May has always been an exciting month for me. First of all, it’s my birthday month. Second, it is just one month before my holiday break. Thirdly, it is the start of the second quarter of the year. A quarter of the year has passed and I’ve survived.
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Birthdays are important.
This marks my 32nd birthday and I felt eternally thankful that I’ve been healthy and blessed all these years. I wasn’t big about birthdays in the past. But in recent years, I am slowly beginning to see why birthdays are worth celebrating. It is as a special day which marks your existence on earth. Being able to celebrate your birthday with your loved ones is also a blessing in itself. We have indeed lived and survived this long on earth in order to make it pass to our next birthday, year after year.
Celebrating my birthday virtually
4 May marks the start of my 32nd year living on this earth and it’s almost like the start of a new year for me. This year is especially memorable because I celebrated my birthday virtually with my loved ones due to the current COVID-19 situation. Singapore is not in a full lockdown situation but with the circuit breaker measures put in place, we are all advised to stay home and only go out for groceries or exercise.
My fiancé and I initially thought we could gather on this special day (since it was also our 5th anniversary together) at my place to celebrate. But with the extension of the circuit breaker, we decided to abide by the rules and regulations. Call us law-abiding citizens but I guess this is the least we can do. Besides, it’s not that bad staying at home when we have a rooftop over our heads and I can still communicate virtually with my family and friends.
The surprise came a day earlier!
Packages of joy started streaming in since Sunday on 3rd May. My Junior College pals ordered some cakes, coffee and a croissant for me. They were all delivered right to my doorstep and I totally did not expect that. After receiving the food delivery, I decided to give them a call and we even catch up for a while on Zoom before singing virtual karaoke together.
I would have very much preferred to meet my friends in person for a meal but this little surprise from them would suffice too. At the end of the day, it is the thought that counts. Everything else doesn’t matter!
They bought these cakes and coffee from this small cafe called Good Coffee Please. It is situated at Ng Teng Fong Hospital.
This Karaoke App really rocks!
After the Zoom session, we sang our hearts out during the karaoke session. This Chinese karaoke app was introduced by Eunice and Vanessa. It’s called Quan Min Party or 全民Party, a mobile app which allows you to sing karaoke virtually with your friends. There are even singing challenges where you battle out with other online participants.
With this app, you can set up a virtual karaoke room where you can invite your friends to join in and sing. Then select a song which you would like to sing and just take it away! You don’t need a handheld microphone for this because you can sing using your earbuds or earphones as long as it is equipped with a microphone.
The song quality is pretty good and it was fun hearing my friend’s singing via the app. I think the novelty of singing virtual karaoke probably would not wear off so quickly especially when many countries are still practising social distancing. Anyway, this popular app is ranked No.2 on the iTunes store under the Entertainment category. If you have not tried this app before, you should totally give it a try! But it might be an issue if you can’t read mandarin words. I studied Chinese before but it took me a while to read and process the language as I’ve not been studying Chinese for many years!
Birthday Lunch Treat by Wynne
My dear friend Wynne surprises me with a healthy bento lunch from Grain, a food catering company that provides wholesome meals. They do home island-wide deliveries too and I enjoyed their healthy meal sets. Wynne got me the combo bento set which comprises of their Basil Thunder Tea rice and Grilled Farm Fresh Chicken.
I guess you could say that both my meals for that day is settled – Thunder Tea rice for lunch and Grilled Farm Fresh Chicken for dinner.
Grain’s food tasted amazing. I enjoy their version of Basil Thunder Tea Rice which is a modern healthy take of the traditional Hakka dish. It’s not your typical Thunder Tea Rice but it still tastes lovely anyway. The ingredients used are so fresh, healthy and tasty. I convinced that I should hire them to cater meals for any of my future events, parties or gatherings.
The delivery guy who sang me a birthday song
“On behalf of Wynne, could I sing you a birthday song?”
I also almost forgotten to mention about their staff called Hairul who delivered the meals over. He took the initiative to sing me a birthday song at the corridor. It was a little awkward because I wasn’t expecting that and Wynne did not request them to sing me a song. But it was a nice gesture from Grain to make someone’s day special. It did really perk me up! Kudos to Grain and Hairul
I wish I had filmed him singing because it isn’t an everyday thing for a delivery guy to sing the receivers a birthday song!
My Bae bought me Bubble Milk Tea Cake
Since 4 May was a workday for me, I still had to sit through meetings and do some work. The cake delivery man rang the doorbell when I was having a phone conversation with my boss. Thankfully, I was able to excuse myself and answer the door.
I sort of knew that it would be a birthday cake. Sam revealed that he ordered a cake from Shopee by a slip of the tongue. But I did not know that he would buy me a bubble milk tea cake. I used to be a fan of bubble milk tea but now, not anymore.
Anyway, it was a lovely gesture from him. He sang me a birthday song over a WhatsApp call. The cake was from Gin Thye, an Asian bakery that sells several interesting cakes on Shopee. They forget to pack candles but thankfully, I saved the birthday candle from the previous birthday delivery by Vanessa and Eunice.
How the Bubble Milk Tea cake taste like?
It’s a very light creamy chiffon cake which is heavily coated with a thick layer of milk tea-flavoured whipped cream. The bobas sitting on top of the cream layer do not taste like the actual chewy boba. They tasted more like jellies to me and I don’t think they are made up of tapioca starch. They are suppose to embedded some bobas in the cake layer but I found none.
Over all, it was very creamy but not too overly sweet. I am not sure if they really use pure milk tea to make the whip cream or they added milk tea-flavoured essence in it. Nonetheless, it is pretty average tasting. It would have been nicer if they use actual bobas and reduce the amount of cream used.
Check out how thick the cream layer is! It’s as if you’re eating slice of cream cake. The ratio of sponge cake layer to cream frosting is like 1 is to 4.
Nonetheless, I still managed to celebrate my birthday at home during this circuit breaker with some virtual company. I guess I can’t complain because I get to enjoy a good meal and have some cake. Staying home isn’t ideal but it isn’t all that bad either. At least, we are staying at home and somewhere unsafe.
Happy Birthday to me! Praying that more people will get saved in the name of Christ and hoping for a brighter future despite the current situation.
