Joanna invited us to her 21st birthday at Aloha Loyang. Since school ended at noon I went home first before driving over bringing with me mahjong tables, tiles and some slices of watermelon. I thought I was late but when I reached there only Flo, Char, Jess, and a handful of Jo's other friends were there. When I saw Jo I was stunned. She had make up and glitter on that made her eyes pretty and her hair look long, and no specs. It was much different from the Jo I usually see.
Jo's auntie made some sushi that was rather addictive to eat. Jess, Flo, Char and I couldn't help but eat more than a few. I got to know Char's bf, who took a number of photos for the party. His photos had a sense of colour tone I can't put my finger on it, I think muted somewhat but to a pleasing effect, and an overcast of pink. He has been to Kilimanjaro, cool. Flo's bf came too. We wrote in Joanna's guest book as Joanna went to change.
We were stunned again. I thought Joanna was going to wear her normal clothes but her dressed stunned us. It was a very pink dress. It was a pretty dress though.
We also looked at the picture slideshow she put together before the others came. It was projected in the courtyard on 4 mahjong paper pieces stuck together stuck onto the cornice. ingenious. The bungalow was spacious and because it was a garden bungalow away from the pool it was quieter too and had many other areas for the crowd to hangout. I was touched to see that she cared for her friends including her fencing friends which featured in a lot of the pictures. I was surprised that she used some of my pictures. It was a really nice meaningful slideshow. Joanna also created several music playlists. Wow, I wouldn't go to that extent cos I am lazy to do that; I noted Jo's attention to detail.
One of pictures featured Joanna's birthday present, something she wanted. I am very happy she received what she had been wanting. A lot of people were jealous obviously. Yes, all of us were stunned to realise that was her birthday present.
At the chalet entrance were those air snakes. They were fun to play with, and certainly eye-catching that we can tell where the party was if one was arriving to the party. It was very cool too. Near the entrance within the chalet was a balloon sculpture forming the number "21". Some of her friends who came earlier were trying to fix the balloons because they were getting out of position. They tried their best. The civil engineer said nothing more could be done than what they did. Not too bad an attempt electrical engineering and business students (the 3 guys who were her friends). hurhur
Around the chalet were also "Did You Know?" facts printed on A4 paper stuck onto the wall. These were made by her close friends who had come to help decorate the chalet. That was a very nice touch from them. They also created two games for the party - how nice of them! The first one was "Don't Forget The Lyrics" cum KTV. A powerpoint was created where a song could be selected and the MTV played and the person had to sing along to it. For the second game, we had to first write a special memory, be it funny, wacky, embarrasing, on a piece of paper and our name on the back of it. Joanna's job was to choose 3 people who most likely wrote that memory, and the 3 would have a chance to persuade that it was he/she or NOT he/she (if it was the case he/she was the one who did write that message) before Joanna would make the final guess. The winners of all the games got a home-made voucher from Joanna - a free ride in a car. I shall not disclose anymore details :) Joanna was quite game during the games and she kept her sense of humour despite being all dressed up. haha
During the games section we managed to convince Jo's "one day bf" (it was a joke we created) to dance and he did dance for her. So, that was the famous dancing talent that I didn't get to see till now. It was filmed by 3 cameras by 3 people (haha in case someone tried to delete one there's still another one somewhere) and my copy has been uploaded.
The catered food was one of the best around - it probably was quite expensive too. One table of western food, one table asian. The food tasted nice and some people kept going for the cold milk tea in the dispenser. Happy bellys indeed. It was after dark when the other fencers arrived.
After chatting around it was time for cake cutting. It was a huge cake (but then again you have to feed a lot of people) with a picture of Joanna on it. I wonder how Joanna felt about that picture being used. It was a durian cake with lots of that sticky durian. I hardly eat durian so I had to rinse my mouth and drink water after eating as I was beginning to cough. I think the others who are more of a durian-eater enjoyed the cake.
after the photo-taking with our group with the cake, Joanna, the other main actor, and her supporting actors dropped the bombshell of a secret that they had been hiding for two years. She had tricked the entire club sans her cast into believing something, since the very first AGM when she and I just joined fencing. gobsmacked many of us were. one person in particular was upset about it for some time thereafter.
From the photos uploaded by Joanna, it seems she has a close knit family and close friends, which is nice. She loves her mum very much and her mum loves her too very much.
And then there was the mini-saga by grandmother regarding the mahjong tables and tiles. We brought home the wrong tiles but the right tables but Mama believed the table was wrong. So after my NUS Biathlon duty I drove over to Joanna's to settle the stuff. I noticed Joanna's hair had indeed grown longer.
This post does not do justice to the fantastic party Joanna threw. A lot of people had fun; I found it very fun - and Daniel hoped that my party would be as good as hers. Oh well I'm not really having a party in the end so that can't come true but I hope to have as much fun and memories.
Joanna has that stack of memory papers, as well as her guestbook, and her mum is printing the photos we took of her birthday (Joanna asked me for a CD of the photos). I could sense the love Joanna has from her family and friends. I'm glad you had a good 21st. (:
