*sigh*

How is it possible that the very very annoying Anthony Fedorov and the constantly out-of-tune Scott Savol is still in? Americans, you are dumber than I thought! Woe! Woe!

My parents met on the dancefloor too (well, I think they knew of each other in school but "fell in love" at one of their groovy 70s house parties, where my mom wore them mini-skirts that would put mine to shame). After battling with leaving crowds after their jungle show at the bottleneck upstairs, they weren’t too happy with the "fire hazard". But they definitely loosened up once they got onto the half-empty dancefloor! I always knew my mom loved to dance, but I was surprised that my papa started grooving first, then getting mummy to dance!

Papa and Mummy seem to be enjoying themselves!

Pat warmed them up a little…

I was thoroughly amused and proud, repeatedly introducing my parents to my Zouk buddies on the dancefloor, all of whom were astonished they were there, then proclaiming "your parents are so cool!"

So cheers to the coolest parents on the planet!!! Tee hee!

They ended rather early though, slightly before 4am I think. I still refused to go to bed yet, so I rounded up the group for some post-party birthday cake (that was left untouched since we were too stuffed then). So Mich and I, the true SPGs we are (Asian Pussy! Asian Pussy! *pumps fist in air*), ushered the American, and the 4 Brits up to my pad for an after-party.

No lah! No wild orgys with 2 petite Asians and 5 ang mohs to blog about (you wish!;p… i wish! >;p …i kid, i kid). What churned out was 2 fab hours with great folks and absolutely great-in-da-tummy birthday cake. Wild trashing on the dancefloor does wonders for the appetite. There were some Back to Mine chilling grooves, and Ya gotta be there! moments like when Ian awoke from his stupor to show us his Turtle and Shit In My Pants dance moves that cannot be described. It’s the kind of party and after-party that just happens with the random right combination of folks whose company you are thankful for. That perfectly rounded up a perfectly joyful birthday, albeit at 6am on the 23rd of April (but it was still my birthday in US time!).

Positive thought of the day: I am in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

Cheers!

We went home for a ceremonious birthday song and cutting of cake, since we were too stuffed to eat any more. My yummy mango birthday cake and the huge present sent to me from Pat’s mom in Florida (not the cake, just the huge present)!

This is the card my mummy bought for me. My mom has a knack for picking the best birthday cards. She was wondering why the card said "dance around your handbag". My guess is that girls who carry around their handbags at clubs (god knows why, I refused to bring anything out while dancing) have to dance around it to look out for it.

A very apt card, in fact. Indeedy, I got a fabulous handbag from my collegues at work that morning!! I’ve never been a handbag person, the last one I had was a 20 buck one from the streets of New York that I’ve been using since my first day of work. I guess they took pity on my lack of variety. But that bag suited the dress I wore to work that day! I hardly love handbags, but I fell in love with this one. It’s got a compartment for my cell and my ipod, and, and, get this…it fits my Economist perfectly! Whoohoo!!

And the next day, my cute Mummy promptly took any picture of handbags from the newspapers. hahaha!

She’s a riot.

Unseen here is the lovely necklace she got me and the Raffles card my papa bought. My parents were never the spoil-your-kids sort, as in buy this buy that buy everything do anything we want kinda parents. In fact, we were brought up reeeaal traditionally asian-strict. But they certainly are making up for lost spoiling time! =D

Since Mummy’s birthday is on the 21st and mine’s on the 22nd, it’s always a celebratory mood in the Chan household around this time. We went to a great Teochew restaurant along Old Havelock Road called Liang Kee.

Mummy pretends to blow out the unlit candle on her birthday cake to shy away from the attention of a birthday song. We insisted on singing it anyway, albeit very very out of tune.

This is the bunch of flowers my brother and I gave here, displayed proudly at home.

Our gift to her, a collage made on picasa (they make it real easy to do collages), proudly displayed at home as well. I gotta say, we have a very very homey home with all the pictures put up.

Here’s the collage in clearer view. My mumy has classic expressions caught nicely on camera. The "Mummy/Mommy" is how she signs off her emails to her children, because she says my brother pronounces it as "Mummy", while I pronounce it as "Mommy". Go figure! …and yes, that is a picture of her doggie Brenddi included. She is the apple of her eye (aside from me and kor kor of cos!) after all!

“Mandate, regulate, litigate.” That has been the green mantra. And it explains the world’s top-down, command-and-control approach to environmental policymaking. Slowly, this is changing. Yesterday’s failed hopes, today’s heavy costs and tomorrow’s demanding ambitions have been driving public policy quietly towards market-based approaches.

I gotta say though, this article is a tad bit too optimistic to be true. But the hippie capitalist in me sure hopes it’d work out:

Whether the big environmental groups join or not, the next green revolution is already under way. Rachel Carson, the crusading journalist who inspired greens in the 1950s and 60s, is joining hands with Adam Smith, the hero of free-marketeers. The world may yet leapfrog from the dark ages of clumsy, costly, command-and-control regulations to an enlightened age of informed, innovative, incentive-based greenery.

But to get just as many hits from car forums because of this picture of the law-breaking Rio (I didn’t even know what make/model it was!)? Now that’s a surprise.

*sings*
Happy Birthday to Mummy (21st) and Me (22nd),
Happy Birthday to Mummy and Me,
Happy Birthday to Mummy and Me,
Happy Birthday to Mummy and Meeeee!!!

I love birthdays! =D