Dear's birthday

Expected dear to be quite contented with the weekend programs, so she probably won't expect anything more on her birthday. Planned to give her another pleasant surprise by cooking for her on her birthday itself.

Since we had enjoyed the “Traditional English Fish & Chips” so much at the hotel, I decided to remake it for her. (though definitely will not be as good as the hotel standard). I wanted to make everything by myself.

Went to the supermarket the night before her birthday to buy the ingredients. White snapper fish, cabbage, potato chips, tartar sauce, lemon, chicken wings, baking powder, coleslaw dressing, milk. (now I think it costs more to make our own meal…)

Went back home and started immediately on the preparation of the coleslaw. The first attempt ended up a large bowl of coleslaw which was not even close to what I thought it was supposed to be. All of us were used to seeing coleslaw with some whitish dressing. But the recipe indicated that I should use vinegar as the dressing. I did. And I got a big bowl of edible but overly sour coleslaw. I was quite skeptical about using that coleslaw, so in the end I stayed up to make another bowl (a much smaller one this time) of coleslaw, finally using the coleslaw dressing I bought (cheat!)

The next day I rushed home after knocking off to make the final preparations for the meal. Made the fish batter, ate a light hurried dinner at home, before borrowing the van from dad to travel back to hall. (initial plan was to go back by bus cos dad needs to go out, but luckily bro lent dad his car, so I could save loads of time by driving)

Decided to make this surprise a more power one, so I went to buy a slice of cake (chocolate of a thousand leaves) from the Coffee Bean at Tampines. (getting a full-sized cake is pointless, not yummy and we can’t finish so much food). Wanted to get a bouquet of roses there too, but was shocked to find that the florist had closed down. Eventually I had to travel to JP to get the roses, as well as a cup of Ultimate Iced Mocha (our fave!) It was pretty embarrassing to get seen running around in the mall with a bouquet of roses in my hands….

Dear got a surprise when I went into her room with all the barang barang I brought along. Soon we got started on our “happiest ever fish n chips”. (sorry I can't provide the photos here, cannot load anything from the office). The cooking was pretty fun too. Though could had been better with better cooking utensils.

Finally settled down on dinner with the cake looking filmsy with a candle on top. Sang her a 2nd birthday song of the day (her 1st was at 12am sharp in the early morning over the phone)

The dinner was pretty nice, just that the food had cooled down a bit (can’t cook everything at one go with limited utensils!). Fried fish, home-made coleslaw, baked beans, potato chips, oven-baked chicken wings, home-made iced lemon tea, coffee and cake from Coffee Bean.

Hope that she really had an unforgettable and enjoyable birthday. Love you dear!