Hello Son,
Thursday, August 25
Ryan's Birthday
The night before, on Wednesday 24th,
Mom cooked petai.
Dad did all the blending of the ingredients.
All Mom did was just to pour the blended ingredients out
of the blender ... even that she needed help ...
Haha.
The petai beans need to be split in half
to check for unwanted inhabitants.
Then they are nicely soaked and washed clean.
Pour olive oil into the hot pan and stir-fry the petai.
Add to the sambal.
Eat with steaming hot rice.
Excellent for complete bowel evacuation
the next day.
Your Aunt D also loves petai with rice.
Mom packed a tupperware of
petai dinner for her.
Do you remember having petai at home, Daniel?
On Thursday 25th,
Ryan celebrated his birthday in school.
From 10:30 am to 12 noon.
Ryan is cutting his cake after the birthday song.
Paw Patrol cake
Aunty D ordered pizza for the children.
It was a windy day.
We couldn't light ALL the candles.
Ryan had HAPPY BIRTHDAY + 5 candles.
Total candles 13 + 5 = 18 candles.
It sure was not easy for Dad to try to
light all the 18 candles for the song.
Plus we had strong winds.
You weren't blowing out the candles too,
were you, Son?
Our birthday boy had fun arranging 18 candles
on his 2-tiered cake.
All his friends were very excited with the cake and pizza.
Here's the birthday boy distributing
goodie packs for all his buddies.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!
Dad and Mom took Ryan to the mall
after school.
Ryan had said the day before
when your parents asked him,
that he wanted to go to
McDonald's for lunch.
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| 12:57pm |
Our birthday boy was fascinated by the
decorations at the malls.
Mooncake festival is around the corner.
 |
Aunt J (from the States) gave Ryan this colourful shirt.
|
Yup, Ryan's rainbow-coloured shirt is
more attractive than the display pieces.
We walked to McDonald's.
Being lunch hour, there was a crowd at McD's.
From afar, we could tell that all the tables were taken.
As we approached nearer,
Dad said, "It's full. Looks like there are no tables."
Mom heard.
Mom ignored.
Mom looked ahead, and walked on,
holding Ryan's hand.
Dad followed behind.
As we reached the first row of tables,
which were all taken,
Mom continued walking,
straight to an empty table
just right after the first row.
Dad was like, "You saw this table?"
Mom said, "No, I didn't ..."
Your mother just happened to walked on,
and the sea of people kinda parted like the red sea,
revealing an empty table ...
already cleaned up ...
just waiting for us.
Strange no one took that table up,
since there was a long queue of people
at the ordering counter.
You must have whispered to Mom,
"Walk on, Ma ... "
because she herself couldn't quite understand
why she was walking towards the crowd.
Dad is so much taller, so obviously he could see better,
and Dad had already said all the tables were taken.
Normally, your mother would just make a U-turn
and say, "Let's go somewhere else ..."
Funny that this time, Mom didn't.
It wasn't like she saw the empty table.
She didn't.
Not until she was like 2 steps away from it,
when the people suddenly made way for
her and Ryan to pass through.
And right in front, was a nice clean table.
Amidst the lunch crowd.
Wow!
Thanks Son. That was surely you.
So anyway, Dad went to join the line to order our food.
Mom and Ryan were nicely seated at the table.
Mom showed Ryan the photos taken during his celebration
in school earlier.
 |
2:08 pm
|
It took Dad almost half an hour to get our order.
By then, the lunch crowd had dispersed.
When Mom first sat down at the table,
she noticed the number 321 on the table.
It was a sticker (stuck on the table).
Mom saw the 21 ...
but couldn't make out the connection ...
because 3 ... umm, what's with the 3?
Then, Dad came with the Order Number plate 213.
Mom looked at the 213.
"Look, same numbers," Mom exclaimed to Dad,
pointing to the 321 sticker and the 213 order plate.
You must have whispered to Mom,
because she suddenly felt the ZAP.
321 | 213
24 | 24
12 | 12
21 | 21
ZAP ZAP ZAP!!!
Strong ZAP ... Mom gotta admit.
24 being your birthdate
and 21, your departure date.
You were clearly with us, Daniel.
McDonald's being your favourite place to go too.
We brought McD's for your breakfast.
The Happy Meal set came for Ryan.
After this photo was taken,
Ryan opened his box excitedly,
only to asked a few seconds later,
"Where is my toy?"
"No toy in the box?" Mom asked.
Ryan said, "No ..."
Dad signalled to a waitress who was nearby.
She came over.
Dad told her the Happy Meal toy
is not in the box.
The waitress acknowledged the problem,
went away and came back a few minutes later.
She held out 2 different toys,
one in each hand,
bent down to ask Ryan,
"Which one do you want?"
Ryan couldn't decide.
So Mom said, with a laugh,
"Can he have both? It's his birthday today."
The waitress hesitated.
Mom thought if the waitress didn't believe Mom,
Mom was ready to show the waitress
all the birthday photos taken in school.
Mom reached for her handphone
and quietly scrolled to photo gallery.
Hahahaha.
The waitress gave a smile, and said, "Ok."
You must have seen your mother putting down
her handphone, with a secret smile.
Her son must have whispered to the waitress.
"Give them both," he must have said.
Ryan was so happy!
