other than the fact that i'm nursing an aching right arm that has been put to work all morning grating carrots and radishes to make enough yusheng for twenty-four, it was a good day, for today i had my all-girls birthday tea! cindy came back from malaysia in time to join us (bringing scandalous news about su-lin and a boy in shanghai) and our very dao ms chen xinyi shang lian-ed for a change, and of course the usual gang, poach, addy, yen and su-lin, did not abandon me! we were given the run of the punggol flat, which everyone agreed was a really nice apartment (contactless card lobbies! octogonal arrangment on each floor! it's hard to keep reminding ourselves this was a hdb flat - cindy to poach: let's buy a flat in the northeast!) although i was upset about not having time to prepare proper finger food, everybody brought something, and we ended up with more than enough: two kinds of swiss rolls, chips and salsa, heart-shaped mini pandan chiffon cakes with kaya in the centre, bakery-style sausage buns, homemade futomaki, chocolate wafers, various kinds of calbee crackers and kachang puteh, donuts (special request of su-lin), timtam biscuits (hey!) and ham sandwiches (i am told my pa came into the kitchen when su-lin was making them and said, "it's good you're making them because it's something minzhi is not good at." (!!) it's not as if she's making souffle!!!! my own father too. *downcast*) and addy brought a bottle of chardonnay. we also had green tea and angmoh tea, very chinesely drunk out of soup bowls because we couldn't find the cups and i told everyone: "yeah, they just moved here, haven't bought cups yet." which naturally everyone accepted as the unshakeable truth until my cousin showed up three hours later, flung open a door in the kitchen cabinet and revealed rows on rows of glasses and mugs *abashed*)

my cousin came with the children, whom i had invited the day before, so that they can meet the gang. (funny story: told that she was coming to my birthday party, and arriving at the lift lobby of their own flat, sarah asked: "does auntie min live near us?") we only got them for a fifteen minute cameo, though. (uncle: "you want the kids for party entertainment? how about we rent them to you by the hour!" me:"hey, we're not charging you guys for baby sitting, so it cancels that out!") ariel very solemnly shook hands with everyone! "say hello to auntie addy." "hello, *shake* happy new year." and at the end of it he obligingly hugged everyone! such a charmer, said someone. his sister sarah clutched a pink bunny (what is the name of your bunny? pinky!) and chomped happily on chips and refused to leave when it was time to go, stamping trying to run away. i offered to keep her on for another hour till my cousin could come back for her, but the cousin was adamant that they stopped eating party food and went home for dinner. and then there was the present presentation - poach gave me a slim, translucent neckscarf, white with beautiful flowers in an intense wine shade, which she brought back from her sif expedition, and she also went halves with xinyi on a tangs voucher. cindy brought back a triple-layered silk shawl from shanghai with pink and orangey-bronze weaves. yen got me anne carson's collection of interconnected essays: "eros the bittersweet" which are on the nature of word and desire, addy got me a benefits' illuminator and su-lin and i are going tomorrow to get the madame butterfly necklace i picked out last week - a choker of multiple strands of black glazed pottery beads with red highlights.

as befitting a bimbotic all-girls' tea we discussed men and sex in the city and watched bridget jones' diary which we found in the dvd drawer. and then there we were all kept busy by cindy's bit of news about the shanghai boy that su-lin has unknowingly bewitched, and how we were planning to set them up on a date and take turns to saunter by. if we lived in olden days i'm sure cindy would have been an excellent mei po, cheerful, fan in hand, unfazed by any objections, and expert at enumerating the qualities of the prospective groom; as it is, she only lacks the fan: she solemnly rattled off the shanghai boy's qualifications. ("he's very good at pingpong") we also discussed the fact that we had between us 12 siblings of age and eligibility. let's marry our brothers and sisters off to each other, and then we'll cement our friendship and consolidate our influence and lord it over them, says cindy. (as i have no siblings to contribute to this lovely scheme i offer to coordinate the logistics.) but su-lin first. more on how that goes, in a week!