The Road to 40 Day 357/365: Friends Day Holiday

It was a holiday in Singapore, and we were all able to spend it with friends for pretty much the whole day.

Vino has been asking for a playdate with a couple of his friends throughout the week, as he wasn’t able to join them last week. Che and I thought we could drop him off to his friends house while we had a massage. Unfortunately, since one of them already hosted last week and the other one doesn’t have a helper yet, it appeared the venue of the playdate was going to be at our house.

We decided to drop our planned massage so that Vino could have something for himself this day.

The kids were playing with each other online until their moms told them that it was time to go here. When they got here, they at least found ways to entertain themselves apart from their tablets.

It’s tough to pull them off their tablets, which even both their parents acknowledge when they host the kids. I think it’s inevitable these days, no matter much parents try to avoid it.

The kids got picked up past 3pm as we also had to prepare to go to an early dinner with our old friends here.

We headed over to Orchard to meet Steph, James, Issa, JR, and Pablo. It’s been a while since we got together like this, and we tried to find time to meet before some of us travel next week.

The place was a bit small for our group of eight, so the tables were split into two. We let the girls sit together with James while JR and I sat with the boys so we could make sure that they ate.

The menu was mostly tempura, and while we were a bit worried about what the boys would eat, they were able to enjoy the shrimp and the crab legs. Meanwhile, the dads happily munched on the vegetable tempura.

After dinner, we went to look for a dessert place in the same area. We had some cake and tea, and suddenly, there was a cake with a candle. They started singing “happy birthday” and I frantically tried to figure out who we were singing it for. I was even clapping together with them when they started singing.

It was then that I realized that it was May 1st, and it was my birthday month. Since we weren’t going to be able to celebrate together next week, they decided to just celebrate it early.

I’m not a good surprise-getter, so I’m not sure how my reaction came off, but I was genuinely happy about the gesture. It’s nice to remember the feeling of receiving something with nothing expected in return.

Awesome way to kick off the birthday month!