For A Purpose

Jirene’s Birthday

We celebrated Jirene’s eleventh birthday last Saturday, which was a day after her actual birthday. We had a splendid dinner at Gen Japanese Restaurant in the Legend Hotel. Haven’t gone back there in ages! Our relatives and cousins from my mum’s side were there for the dinner too. It was sort of a family dinner gathering that happened to be in conjunction with Jirene’s birthday.

The food was overall pretty good. We liked the tepanyaki spot where we’d choose seafood or beef and mushrooms and the chef will stir-fry everything in black pepper sauce. The kiddoes like my sisters didn’t eat much though. What a waste. They were too busy playing with their cousins!

At the end of the dinner (our family was the last of the last diners to leave!) I still felt that I haven’t had enough. And as it is, everyone was already teasing me for taking so many rounds. :’D Seriously, I still felt I didn’t eat my money’s worth! Maybe it’s because I was too distracted taking pictures of them and all. Ahahaha.

And of course, there's always pictures for a treat. :P So here are the pictures we took…

My sweet sister. (Psst, she's not so sweet-looking all the time OK. :P)

At the sushi spot with Jirene and my cheeky cousin Benjamin.

My dad and I having the tepanyaki dishes.

Slurping oysters. I tried 'em, but it tasted like some rotten, slimy... ugh. Though my dad said it was real fresh.

Soba noodles in the glass; raw octopus slices and pickled ginger with wasabi.

At the tempura spot.

I liked the tepanyaki mussels. Though I kinda' cringed when the chef added a spoon of butter for each tiny mussel when he fried it. Ahahaha.

The Others. (Have you watched the horror movie entitled "The Others"? Hahaha. Just a passing thought.)

With the kiddoes. Clockwise from top: Me, Jon, Ben, Jirene, Avril, Janna, and Bridget.

Avril and I getting dessert.

Ben eating straight from the buffet counter!

This cheeky fella' ah, forever popping into pictures without my consent! :P

The three of us and my mum.

My mum and aunty May.

Phew, I still am the youngest here. Ahahahaha. :P

Posing outside at the Japanese garden.

Janna and I eating green tea ice cream. The view of the city skyline was splendid.

Jirene looks so timid compared to Janna in this shot. Hahaha. She's too occupied with her ice cream.

Meditating after dinner. Ahahahaha.

Family shot. Can you believe it, Jirene was still eating her ice cream!

This is so funny! One of the waiters who offered to take a shot for us wanted us to pose like we were at some goofy photoshoot. So we ended up with this. Supposedly a "natural" shot. *Rolls eyes. Ahahahahah.

I wanted Janna to take this shot with the glass dome above, but she didn't get down low enough I guess.

The four stooges. I'm excluded, thankfully. :P (But on the other hand, I was the one who asked them to close half of their eyes sleepily and imitate the sculptures.) Ahaha.

Jirene seemed the best imitator, so I asked her to pose again. Alone. Hahaha.

And yes, this is the last picture. :P

Happy Birthday Jirene ;)