Blessed Birthday

/ / m a i n / /

hello!! 

as the giveaway title says, i'll be sharing about my birthday celebrations this year:)

its a simple affair this year.

i had lunch with the extended family in malaysia the day before my birthday, and it was nice just to bask in the company of loved ones.

whereas for the actual day, D actually 'booked' me the whole day haha, but i didn't know there were surprises in store for me :')

took this shot before i left the house!

if you haven't read about my hair transformation, its a few posts back!

i'm loving the blonde change;) 

so the day started out with D coming to my house in the morning to fetch me!

he didn't tell me anything about the plans for the day so i was honestly clueless about what was going on the whole day haha.

and throughout the whole bus ride he kept casually saying "i don't know where we're going actually! i should probably check which stop we are gonna alight at!"

and i actually believed him haha.

but its okay i was chill about it! we were just talking and being silly on the bus as usual hehe.
(he koped my sunglasses which i use for otds haha)

so we took a nice walk around clarke quay area, while he was "searching for the place we were supposed to go to".

i was quite shocked that he was so enthu to take my otd for me that day!

turns out he was stalling for time because he planned a surprise brunch date with my close friends but they were late haha (whats new eh lolol)

luckily the weather wasn't too hot that day cos we had to walk around for ages!

and we took this series of shots in under 5 minutes!

i'm so happy with this series of shots, so high fashion hehe. 

my top is from supergurl, skirt from stradivarius and sunnies from F21.

initially i thought he was just bringing me to a cafe for brunch.

then when we reached the cafe (a super dope mexican one btw!) i said "table for two please!" and then he said "table for 6", thats when i found out we had company hahaha.

and then when i tried to probe about who the invited guests were, he told me nonsense like "maybe its your parents! or my parents!" which i laughed so hard at cos its so hilariously absurb hahaha.

and after like 15 minutes the rest finally turned up!

i wouldn't say i was surprised cos i knew it was them more or less, but i was touched la :')

especially tiah who had to rush from ntu and of course also the rest who kept their busy schedules free for this surprise :)

thank you guys i love yall!! 

and so here's an attempted artsy shot of the menu, which had a mexican twist on the usual brunch variations like eggs benny:)

did i mention that the cafe interior (and exterior actually!) is so so gorgeous?

its really colourful and vibrant, very mexican-ish if i would say so myself haha!

our brunch fare took fairly quick to arrive!

we got the pulled pork eggs benny, banana crepe, big breakfast and some salmon and corn dish. (sorry for the not professional terms haha i'm not a food blogger!)

this was actually my fav!

its kinda like smoked salmon hash, but the hash is replaced by a corn pancake.

paired with the poached egg, this dish is really not bad!

an interesting take on the classic hash i would say :)

the banana crepe was not too bad, but not astounding. 

i liked the sweet maple sauce, crunchy nuts and finely milled spices, which lended a unique flavour to the otherwise normal crepe.

the big breakfast was the least popular dish of the day haha.

it felt like just a random mash up of the individual items, like sunny side up, avocado on toast, some pulled pork and black beans just plated nicely thats all.

the pulled pork eggs benny on the otherhand, was the most popular dish and it was not bad!

even demanding tiah approves haha, or so she says is "not bad", which in normal people's tastebuds would be equals to "quite good!" hahaha.

oh yes, i ordered the strawberry cucumber cooler as well, which was very refreshing and light, i loved it!

this bunch of lovely people treated shijie and i as we were the october babies.

thank you so much once again!!

may our #armystories gang stay tight knit in years to come :)

individual photos with my dear friends.

my fav demanding tiah hahaha.

fellow october baby/nicest guy in the world shijie!

nikks, my cafehopping/shopping/girly talk/ nus effective reasoning module buddy HAHA

(and also cheryl who isn't pictured here cos i didn't manage to get a picture with her omg.

but yay to new friends who are uber nice and sweet!!)

shijie helped us take the photos and we made us NG so many times!!

and we looked fat in so many of the photos lolol bad photographer shijie hahaha.

one of the epic moments of the day was when tiah presented the birthday cards to shijie and i.

i mean, she basically gave us the card and photos separately and said "nah, diy card. please paste the photos yourself" LOLOL.

#onlytiah #whatwouldidowithoutyou 

we ordered churros for dessert and it came with a caramel dip!

i felt that the churros weren't that up to standard, i would have liked it to be a tad bit chewier haha.

but anyways the churros turned out to be an impromptu cake for shijie and i!

so this is us unglamly blowing out the candles hehe!

favourite group photo of the day!!

see what i mean by the cafe is pretty E V E R Y W H E R E?! -heart eyes-

i'm not exaggerating when i say that i really love the decor of this place!

it feels like i've been transported to mexico temporarily.

this set of photos is love as well!!

please don't judge us haha i have no idea what we were doing!

 it was a 'in the heat of the moment' kinda thing!

my two bbs hehe.

after the brunch celebration, D picked me up at clarke quay again!

he didn't stay with us for brunch, so while i was having brunch i texted him to remind him to have lunch and asked what he was doing, and he told me he went home to change.

so i was like, why he so weird specially take a 1 hour plus ride home to change lol!!

but turns out...he went home, but not to his home but mine, to prep my room with flowers, a handmade present and cake etc! 

this i definitely did not expect, it was probably the only 'passed' surprise that i really didn't suspect at all hehe.

but really, i was very touched!!

from the planning (cos he isn't the type to plan fanciful birthday celebrations, but still put in the most effort in history to plan elaborate surprises for me), to the handmade gift, which i call "our book".

i gave it to him for his birthday and it documented my feelings about our times together, from the day we first met.

and now he continued writing in this book from his perspective and it was a beautiful gift :')

simply because he really isn't the type to write stuff at all, and to write so many diary entries for me, its beyond heartfelt. 

i know its cheesy but i don't think i'll ever meet another boy like him.

unglam but happy gif of D and i :)))

blessed to be embraced by so much love.

its been a month since my birthday and i still feel immensely happy whenever i think of the events of the day.

before ending off, i'd like to share some news i've been really excited to share with you guys!!

i'm officially.... a Zalora brand ambassador!:)))

i've been working with zalora the past few months and its been nothing but a pleasure:)

even before zalora contacted me for a collaboration, i've been an avid shopper at zalora!

i've shopped at their physical store when they had a pop up store at ion, and of course i've been shopping with them online as well.

zalora to me, is like the asos of singapore, i'm not kidding!

what i love about zalora is its huge variety of brands (some overseas some local), but most of all i love zalora because they have discounts ALL THE TIME and its so easy to get good steals!!

for example as i'm typing this now, zalora is having a Black Friday sales which you should definitely check out cos i spotted so many good deals already!

and on top of that, as a new zalora brand ambassador, i'm sharing with you guys my exclusive code which you can use to get 15% off your purchases at zalora!:)

"ZBAPQF9W" << simply key this in at the checkout page!

so go on now, hop over to zalora's page for some retail therapy;)

and thank you guys for reading my humble space here.

i'm so thankful for all of you as well!!

till the next;

xoxo