After a nice weekend, it's time to reflect on turning 28. Yup, on the 23rd of June, I completed 28 years of existence. Of course, I didn't get here by myself; it's by the grace of God, and the help of the people he has placed around me, that Alexander Man Lok Low Quong is Alexander Man Lok Low Quong. The past few days have been an especially poignant reminder of these simple truths.

First of all, let me say something about the birthday present I received from my friends. It's a pair of New Balance running shoes. Nat brought me out to choose them. Now I've never owned a pair of New Balance shoes except the pair given to me by the Army. For me, New Balance shoes tended to be either understated or overstated design-wise, meaning you would either end up with an anonymous looking pair of shoes or a pair that looked like a spaceship. Thus, I would always buy running shoes based on design, ending up with Nike and Adidas. This time, Adidas didn't seem to have any nice-looking shoes and I didn't really want to buy a Nike pair. I found a nice pair of Asics running shoes and I wondered aloud how the shoe would look in a year's time. A salesgirl overheard me and said that if I wanted shoes that would last longer, I should buy New Balance.

So Nat and I went over to the New Balance shelves. As usual, the shoes did not really appeal to me aesthetically. I found myself with a difficult choice. Should I buy a nice-looking Asics shoe that will not last long, or a New Balance shoe that is unfashionable? Anyway, what swung things New Balance's way was a discovery that I made about myself. This discovery came about as Nat and I perused a brochure on the different types of running shoes made by New Balance. They have shoes for people with flat feet, low, medium, and high arch. Looking at my own feet, I found out that I have quite a low arch. In fact, I'm almost flat footed. This discovery explained to me why I would often sprain my ankles. So I decided to get a shoe that would give my feet more stability. This meant I would be getting a spaceship shoe! However, it's quite like a spaceship with all the technology it claims to employ in enhancing stability. If you ever run with me you'll see what I mean. But it's really a great shoe.

On Thursday night I wondered whether anyone would contact me just after midnight to wish me happy birthday. I didn't expect that anyone would considering that the last time anyone did that was when I was still in JC. Still, someone called my handphone though I didn't answer it because I didn't hear it ring. That person left a voice message wishing me happy birthday but didn't leave his name. Hee. It sounded like my insurance agent.

Come Friday, I waited to see who would greet me. The first person to do so was Philip from my CG who SMSed me just after 9am. The next was OCBC which offered me a special bank account. Then Esther and Evangeline gave me birthday greetings over MSN. Then Rose SMSed around noon and Grace too around 2pm. Then at 6pm, Nat SMSed. After that, there were no further greetings for the day. I felt a little sad since it seemed that so many of my friends seemed to have forgotten my birthday. But I didn't really think it was because I had lost any friends. I thought that I had perhaps reached the age where birthday greetings go out of style (of course, they never go out of style).

I tried not to think about it and the next day I went to play soccer with the youth. The pitch was muddy and waterlogged and I didn't have a particularly good game. I washed up after the game and was about to go home when Joan SMSed to wish me a happy belated birthday. She was apologetic about being late but I told her that it didn't matter; I was glad that she SMSed anyway. That was around 11am on the 24th of June.

12 hours passed and I was watching the World Cup on TV when Jasmine SMSed. She was really apologetic because she had meant to SMS a day earlier but never found the time. But I assured her that I didn't hold that against her. Suddenly, I get SMSes from Junwei, Christina, Crystal, and Doreen! Surprised by this sudden burst of greetings, I realise that some of them thought my birthday is the 24th of June! Haha.

Anyway, on Sunday, I went to church as usual. I had an arrangement to have lunch with Brenda, Joan, Jeff, and Janice to celebrate my birthday. I was looking forward to this especially since this group of my friends had never done anything like this for me before. But before that, there was the little issue of a pool challenge. As usual, Sylvester sent me an SMS challenging me to a race to 5 match. I accepted his challenge though I was still feeling soreness in my chest and arms from the IPPT. We reached Mambo at 12:15 and left at 12:45 having completed the race to 5 match. I had won 5-0 with the racks averaging just 6 minutes! This was the first time in a long time that I had blanked an opponent in a race and the first time I had played 5 racks in 30 minutes. I guess the tone of the match was set in the first rack. Sylvester broke and didn't make a ball. We then traded misses before I came back to the table and cleared my group of balls one by one. Sylvester could only watch as I potted ball after ball. I ran out of position on the 8 ball but decided to go aggressive with a bank shot. I made the bank shot to claim my first 7-ball win against Sylvester and my first ever 8-ball clearance.

