollars just to retrieve the probably damaged watch. And also very fortunately, the watch seems to be in perfect condition. I'm still puzzled at this miraculous discovery. Oh well, I'm just counting my lucky stars =)

Despite many hiccups in J's surprise and the relatively small birthday celebration (as oppose to the huge costume party I threw last year), it was one of the best birthday celebrations ever =) Thank you everybody who made it special.