Dad and Mom were like,
"Wahhh Ryan, you have TWO toys
from McDonald's today!!!"
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Dad is helping Ryan to fix his toy.
|
 |
"Open one first," said Dad.
|
It was at this point of taking the above photo
that Mom suddenly noticed the word
FREE
in pink ...
far, far away in the background.
 |
Mom zoomed in ...
|
 |
zoomed in more ...
|
 |
and more. Ahh. Do you see it???
|
Thanks Son, for always reminding that you are with us.
It's Ryan's birthday.
Of course, you would want to do
something special for him.
First, the table.
Then, the 2 free toys.
Mom couldn't ask for more.
The receipt was on the table.
Mom looked at it.
This time she saw
21 -- 3x.
Ohh, that's right.
Her son had in fact sent her 21, 3 times.
Why ...
First, the sticker on the table.
Second, the order number.
Third, the receipt.
3 times, she sees her son's number 21.
A big huge smile appeared on your mother's face.
She was literally beaming from ear to ear.
Thanks Daniel.
ZAP ZAP ZAP.
Mom looked down on the numbers
at the bottom of the receipt.
25/08/2022 | 14:14:59
Mom stared at the numbers momentarily.
Pause ...
as her brains went into overdrive.
Omg ...
Seriously.
Everything is in 3s today.
25/08/2022 | 14:14:59
Decode :
58 22 22 | 14 14 14
13 22 22 | 14 14 14
4 4 4 | 14 14 14
You angel number 4.
I am number 4.
All You!
Nobody, nobody but you!
Wow Son!
That was mighty impressive.
ZAP ZAP ZAP !!!
About half an hour later,
Dad received a text.
Dad looked at his text and let out a laugh.
Hahahaha.
Mom was like, "Why? Who said what?"
Dad said, "Angel wrote to me ..."
Huhhh???
What???
As far as Mom is concerned,
your parents do not know anybody
by the name of Angel.
Dad showed Mom the text.
"It's one of the property agents," Dad explained.
Oh my ...
What are the chances of receiving this text
at that point of time?
Hi Bryan,
Angel here.
Mom looked at the hp number.
Mentally, she worked out.
6 011 1145 68 77
Decode :
645 1111 68 77
15 4 14 14
4 4 14 14
Wow. Exactly the same 4 and 14 as in receipt above.
Seriously, what are the chances???
No chance.
Angel chance.
Then, Mom looked at the time.
14:47
1744
84 4
4444 or 21 4
Gosh ...
Any way you look at it, it shouts Daniel Phua.
A call from Angel.
How about that???
A trillion names that could have appeared on the handphone,
and meant nothing to us, but it had to be Angel
that appeared, which meant something.
Wow!
That was super amazing, Daniel.
Yeah, totally awesome!!!
Just when we thought things couldn't get any better,
the McDonald's waitress and 2 more staff
came to our table with a slice of cake,
and singing Happy Birthday to Ryan.
Oh, no wonder the waitress came to ask Mom
for his name earlier.
Mom thought the waitress had to record down
the extra toy under the birthday boy's name.
Gosh. What a surprise that was.
Who knew McD's do that?
We had no idea.
Aunt D too said she didn't know McD's
gave away free cakes for birthday kids.
Mom had to ask them to sing again
so she could record this video.
So Ryan had his song sung twice.
Hahaha.
Mom looked at the words
HANDSOME BOY
and got a ZAP ZAP ZAP.
Handsome Boy ...
That was your title.
People would call you that.
Even strangers have given you that compliment.
We surely miss your handsome face, Daniel.
At the point of writing this line,
Mom checked the time the video was taken.
OMG ...
14:55
5 5 5
15
4
Clearly, that FREE cake was sent by you, Daniel.
Should there be any shred of doubt,
this should clear it.
(the number on the second row of screenshot)
145 451.4
Decode :
5 5 5 5.4
24
42
21
ZAP ZAP ZAP!!!
Thanks Son. What a super day!
We thanked the staff for everything.
It had been such a special day for Ryan
and your parents.
In every way.
As we walked out of McD's and passing another eatery,
Ryan, with his big smiley face,
announced to the staffs standing by the entrance,
"Today is my birthday!"
He was so happy that day.
Dad said too.
It really was a special day for Ryan.
We went to this store below ...
and saw a cute little luggage bag.
We took a photo and sent it to Aunt C with the message,
"I'm going to Australia."
(Aunt C and Grandma flew to Sydney on August 23rd,
2 days before Ryan's birthday).
That evening, in Aunt D's home,
we had dinner together with the family,
and Ryan got to celebrate one more time.
Aunt D then brought out 3 cakes.
One after another.
Mom asked, "3 cakes?"
Aunt D said, "Yeah, 2 are FREE!"
Oh boy.
What???
How???
Aunt D said, she ordered one Caramel cake online.
The shop sent a Mango cake instead.
Aunt D was not amused, and gave the manager an earful.
The manager apologised,
immediately sent a Caramel cake
PLUS a RAINBOW cake
for compensation.
So 3 cakes.
Hahaha.
2 FREE cakes.
One of which is a RAINBOWcake.
Amazing.
Thanks Son, for the birthday arrangement.
It was a truly a special day for Ryan.
Totally unbelievable!
Keep the ZAPS coming.
xoxo
Mom
