Happy Birthday, Ayah :)

Today's Ayah's birthday!!! Yeay!!!

Happy Birthday, my dearest :)

I wasn't sure whether to just have a quiet outing with the kids to celebrate this special day, or to belanja makan the whole clan like we always do on someone's birthday, or celebrate with friends, either at home, or at Re* Bo*. I was toying with different plans for the last one week, and still could not decide on Friday night.

On Saturday morning - woke up and suddenly decided to have a makan-makan at our place for that night. And another dilemma - whether to have ONE makan-makan session for family and friends this weekend, OR have TWO different sessions for them. After campur tolak kali bahagi the pros and cons, I decided to do the latter - dinner on Saturday night with friends, and lunch with family on Sunday :)

(Our house is just not big enough for us to have family and friends together over at one given time. Lagi pun nanti depan Mak Mertua tak leh nak huha-huha ngan member sangat! ;))

I didn't tell Ayah about it, and right after Ayah went to work, I started SMSing/calling our friends about the dinner plans, before going to Pasar Taman Tun to get all the wet stuff to cook. Came back and briefed Dar on the dinner menu, and after giving instructions to her on what to prepare, we began our campaign to bring the kitchen down. Hehehe...Memang macam tongkang pecah...

At 1:15p.m, I left the house to send Hasya and Hilman to their Chess class, and after that made my way to Tesco to get the dry stuff pulak. Nasib baik Ayah volunteered to fetch the kids from Chess and send them to Swimming class after that. I finished my Tesco rounds at about 2:45p.m, went home and started cooking. Nasib baik Dar had finished preparing all the ingredients while I was out, so, sampai rumah ajer, senseng lengan and started to bersilat in the kitchen.

It was easy to keep it as a secret(ish) as Ayah was out from morning, and only came back with the kids just before 7:00p.m. But, of course, by the time he came home, the extra table was already set, and the buffet "station" was halfway prepared, and he sort of knew that there would be guests coming (and I bet he knew it was to celebrate his birthday :))

Anyway, the menu for the night was :

Nasi Lemak with -

- Sambal Tumis Udang
- Sambal Tumis Ikan Bilis
- Szechuan Chicken
- Fried Ikan Bilis + Kacang Goreng
- Kangkung Tumis
- Telur Rebus
- Timun)

Spaghetti Olio

Kuey Teow Goreng

Ayamas Fried Chicken Drummets

Ayamas Fried Hot and Spicy Drummets

Sirap Bandung Soda

Chocolate Moist Birthday Cake (Se*re* Re*ip*)

Teh Tarik/Coffee


(Ada sorang kawan we all tu, sanggup tak makan lunch coz' he was saving his tummy for the dinner! Hehehe!)

The first to arrive were Ab*d and her kids, followed by On*ir & Co., J* and her clan, Re*a & her heroes, and Yu* & family. Ib* could not join us as she had gone balik kampung in JB. Aw*n, too, was back in Melaka.

As usual - sangat hingaq bingaq tak ingat dunia we all semua. Makan, borak, gelak, borak, makan, mengekek/mengilai, borak and makan non-stop.

As the clock struck midnite, we took the birthday cake out, and sang the birthday song for the Birthday Boy (who was at the time dah terlena kat sofa...Hehehe!)

Everybody stayed on until just before 2:00a.m. and left with tapau-ed food beraneka jenis :) and by the time Dar and I siap kemas everything, it was already 3:00a.m before we went up to sleep.

I set the alarm clock for 6:15a.m, 6:25a.m AND 6:35a.m. as I wanted to go to Pasar Taman Tun early to avoid the Sunday crowd there. And I didn't hear it went off at all! All the three times - tidur real punya!

I only woke up at 7:35a.m (Suboh terlepas!!!) and left the house for Pasar Taman Tun at 8:05a.m. Spent about 45 minutes there, and reached the house just after 9:00a.m.

Again, briefed Dar on the menu, and she prepared almost all of the ingredients, with me helping with the not-so-yucky/tedious stuff only. Started cooking at 10:00a.m, and Ayah left the house at 10:30a.m to send Hasya and Hilman to their Dance class.

By the time they came back home at about 1:15p.m, all the dishes were ready.

This time, the lunch menu was -

Nasi Ayam

Kuey Teow Goreng (again!) - special request from my nephews and niece :)

Kuey Teow Soup

Sirap Bandung Soda

Tiramisu Birthday Cake (Ca*e Se*se) which was just soooooo yummy!

Teh Tarik/Coffee

My Sis Lala and her clan arrived at 1:30p.m, followed by my MIL and my SIL (Ya*re*n), my SIL Lynn & Co., my BIL Along & family, and finally my Mommy and my Sis Yong. My Abah was not feeling well, and decided to stay at home. My Mommy didn't want to leave him alone at home, but he insisted that she come. Tu yang by 4:30p.m, my Mommy dah nak balik rumah dah...My Brother Ed*ie was involved in a camping thingy at his school and could not make it. My Brother Jame was in Taiping, while my Brother Imi could not be contacted - last minute planning lah kata kan...

Again - everybody tapau-ed food back with them :)

(I ALWAYS cook a lot when I invite people over for makan-makan. My motto is - "Lebih tak per...Jangan terkurang" :). And every time I buat makan-makan, I would buy all the plastic containers sesiap for them to tapau the food :))

After everybody had left, it was back to mengemas again for me and Dar. And by the time we were done, it was already Maghrib.

As for the Birthday Boy, he was called to the hospital at 5:30p.m and only came back at 9:30pm just now!

(See?! Sunday AND his birthday pun kena gi kerja...)

Anyway Ayah...Hope you enjoyed your special day with our family and friends.

I know that you've got pretty nice birthay presents this year - the best must have been when Liverpool bantai Man U 4-1 last night, huh? And of course, when Dato' Lee Choong Wei beat Lin Dan at the Men's Single Finals at the Swiss Open this evening, huh?

And as I'm typing this, Ayah is watching a Rugby match between England and France on ASTRO downstairs. If England wins tonight, memang sah - the best birthday ever for him. :)

Happy Birthday again, Ayah :) Semoga dipanjangkan umur, dimurahkan rezqi, dan segala usaha diberkati Allah SWT.

Love you loads, dear... MMuuuaaaahhhh!

* Sorry - no pics yet. The camera battery was empty, and we couldn't find the charger the whole of yesterday! Hanna managed to snap some pics using her camera, but she has yet to download them to this laptop. We found the charger late last night, but alas, today Hanna was not in the mood to take pics, and I was busy in the kitchen most of the time :(