To Janet: A Walking Miracle and 1 Super HOT 41 year old.

Today is the1st day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri and the 41st birthday of my bestfriend Janet. That’s right she’s 41 and still a hottie! Somehow, both Janet and I ended up celebrating Raya differently this year - we did not go to any open houses. Instead, Fred and I opened our house to Janet's birthday, which to all of us is better than going out.

Janet said something to me the other day in preparing for her soiree: No problem announcing the age number. We should be more grateful the bigger the number, right??

I agree with her. There are so many people out there who are still adamant in keeping their age a secret fearing the worse if their real age is known. What is the big deal? We should be proud that we’ve been around longer than people think. It’s a compliment if others think of us as looking younger than our years. We should be fortunate for every day that we are able to experience life

In 2005, Janet, Rosie, and I found ourselves to be single at the same time and flew off to Bangkok on Valentine's Day. Instead of moping around KK gawking at the celebration of the over commercialised non-holiday, we took another single friend (Winifred) and had a fantastic time absorbing another culture, language, food and great shopping experience. It was a blast.

The following year, Janet served as the Area Chairman for JCI Malaysia and together we continued to travel nationally and internationally meeting JCI members and other people outside of the JCI circles.

In Labuan (June, 2006) where Janet chaired the JCI Malaysia Area Sabah Convention

In Manila (Philippines) in August 2006, where we attended the ASEAN Senate Association BOD Meeting

Fast forward to the end of September 2008, Teresa, Rosie and I made plans for a get together to celebrate Janet’s birthday and decided to go ahead with Rosie’s idea of having a Sex and The City Marathon (Part 2) at our house, followed by a cosy dinner for us at our back porch.

I invited Nora to our party via sms. She only read the Sex Marathon part. She must have freaked out thinking that our group has really gone off track this time. Anyhow, she had to go “balik kampung” for the holidays. So final turn out for the Marathon were Rosie, Linda, Janet, and myself; Teresa & Mum joined later as they had a wedding to attend.

We had every reason to celebrate Janet’s party with her this year. In the past, we never really did party but this year was significant. After all the challenges that she's battled through, she is indeed our walking miracle who continue to surprise and inspire us every single day. While I let off steam by swearing, shouting and now blogging, Janet on the other hand when angered just says "unnecessary stress" and move on.

Now, let the party begin. We’re such horrible friends that we got Janet to bring wine to her own party! I broke off my affair with alcohol years back (sigh) so had to be contented with Sparkling Juice with compliments from Fred.

We sort of wanted to do pot luck - everyone had to contribute something. So my contribution were:

Janet, wow... she cooked Chicken soup (though we did come to a dilemma of when to actually put in the chicken stock cube - is it before the soup boils, or once the soup is boiling hot and cooked. Rosie said the former.) Besides cooking, Janet also ordered Sushi for us. That's Rosie and Linda down there admiring the sushi.




As for Rosie and Linda. Oh yes, they brought along with them dessert and vegetables to go in line with our healthy eating theme. The honeydew and coconut pudding were so refreshing after a heavy meal.

Being the undomestic goddesses that we were - we ended up cooking too much food for our little party! By the way, Teresa and mum did bring along dessert in form of ice-cream as well. BUT, they melted so we couldn't eat them straight away. Into my freezer they go (yeahhh .... free ice cream for next time!)
After munching down as much food as we could, it was finally time to eat the cake - Oreo Cheesecake. YUM.
Looking back at the video recorded of the party, I think we sounded and looked like the outcast of Akademi Fantasia doing their best to sing a birthday song for Janet. Even though we knew we've had enough food already, the cake was just too tempting to be left alone. Our cameraman decided to play creative director for this video clip.

Birthday Cake Cutting.

While Janet and Teresa were slaving away in the kitchen washing dishes, Rosie, Linda and I got her presents ready. Can't wait, can't wait for her to open her presents!

Finally, here's a run down of what we got for her:


Then Janet - ever the sweetheart, sprung a surprise on us. She bought us silk purses from Vietnam!

To Janet: We hope you enjoyed your many surprises at your birthday as much as we love the surprise you gave to us. Here's to many more birthday celebrations big and small in the future. May God bless you always.

Cheers 'Net!