The Jungle Book

I figured I'll post this to wish Happy Birthday to my awesomely talented, driven, loving, generous and pretty sister in the best language I speak.

Sadly, we are miles apart with oceans and mountains between us, but she's been a pillar of strength for all of my life (and counting) playing various roles of sibling, subordinate mother, friend, guardian, advisor, partner-in-crime and an ally. Of the most notable, she refined me from a "Mowgli" to a (cleverly disguised) respectable looking citizen with essential social skills, she has pushed me to be bold and daring and she has always been supportive of my tough decisions.

(Left) Shu's sister and (Right) Shu. Aren't I adorable?? Well, not really. The family still testifies that I was a holy terror at that age. Then one day somewhere during adolescence, I was abducted by aliens I think, and later returned to my thankful parents as a good child. Nobody knows what triggered the shift in temperament.

I got the sweet end of the deal, coming in 9 years after her  (and no one else between us!) with guaranteed showers of extra attention, love, gifts, free rentals and hand-me-downs. When it came to me, she spent her meagre savings generously so I can have the best of everything she could afford - roasted chicken drumsticks from John Keells and pineapple gateaux from Devon's (a big deal back then), clothes, shoes, visits to the salon and allowances to spend. We even had many animal rescue operations and projects together.

Although I have grown older to about 1.5 times her size in dimensions, she still looks to me like one of her own children and who can complain?! It is really surprising considering I have mass murdered and decapitated most of her dolls, destroyed her story books with scribbles and such, smashed her toys, shattered her social image with public tantrums and even beaten her up, to name some of the gruesome things that Shu junior-the-terror was better known for.

Happy Birthday, Akki and it goes without saying that you are immensely loved!

Speaking of sisters, my parents announced that we have a new baby sister (scroll to the next image). They keep adopting stray animals and children, possibly to fill the void we have left. She is adorable and my parents can't stop talking about her whenever I call them.

Pini Junior suffers from ADHD and has managed to destroy a lot of furniture during the few weeks she has been there

Surprise!

No matter how quietly I try to pull out my keys as I get out of the lift and tiptoe down the corridor to my apartment, this ball of fur reaches my doorstep before I do, and asks to be let inside.

Ginger - our neighbour's cat

~ ~ ~

The other day, we organised a surprise birthday party for one of my housemates. After many discussions in secrecy, the three of us decided on a gift and a cake and how to go about surprising her. We ordered red velvet cupcakes from the best cake artist we knew in town. Everything went as we had planned; I picked up the cakes after work, another picked up the gift and the card and we all sat at home, waiting to ambush the birthday girl. 

The cup cakes looked too tempting. 

As we waited and waited, we felt ourselves contemplating on many nasty things like tasting one cup cake each, putting off the surprise party till the next morning and even going to sleep and leaving a note to the birthday girl on the refrigerator asking her to help herself to the cakes.

Unfortunately for us, the birthday girl - who was blissfully unaware of the surprise - decided to go out with some other friends of hers and came back home at midnight. By the time she arrived, we were all cake-deprived, cranky and sleepy. One of my housemates, who skipped dinner to have cake, threw a tantrum and spoilt the surprise by announcing the type of cakes we got before the 'surprisee' opened the box. Then, a candle fell off one of the cupcakes and nearly set fire to a bed sheet. The "Happy Birthday" song we sang for her didn't sound happy at all. 

Eventually, we each got our share of the treat and the atmosphere lightened significantly to laughter and giggles.

Pretty cupcakes - one of Katy Kat's specialties. 

Surprise parties are not for everyone.