*yet another year...*

for the first time, the days leading up to my birthday saw me having some slight paranoia of turning a year older, inching closer to the big three-o. age has never been an issue with me until perhaps recently when i constantly start thinking and comparing about what i have achieved and what i still wanna do before all the burdens and responsibilities of life befall me. i shall not also mention the fact that most of the people around me are all heaps younger than me.

anyhow, the fear of getting older will never get into the way of me wanting to feel special on the special day and in the words of a colleague "a girl's birthday is her princess day". nicely put. (i can't remember the last time someone called me princess...... in a good way of course.... way back when).

the celebrations kicked off the day before my birthday with an email sent around the entire office indicating a surprise cake to celebrate my birthday. trouble is, i get emails diverted from someone else's email so though my name was taken off the list, i still got the email. oops. surprise!

it was quite embarrassing because most of the time, we usually celebrate birthdays with those closer colleagues (i.e. usually those you worked closely with / on the same floor). i didn't want others to think that my birthday was such a big deal mine, coz everyone had a birthday. mine got sent to the whole building because one of the managers bought me the cake. this came about because i helped him push through some work very long ago, something which was totally not what i am supposed to do. i had jokingly requested for a chocolate cake for my birthday - in my mind i was thinking of a small slice of cake.

so i waited excitedly for 3 pm to swing by, while concentrating on finishing up my work as i was on leave for the rest of the week. i went off for a meeting and came back to find 3 gifts on my desk , from my closer work colleagues! E was really funny, she put her gift in the interport mail envelope, addressed my name on it and stuck an "urgent" sticker on it. i thought i was an actual work mail !

the day flew by and suddenly my office was filled with people. it was a really strange situation coz there were some of them there whom i barely knew. i was extremely embarrassed but thankful for some friendly faces around. obviously some (just a small number) of those that turned up were there for the cake , not me... no i am not being cynical but seriously , there was no freaking way that it meant anything to them that it was my birthday. if i was back in my previous work place, i would've known that those people who turned up were there coz they geniunely cared. that's one of the advantages of a small company. i miss them! 

in any case, the cake was delish , so whatever, there was chocolate cake! yayy !

still, i was thankful that there was a mini celebration....and no matter how cynical i am, it was hard not to feel even a bit of joy or even a bit special. i was even more thankful for those that didn't come upstairs (yes in our office, sometimes taking 5 mins out is that difficult!), but emailed me to wish me happy birthday ... (emails came even two day after coz there were people out of office). 

happily , i got to leave early at 5 pm to hit the usually-jammed M5 motorway for the hillsong conference evening sermon.... and i was most thankful for the clear roads all the way , allowing me to reach 20 mins earlier than the previous day.

i reckon God is still around .. no ?