Chili's for birthday.

Yeah, chocolate-flavoured snot. Thanks, Pei Hau.

Anyway, last Saturday was my birthday. Now, I didn't want to do anything fancy this year, but then Priya called, saying she wanted an outing. Have to please a friend, no?

So fast forward a few days later, me sitting in a Starbucks outlet at the Gardens at five in the evening...


...with Philbert and his gorgeous new MacBook. I feel outdated already.




Now, being anal and suffering from a severe form of OCD, Philbert is very, very protective about his 'Book. Nevertheless I managed to have a go.


Soon, Starbucks turned into an impromptu studio. I whipped out my tripod and we started shooting, experimenting various techniques. Admittedly, however, they were mostly rubbish.



Eventually we got bored of taking pictures. So we went back to the Boulevard. And took some more pictures.




While I was busy taking pictures, Philbert caught a glimpse of Priya. So we decided to surprise her with our camera flashes. She was clearly not happy.



After a bit of a telling off, we were ushered into Chili's to meet up with the rest - Asmath, Beth, Brigette, Pei Hau, Choo Xiang, Suwarna, Amelia, Michelle and Ayesha.





The food was fantastic. Nachos for the appetiser, chicken quesadilla for the main course...

... and guess what we had for dessert.


Yup. A giganormous piece of Secret Recipe chocolatey goodness, brought out by some waiters singing "Happy Birthday". Which turned out to be kinda funny, because minutes later they carried another birthday cake to a girl sitting on the opposite table. Okay...



Needless to say, not a lot of the cake ended up in my mouth. Ayesha smothered my face with chocolate and, just as I've washed my face and was about to tuck in, Pei Hau did the inevitable.

Oh, and if you were looking for any photos of that particular moment, tough luck. Camera was with me. Sorry.

Cakeface shenanigans aside, the rest of the evening turned out to be rather enjoyable. Chit-chatting, gossiping and much joking. Most of them aimed at Priya.




After a while the bill came. And what a bill it was. We somehow managed to sink ourselves into a RM250 hole. Luckily, there were eleven of us (Choo Xiang left early), so it was considerably easier to swallow.

Just before we left, a woman came up to us. Uh oh. We thought we were in trouble. That we've made so much noise that we were going to be given the single biggest telling off in the history of mankind.

And you know what she said?

"This is what Malaysia should be. I love watching you guys. Remember that, after 20 years, we are still Malaysians."

What a nice lady.

P.S. Thanks Priya. Without you I wouldn't have that much fun on my birthday.