A good portion of my birthday celebration for 2025 revolved around food.
I say it is a good portion because in actual fact I did more than just eat.
Life is a blessing when you get to do what you like and do what you love and you get trained through it- in one way or another. This year I was quite determined to explore the area I were in, as in, there were places in and around Kembangan that I wanted to go, so off- during one day of my birthday month- I went.
I won't be sharing all of the pictures that I took on this one particular walk.
But here be a few.
It was a joy, honestly, to finally be able to walk to the blocks of Chai Chee, or rather, Ping An Yuan, having had seen these blocks close to Decathlon a long time ago but never had the chance to visit, until now.
But most of the month was about food where the places I went to eat at included DDD, or Don Q, a hotpot lunch at Broth & Beyond, a meal at Nozomi, very good sushi at this place that I think is Cuppage Plaza or the strata mall close to it, some claypot meals at Bugis, and then Peking Duck at Circular Road.
I have written a little bit here and there so I shan't be writing in detail here.
But seeing these pictures now I am really glad.
I am glad to have a person with me who is happy to celebrate my birthday with me.
I am glad to have a person with me who cares enough to ask me what I like, think of what I like and know what I would most likely enjoy, whether on budget or otherwise.
There were days when I decided I really wanted, and needed the colors of salmon sushi from Don Q, which, although chilled fresh to the max, is never short of salmon sushi at reasonable price and I know I can get a fair bit of Mentaiko sauce over the Aburis.
This is a person who knew I would love hotpot, and went out of the way (albeit on a hot autumn afternoon) to get to a place where the pot was pretty, the soup was gorgeous, the meats of wagyu absolutely fresh and with a fantastic free-flow dessert counter to boot. (Would it be rude to say that I actually fancied the dessert of ice cream and the dessert of jellies in both condensed and evaporated milk as much as I liked the meats and the vegetables?)
And of course, the Japanese buffet, which, was as interesting, if you ask me, as the one at CapitaSpring Tower I had loved so much and which hadn't had chance to try since that one was gone. This is the kind of buffet that you whack the tuna and the yellowtail and the salmon tartare and the sushi, sashimi kind of food more than the fried and stewed because that's just how it is.
Did I have birthday cake?
Not in the way that- now that I think about it- I might have liked.
Did it matter?
Not quite, either.
One can always have a cake here and there.
But I value the companionship of my loved ones far more than whether I have the traditions or not, and if I be at a place where there's salted ice cream and matcha ice cream and fruits and more than there is cake, so be it.