Hawaii 5-O Here I Come And Hawaii 13 Here I Go

On 3 Mar 06, 3 days before my actual birthday, BAGUS celebrated my 50th birthday for me. (BAGUS is an acronym for our informal lunch group of colleagues. It stands for Blitheness Always Gets Us Satisfied, a term coined by the ever creative VT who is of course a member of BAGUS. The other 4 members are JO, MJM, Chris and yours truly.) But today we had a gatecrasher distinguished paying guest – OKD.

Going Hawaii 5-O is a nice euphemism which I coined for people turning 50. People turning 50 would be familiar with the popular TV series in the 1960/70s of the same name. Last year I used the term against VT. This year, the term came around and hit me like a boomerang and like a ton of bricks too. Crossing 50 is a significant event and a major hurdle in anyone's life. Hawaii 13 is another term which I coined for the new section that I just joined. My colleagues will know what I am talking about. So I take it that this lunch was sort of a double celebration for both occasions. However, I was not so sure if Hawaii 13 was worth more celebration than Hawaii 5-0. In any case, if someone celebrated when you left the section, you would know that you were probably not very well-liked.

Aw, they were all so awfully sweet. They presented me a birthday card which Chris obviously spent a lot of time hunting around for. Because it was extremely appropriate for me. Just look at the words. Weren't all those things what Chris used to do unto me on normal days without batting an eyelid? And I was born in the Year of the Monkey too. Not only that, I also liked to monkey around.

After presenting me the card, they gave me a miniature cake of, you guessed it, a monkey face. They put one candle on it because that was all the space it had, and proceeded to sing me a Happy Birthday song.

To top it all, they insisted on buying me an elaborate lunch at Manhill Restaurant despite me saying that there was no need to make a Manhill out of a molehill. Frankly speaking, having a birthday is no big deal and I would still be more than happy to have an ordinary treat at a hawker centre or coffeeshop. After all, it's the company that mattered most and I must add that BAGUS and OKD had always been great company that I enjoyed regardless of the occasion.

The lunch started with a cold dish (yes, the same kind served at wedding dinners!). Then we had (not in order) the pork rib king (排骨王), paper-wrapped chicken (纸包鸡), fried king prawns, apple soup, stir fried vegetables, long-life noodles (长寿面, a must have for birthday celebrations). The piece de resistance was certainly the braised whole duck with sea cucumber (海参鸭). And to end it all, we had longan almond bean curb curd (龙眼杏仁豆腐). Now if you had been counting, that was a nine-course lunch with a nine-course bill to match too. The damage came up to more than $200! This amount was by far a record sum spent on a lunch by BAGUS. I felt really pampered like a king (no wonder so many dish names had 'king' in them). At the same time, I felt very paiseh that BAGUS members and OKD had to fork out so much to buy me lunch. However, they assured me that it was alright and if I wanted to feel better, all I had to do was to blog about the lunch. That's why this post was written. Now I know why Chris says that blogging is therapeutic and why they say that nothing is for free. Despite all that, I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to BAGUS and OKD from the bottom of my stomach heart.