Turned Twenty Six

"You don't laugh first-lar. 

Let me sing until finish first"

Mom

This year, sakura came earlier than predicted and it was just a few days before my birthday.

That was what my Mom said to me when I called her on midnight of my birthday. As she answered the call, the first thing she did was to sing the birthday song to me. As I was laughing, she told me not to laugh 'coz she wanna finish off the song *awwww*

That is why she is the best Mom in this whole universe. I guess not many people can claim that they had their Mom singing them a birthday song, even though they are already reached more than a-quarter-century old.

 Anyone does not know this rabbit from Line? WinD says it looks exactly like me =.=

 My birthday present from Mr Santa, which I found it on my bed on the morning of my birthday.

 A pair of blue slacks and white belt from American Eagles!

A week towards my birthday, I was actually emoing 'coz the weather forecast predicted weather to be bad over the weekend. It is not often to have your birthday fall on weekends; so to find out that the weather is gonna spoil the party is not great at all. It was predicted that there would be big storm, strong winds and the most rainfall of the year on Sunday, on which my birthday fall. So anticlimax, right?

So, I started praying to all the Gods available. That is one thing amazing about being a Malaysian 'coz the number of Gods around you are just aplenty. I just prayed and hope miracle will happen to the weather to whatever God I managed to think of lol! 

  Lunch was at Cafè La Bohème, an Italian restaurant in Shibuya.

 This Italian restaurant is renowned for producing unique decors and not skimping on the experience.

Italian lunch!

 Lunch set comes with a decent sized salad of the day.

  As well as a bowl of soup.

 Here comes the main - Melanzane (tomato and eggplant) pasta. I later requested the waiter to grate some fresh Parmesan cheese onto it.

  And two scopes of vanilla and chocolate ice cream for dessert.

Back to my mission to save the bad weather from happening on my birthday. Well, it is not often that the weather forecast here in Japan gets their prediction totally wrong. It happens, but rarely; maybe once in every few months. However, I mentioned that I prayed to all the Gods available, right? 

And guess what? It worked!!!

Yoyogi Park, on a beautiful Sunday.

The water features in the park is back, indicating the end of winter and spring is here.

Sakura came and gone, and the shots are sprouting out from the sakura trees.

Some primitive kids playing with water on the pond lol! Anyway, did you spot the mini rainbow next to the fountain?

Picnic, dating, camping, napping, etc. It was just a perfect day for anything at the park.

This is my first time spotting this place, which is the playground for doggies.

They are divided into two area, one for small and medium dogs, which the other for huge dogs.

Pine trees spotted in Yoyogi Park!

Yoyogi Park was so packed; it easily outnumbered the people in Shibuya. What I noticed was there were more foreigners than the Japanese there. There was one group, whom I have no idea where they came from. That huge group had almost a couple of hundred of people gathering together and had picnic, played with their musical instrument and danced. The atmosphere at the park was simply amazing.

Anyway, this is my second straight year spending my birthday at Yoyogi Park. Last year, it was during the hanami event by MSAJ. But I guess it was still better than a couple of years ago. Back then, I spent my birthday at the mangrove forest in Matang lol! 

After the short stroll at the park, the next stop was for some tea-time dessert at Nakameguro. Yup, the spot where I went to see the night sakura a couple of weeks earlier. The stop was Patisserie Potager, a unique pastry shop which specialises in vegetable-based sweets and desserts. Among their popular tempting creations are avocado cheesecake, buckwheat chai mousse, arugula jelly with black-sesame and soy-milk mousse, and daikon (radish) and yuzu mousse wrapped in chocolate. 

There is a twenty-seat open-air terrace cafe in front of the shop where you can relax with a cup of tea or coffee along with your sweets.

Carrot choco flan (shortcrust pastry), the most popular menu.

Short stroll along Meguro River after tea time. The sakura trees are now green.

Dinner was at Gyukaku, which specialises in Japanese BBQ dining.

Guess what? There is a branch in One Utama as well!

Different kinds of meat, including the cow's tongue on the left.

Ice cream puff and pineapple juice to wrap off the wonderful dinner.

As you can see, my birthday was all about eating non-stop haha! Again, there goes my diet plan. But never mind. Diet starts tomorrow lol!

Lastly, a big thank you to everyone who sent me messages everywhere - Facebook, Skype, Line, Whatsapps, iPhone, etc. There were more than 100 messages in Facebook alone. Yes, that is when the time of the year when your Facebook Wall get conteng-ed like nobody's business. You will never get that on other time, not even the New Year or Christmas or even CNY. And guess what, I just remember that I still have not replied my birthday messages for last year's part haha! I am wondering, would you guys mind if I do it together with this years' messages haha!

Screen shots of the messages from Facebook.

From the many wishes, I reliased they gave me quite a number of nicknames - elephant, giraffe, big bird, cookie monster, monkey, panjang, si tinggi, dino, senpai haha! By the way, the best wish of the year goes to ... my junior HY a.k.a siao kia with the message ""hey old friend!! haPPy bIRthDAy ya!! big big liao ya! dont prank ppl on 1st april anymore ya! LOL"

Anyway, my birthday wish is very simple. Next year, instead of sending me more than a hundred messages, why not you guys turn them into a dollar note instead. I'll turn a year older, a hundred doller richer, it makes me happy, it makes you happy, and the whole world will be happy.

Simple, isn't it?