Happy Birthday, ME!

hmmm...can't seem to count the candles. Is it three or four?

Today marks the end of my first quarter of a century life (not that I plan to live to a hundred, but let's just round it up) as I move on to the next age box, closer to the big three-O. There's so much to reflect back on in the past twenty five years. I've been trying to run through every experience I can remember from my childhood years, past teenage right up to young adulthood. You know how your memory has the uncanny ability to store images and feelings from certain events in your life no matter how recent or antique they are? How you can be transported back to that exact time and place, feel and smell the atmosphere, see the people, hear the sounds and be the way you were twenty years ago?

So much has gone into making me who I am today...all that I've been taught, all that I've learned and adopted and practised and was influenced by and the physical, mental and spiritual growth from a baby to a young lady. The next quarter is gonna hold lots of ups as well as downs. The excitement comes with the uncertain yet you can't escape or hideaway from fear of the unwanted - demise of loved ones and abrupt changes that would impact your life overnight because of the knowledge that the years are going by really quickly. I want to be sincerely happy, looking forward to what's in store for the days to come yet I'm fully aware that time is running out and you don't want to be forty looking back at absolutely nothing in your life.

Memories rock! Our natural internal storage system, aka the brain, saves all these lifechanging moments that only you can retrieve and view. No camera or recording device could ever capture it all entirely and exactly. Thank God for memories...for the good and also the bad, as you've got to have both to balance out things and bring meaning to one's life journey so far.

If I was asked, I'd say I've been really blessed from the day I was born and having 'survived' till the age of twenty five. You may think it's normal to be alive and kicking at such a young age but many children out there never live to see their thirteenth birthday. Life is tough, very tough. Life is precious, very precious. I may not have prosperous wealth in my life but I indeed am rich in blessings. Turning twenty six, with so much more to look forward to (a change of job, embracing a new living environment, dating?, possible marriage? motherhood?)...all these can/ will happen in the course of the next quarter. Scary? Very! Exciting? Most certainly! And with God's watchful eye on me, I am gonna hop on the next rollercoaster ride now, buckle my seat belt and hold on tightly with my eyes wide open. Laughter, tears, screams, joy, fear, panic, surprise, shock and all the other emotions that will come along this journey, I'm prepared to go on my next adventure now. :D

(pictures from today which turned out to be one my absolute worst day at work with my boss screaming her head off, non-stop work from 9 to 8 and me trying to bring out the bionicwoman super multi-tasking powers in me! Gosh! Horrifying day. Yet, I didn't allow all that to affect my happy birthday mood though. heh!)


delivery for Ms. Twenty Six?


I chose a chocolate cake but they got me a...erm...mango cake anybody? :P (bleh!)


I forgot to make a wish. Right after this picture was taken, my boss was screaming for me, so I blew the candles, cut the cake and ran out.


what I was looking forward to the ENTIRE day - dinner! Grilled salmon with mushrooms, brocolli, purple cabbage and white wine - the diet of a 26 year old single female. haha!


the open-market concept

Thanks to Liz and Mel for being my birthday dinner mates tonight. ;)