My Birthday

On my birthday I usually think of two persons and wonder where they are, what they are doing or how they have been. These two persons have the same birthday as me, though different year.

The first one is a guy, one year my junior, whom I met during my NS days. We were posted to the same camp. I worked for S2 and he for S3. We celebrated our birthdays three times together before he went to London for further studies. We kept in touch for several years through correspondence and the last I know of him was he was appointed as a lecturer in one of our polytechnics.

The other person was actually his neighbour, a girl who was five years younger than him. He introduced her to me and I met her only twice.

I have yet to meet or know of any one who was born on the same day as me. Wouldn’t it be some kind of cosmic timing if that person was lying next to me in KK Hospital on that day!

I usually don’t work, take leave and travel during my birthday. As far as I can remember there were only two occasions when I failed to do so. Once I was on guard duty (during my NS days) and the other was when there was an important company event which I had to take care of and attend.

This coming birthday is kind of significant to me. That’s’ because I will be half a century old. I suppose this maybe a mark or a turning point of sort, as of late I had been thinking and reflecting on many things, which might explain some of my posts. However, what don’t really sync is that I don’t feel that old. Well I supposed I looked physically or biologically my age, but certainly my mental age is much much less (RTFLOL). That’s good isn’t? Still young at heart. Well, as the saying goes, the only difference between a boy and a man is the price of his toys.

I was born in the 7th month of the lunar calendar. It is said that those born during this period are supposed to be intelligent and can see dead people. I think I am intelligent enough. After all I passed my examinations not because I studied hard. I hope I don’t ever have to say to anyone, “I see dead people” or point to an empty space and utter, “Dead man walking.”

Three weeks back, surveillance cameras were installed in our lifts together with a monitor above the lift on the ground floor that allows people to see what’s going on inside the lifts. The monitor however switched from showing images from inside the lift you are waiting for and those from the other lift at the other end of the block. So if you have people inside only one of the lifts, you get images that at one moment shows there are people and the next without. Hey, where did they go? Were the humans? Oh, there they are again. Anyway, I digressed.

These well-known people have the same birthday as me, though different year:

Leo Tolstoy (1828)
Wayne Osmond (1951)
Shania Twain (1965) and
So Yi Hyeon (1984).

From the above you should be able to tell and end the speculation about day I was born in.

As to how I will spend my birthday this year, well I don’t have concrete plans. I am on leave till Tuesday and had actually thought of spending the weekend in a hotel since I got special discounts but decided not to waste the money; might as well spend it on more chocolates. Might do some shopping as I have not shop for anything, other than chocolates and ice cream, for almost a year! Need some new clothes and socks. As I am a lazy person who doesn’t like to go out just to buy something (if I do, I need to do so first thing in the morning when the shops open for business), I might end up just staying at home reading, watching tv or simply just lazing around relaxing. After all I had already stock up on ice cream, sorbets, chocolates and titbits for this whole week!