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Monday, September 04, 2006

Felicidades

My 25th birthday is special for me since this is the first time that I’m in a foreign country. So here’s how I planned to spend it - cook pasta and invite my friends Minnie, Zari and Gen for dinner, watch the fireworks near Petronas and prepare ourselves for the next day’s Red Box showdown. So at the eve of my birthday, I cooked my own version of the Filipino-style spaghetti.

My birthday also turned out to be the eve of Merdeka (Malaysia’s Independence day) which is a big celebration here. Unlike in Manila where the Independence day is just treated as an ordinary holiday, the Malaysians celebrate Merdeka the way how the Filipinos celebrate Christmas - flags are posted anywhere for the whole month of August. A few hours before the Merdeka day itself, parties are held in different locations and is concluded with fireworks showcase at midnight.

Our office is celebrating Merdeka on my birthday so it was decorated with balloons and Malaysian flags. Teasers were also sent that there will be some games and food at the pantry in the afternoon. I told myself that I’m lucky that the office is having a feast on my birthday.

I received an email inviting all the Filipinos from my project to an acquaintance dinner at New Paris in Section 2 so that we would get to know our Ates and Kuyas in the project. Since Minnie and her housemates are coming, I opted to come as well. I invited Mars to come with me as well although she’s with a different project. We decided to eat the spaghetti that I cooked for lunch instead.

At lunch time, Mars and I went to Section 14 to buy some food. Mars bought a chocolate indulgence cake from Secret Recipe (Thanks Mars! =D). I went to buy a blueberry flavored ice cream and a roasted chicken (which costs RM 9.90 per bird according to the store sign). We ate spaghetti and the chicken and returned to the office.

Earlier that day, we decided to join the game in the office for the Merdeka celebration. Five of us, Minnie, Mars, Lawrence, Michael and I (who all used to work in my previous company) volunteered to join our company’s Project Runway contest. So we registered and called ourselves Orang Asli which refers to the aborigines in Malaysia.

At 3:00, all 10 teams were asked to get the materials and were given instructions. Our task is to create a Kebaya (Malaysia’s national costume) out of vegetables, leaves and fruits. We were also provided with thread and needle, cutter, a 3-yard flesh silk cloth and cutters. Here’s the catch: the Kebaya must be worn by a female and must do the catwalk to exhibit each team’s output. My team mates decided me to be their model since it was my “birthday“ (yeah right!).

In a span of an hour, we researched the net for a sample Kebaya and brainstormed for the design. Mars suggested to create some accessories such as necklace and a headdress for more impact for the costume. After an hour, I wearing a headdress made of carrots, leaves and onions; an apple necklace and a kebaya made of carrots, garlic and some leaves.

Okay, for the most embarrassing part, all the models were gathered to do the catwalk in front of the whole company wearing those vegetables, err, I mean Kebayas. There are 2 groups who joined that was composed of Filipinos: Orang Asli (our group) and Noypi. A loud music was played and the host called each group’s name as a cue to start with the catwalk. Our group’s name was called and to my horror, all the employees are watching. Another thing, there are a lot of cameras taking our pictures and videos (shit! Pang-blackmail ito!) as if it was a real fashion show. Since I was in a humiliating position, I just need to do it with poise. So I did the catwalk with all the cameras flashing and hid immediately.

Not contented with the humiliation that all the models were subjected to after doing the catwalk, we posted with the Merdeka cake and did more pictorials (at that time, I wished if I could use the Memory Charm on all employees). The judge’s sheet were tabulated to determine the winners. We ended up on the 5th place and we won a month supply of biscuits and cookies (Is this worth the humiliation? I don’t think so!). After the contest, everyone were served with carrot cake, sandwich, spring roll and a dimsum with spicy coconut (I forgot what it’s called).

After office, we went home immediately to prepare ourselves for dinner at New Paris. Michael went home with us, carrying the biscuits and cookies that we won. We later invited him to celebrate my birthday. Later, the rest of the Orang Asli people came with us to celebrate our “victory party”/my birthday.

At around 9 PM, we arrived at the New Paris restaurant. It turned out that it was also a farewell party Cate, who will be leaving Malaysia after 4 years. It was nice to get to know my Filipino colleagues in an informal setting. We get to sit with Donn, who used to work also in my previous project, who’s very talkative. We were served with prawns, crispy pata (yum yum!), chicken and tofu that night.

At 10 PM, we called it a night. Mars and I were tired for all the activities that we decided to go home. Minnie and the rest of the gals headed to KLCC to watch the fireworks. Mars and I chatted at home, without realizing that it was midnight so we watched the fireworks at home from the 13th floor. The fireworks is really good.

It was a tiring day for me as I experienced a lot of things. This birthday is one of the best birthdays that I had so far.

posted by subhuman @ 5:25 PM

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