The day I turned 37
It's been a hectic 2 months with work and then getting Covid in the last two weeks of the semester, then comes my birthday. On top of that, not having a good sleep for quite some time really doesn't help too. I haven't been able to post much here let alone clicking don't the app even just to scroll.
Anyway, putting that all aside, here's sharing what I did on my Birthday last Friday. Started with having to conduct a post-mortem with my students (postponed due to Covid) from 8 am-12 pm. We had some fun activities too during the post-mortem as it also falls on the last day of their semester. They bought cake and of course, sang and celebrated with me. I'm grateful for simple things like this though I don't look or desire them, in fact, I feel awkward! haha... I mean, what do you do, when people sing to you? haha... awkwardly smile right? Sing to yourself together with them? Gesture weirdly? HAHA...
Had to rush off after the post-mortem back home to get changed and ready for a lunch appointment with the most important person in my life, my husband! He spent quite some time doing research and searching for a suitable place that he thinks I would like. He asked me 2 weeks before what I wanted to eat or do on my Birthday and my honest answer was, "to stay home" because I was just too busy. But I know, he would want to bring me out and I know, it is good to go out as well so I continued to say, "you can plan and decide, I will follow your lead." He chose this place called Raw Kitchen Hall located in ELSE (a refurbished boutique hotel) located at the city center just next to Chinatown.
I was super impressed! Impressed with his effort and that he was able to look for such a place. I thoroughly enjoyed the quietness, calm, peaceful, and jazzy ambiance of the restaurant. We did lunch because dinner was fully booked. I felt super relaxed though I was actually feeling quite unwell that day and my super understanding and loving husband didn't mind tweaking our plans a little to allow me to head home to get some rest.
Here's what we had for our meals:
1. Appetizer: Prawn Toasties (tobiko, ginger lime dressing & dill). This was AMAZING! We loved it so much. The balance in flavour and texture was super lovely. 2. Mains 1: Black Mamba (apparently highly recommended). Contains tiger prawns, fermented chili sambal, squid ink sofrito, and egg yolk. Wow, this was uniquely nice. The egg yolk binds the dish so well together. Flavour was quite strong but the squeeze of lime was perfect to balance it all. 3. Mains 2: Seafood Tagliatelle, prawn broth, salsa verde, and chives. A simple pasta dish that wasn't so great. Maybe because it came last and we had the other two first and the flavour from the first two was stronger than this pasta dish so it made it underwhelming.
For dessert, I said no thanks as I wasn't feeling 100% to have more food inserted into my tummy so we headed to look for coffee and ended up at ETC (yup, that's the name of the cafe). Had a cup of cappuccino, and I was satisfied but regretted it later because it made me feel worse while the husband had his usual Long Black. We down our coffee really quickly and decided to head home so I can rest.
For dinner, we decided to have some Pho, a Vietnamese noodle dish with beef broth. I needed it and I was glad to have it. Then we just spent some time walking around the mall before heading home to eat some cake given by friends.
All in all, I am very grateful for a simple day spent with my husband. Something I really cherish so much because of our busy schedule, especially for who he is and what he has done for me this year. Thank you dear for everything, I love you to the moon and back!