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.
Aunty D ordered pizza for the children.
 |
| 12:57pm |
 |
| Aunt J (from the States) gave Ryan this colourful shirt. |
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 |
 |
| Dad is helping Ryan to fix his toy. |
 |
| "Open one first," said Dad. |
 |
| 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.
About half an hour later,
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
