Best Birthday By Far

Yea Ladies and Gentlemen.Or was it Men and Gentleladies?Whatever.Anyway, and so it came to pass that one Emmanuel Joseph was destined to live another year, despite of the tsunami, the American invasion of the Iraq, the Bird Flu, JE, Mad Cow disease, death threats with crooked, sharp traditional weapons held by crooked, sharp, traditional dudes with weapon in one hand, NEP Handbook in another and blaring microphone peppered with saliva infused with tobacco,sambal tumis,and venom spewing from a combination of fallen logic and an intense hatred for all things unlike that those which he is comfortable with, and other biological,chemical,psychological, emotional and spiritual crap thrown at him.

Now that coupled with a few good things such as euphoric career satisfaction, ecstatic newfound love life and a tightly bonded brotherhood of friends at work and outside work has capped this as easily my best birthday ever, as I have so much to be thankful to God for this year.A job.Wait, let me rephrase that, a great job. Opportunities to prove myself and people who trust me :) .A great girl to call my own.She's pretty, smart, hell of an independent person and yea, likes me for me.And thanks dear, for being the first to wish me ^ ^.

And so it came to pass that this Emmanuel had a bunch of great friends surrounding him and supporting him (I call them my bras - partially coz it rhymes with bros, and partially coz the main purpose of a bra is well, support)

Among these great friends of course were his friends at work, who though he is much more younger inexperienced and bound to make stupid mistakes and even more so make stupid statements at the absolutely wrong time (like pissing off a visiting manager) of course who kept wishing this guy Happy Birthday non stop through the night, some old primary school friends who despite me sometimes mixng their names up, never fail to wish me and some college friends as well.And some friends who sincerely call to wish me and ask me for the title of the Christmas song that goes 'On the first day of Christmas...' sigh....Wei Ida if you reading be careful lei, Jais might think I am trying to 'murtad'kan you by singing Christmas songs :P

His college buddies, Gerald, Francis (even though I suspect you were half drunk when you sent me a message 'Happy Birthday.Fark you.') and Vanessa and Azlina.

His blog friends, especially Pelf, whose e-card appeared in my inbox several times :P, His Friendster friends who probably even cannot remember who the hell I am and why I am on your Friendster list and out of pure guilt, resort to sending me a birthday message online, thanks as well it means a lot to me.And TGK for trying the best he could to join us at Redbox.

And yea last but not least my four closest buddies in the world.Myopic Lion,Milky Boy,Alcaholic Prawn and Lamp Post.You guys were there when I kena dump, when my laptop got carried away, when my car reversed into a lamp post, when I first won and lost in Genting, when I first liked this girl, when I was asking her out, the day she said yes.And I know you will be there on the day we either get married or (which I doubt) the time she one day heartlessly dumps me and I drive all the way to Tanjung Harapan with little regard to big cars and lorries around me and nearly miss death by a few cm away while crying on the phone.You guys rock.

And yea, spent my birthday pretty much swordfighting or banana gazing :P with those bros of mine, from karaokeing where no one seemed to like VSOP very much apart from Myopic Lion.And yea it was a good deal for less than 400 for all we did that night.Thanks.

And after that went up Genting , lost some money, came down, ate dinner with family where it marked three important things for me.1-for the first time in 22 years we did not go out and have some gwailo food.Which is good la coz I was getting sick of it anyway. 2- For the first time my dad called me a beer.Which is good coz previously he would wait for me to order myself and now I don't have to sneak back every time I get stoned. 3- For my birthday , my dad gave me a book on Learning Japanese.Well, he knows she is really into Japanese stuff and all, so its an important thing for me la.

Then got my last birthday greeting but from Nardev, my brilliant friend down from NTU Singapore.And so ends my wonderful day and end the day with a bang, when I learn that an issue that has been plaguing me the last few days at work has been more or less identified, which is of course the biggest step before a good resolution.And even bigger bang when she calls....and tells me....she would date me seriously.So that was a major morale upper.

With all this, God's been good to me this year around.Hope He continues to look favourably on this child of His.

Signing Off for Now,
Emmanuel Joseph(8.12.1983-current)