I was in a great mood when I went back to church to meet the rest for lunch. I went up to the chapel where the 11:30 service was just ending after the 11:30's first ever baptism had been held. I congratulated Hannah who transferred her membership from her home church and Shawn, my long-time Sunday School student, who had just been confirmed. Then it was back down to the office to wait for lunch. We would be waiting for Janice to finish her handbell practice.

Just as it seemed that handbell practice would take forever, it ended, and we could go on our way. We were going to Artz Pizza at the East Coast. Joan had got her cousin to prepare a birthday cake. Upon reaching the restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the restaurant was almost empty. We were seated at a nice table and we proceeded to order 3 pizzas and a lasagna. The pizzas were great and we had a good time making conversation. After we were done with the main course, we had the cake brought out. It was a cheesecake! It tasted pretty good for a homemade cheesecake. In fact I thought it deserved 8 out of 10.

Lunch ended at 4. Brenda and I had to go back to church for English class but there was about an hour to burn. Joan suggested that Jeff drop us all at her place where she could pick up her dad's car and send Brenda and me to church. On the way to church we would go to Parklane to pick up a piano cover. That sounded like a good idea so Jeff drove us to Ang Mo Kio. Once there, we switched cars. Then it was on to Parklane. We got there alright, parking in Paradiz Centre. It's been a long time since I went to Paradiz Centre. It looks so clean now. Anyway we walk over to Parklane where we go up to the piano shop where Joan is going to pick up the piano cover. In the shop, Brenda and I wait while Joan talks to the staff. Brenda notes that the shop is pretty old. I note that the staff are old too.

The piano cover fits nicely but isn't made of nice material. In fact, it's made of cloth that could be used to make men's trousers. But that can't be helped and with the cover in hand, we leave the shop. Brenda wants to go to Cold Storage so we walk round the corner. In Cold Storage, we go looking for Crimson grapes a.k.a. "crunchy grapes". Brenda picks a bunch then says she wants to get BBQ ribs from the deli. Joan and I marvel at Brenda's appetite considering we had just eaten quite a huge lunch. Anyway we end up buying a roast chicken!

From Cold Storage we return to Paradiz to pick up the car. We take a short cut that requires us to duck under a railing. It becomes apparent that Brenda can't really duck and her head gets a bump. Anyway we get to the car and drive off to get soyabean milk from the famous shop that's nearby. We decide to have the soyabean milk with the roast chicken when we get back to church.

We get to church at 5:30pm. Looking for a place to sit down for our 'picnic', we settle on the steps leading to the sanctuary. We have a fun 15 minutes eating chicken and drinking soyabean milk. There is a silly moment when Joan passes her packet of soyabean milk to Brenda for her to hold while Joan cleans her hands. By the time Joan is done, Brenda has drunk the soyabean milk and given me the empty packet to throw away. Joan asks Brenda for her drink whereupon Brenda realises that she has drunk Joan's drink by mistake and finished it. We have a good laugh.

Once our picnic is over, the celebration lunch officially ends. I haven't had this much fun on my birthday for a long time.

Hannah is the last person to wish me happy birthday when she SMSes around 5:30pm.

English class was followed by dinner. Nat appeared in church and joined us for dinner. After dinner we played pool before Nat and me went to my house to watch the England match. I lost just two racks in the two hours we played. Most of the time we were playing 9-ball. I don't really like 9-ball but I was winning. I wanted to end the session with a rack of 8-ball and almost repeated my first rack from the afternoon session with Sylvester. As it turned out, I needed just two visits to the table to win the rack.

Back home, Nat and me watched the England match. It wasn't very entertaining and I dozed off a few times. England won 1-0 and Nat went home.

Oh, Nat drove his sister's car on Sunday. He needs more experience I think.

Anyway I had a great time celebrating my birthday this year. Thanks, everyone! Oh, to the two people who gave me birthday cards, thanks for your blessed words. ^_^