Friday, March 03, 2006

The Circle of Life

Soon Beng was laid to rest on Monday. The day before, I was at my sister-in-law's, celebrating baby Joven's 1-month-old. And today, BAGUS and OKD threw a celebration for Victor, who will soon turn 50 this coming Monday.

The circle of life - Birth, Life and Death. I guess God had it all planned out. Maybe God thinks this world is just too small to accommodate all. Someone just have to go, to make way for the new. Makes me wonder if heaven is crowded? Maybe angels float around often, or they are always on God's missions. So we don't need much space in the house of God? And God always has room for all his children.

Gee... I don't know what got into me. I was going to blog about Vic's birthday celebration. But this past week has been quite a ride. It's been both sad and happy. Sad because we've lost a friend and colleague. And happy because of baby Joven's "coming of age", Vic's birthday and me collecting my brand new car, of course!

Let's come back to Vic's birthday. That man crossed the half-century mark, and any man who's crossed that mark deserves my respect. So, there'll be no snide remarks about Victor in this post. I half expected Vic to break into the Hawaii-five-O theme song, but he never did. Busy eating, I guess. Oops sorry, I take that back!


For a man his age, I must say Victor still looks pretty good. He is quite unlike most men his age who usually spot a "spare tyre". Some much younger men, like me, already has a pouch!

He's still slim, tall (shrinkage will come much later in life, Victor), and his pimple dimples remain intact, his face defying the force of gravity. It must be his good genes. And if everyone has genes like Victor's, the plastic surgeons will be out of business in no time. There'll be no end to Wuffles Wu's ruff. I'm also quite upset that my attempt to fatten Victor to make me look slimmer failed miserably, for Victor is never a big eater, nor a junk eater.

We had lunch at a little restaurant at Pasir Panjang. The restaurant is called Manhill, though it certainly does not sit on top of a hill, and it certainly not only welcomes men, but women as well. The dishes it serves are not something to shout about. But I love the noodle we ordered specifically for Victor. It's a Chinese tradition to serve noodle on one's birthday. It symbolises longevity. And it means Victor can look forward to the other half-century mark. LOL.

We even bought him a cake bean-paste bun that resembled the face of a man. Alas, it had room for only 1 candle. We sang Victor the birthday song and made him blush like a red tomato.

Call me a sentimental fool, but I've always treasured the company of friends more then the variety of food on the dining table. And as we age, we could do well to remember this saying, "Count our age with friends but not with years".

Happy Birthday, Victor.

Category: Personal

2 comments:

Victor said...

Thank you very much Chris for dedicating, I mean, writing so much (good things) about me in this post. I don't think I deserved all those compliments. You certainly made my balls, I mean, head swell to even bigger than a coconut.

You are taking a break from passing snide remarks at me eh? Then I might as well take full advantage of this rare hiatus, knowing full well that you can't fight back, at least for these few days. So here goes.

You have a pouch? What, to contain all the extra cash which the bank refused to accept from you, is it? Let me carry some of your load lah - put some of your cash in my wallet. The word is paunch, my friend. Not to be mistaken with punch, which I am sure you couldn't resist giving me one if I were talking face to face with you right now, wahaha.

Chris Sim said...

Of course it's a paunch. What was I thinking? We never can trust the spelling check that comes with Microsoft software. Only kangaroos carry pouches. But there's no room for kangaroos here. Only Monkeys. And the monkey I know also carries a pouch. It's sooo unglam. Wahahaha...

Yeah, if it's ain't your birthday, I surely would have punched you. And have your face re-arranged. But I wait. 所谓君子报仇,三年不晚。