ZT's birthday barbeque

ZT's birthday fell on 18 March 2009, which was a wednesday. She is the girlfriend of my brother (LG). We celebrated her birthday today with a barbeque at my mother's home.

In the evening, my brother (LG) placed the charcoal in the barbeque pit to get the barbeque going. My family owns a small portable barbeque pit, which is very handy.

Whenever we have a barbeque, there are two essentials that we have next to the barbeque pit:-

(a) a satay fan (to fire up the charcoal and to keep the flames going); and

(b) butter or margarine (to glaze the food while barbequing). You can use oil but we prefer to use butter or margarine as we find that the barbequed food is more aromatic when you use butter or margarine.

While waiting for the barbeque to start, Boy-Boy stood guard at the table where the food was placed. He looked pensive and was probably thinking, "Why is my Papa taking so long to get the fire going? I am hungry!".

Shortly after that, Boy-Boy's tail started wagging furiously. My mother turned her head and realised the source of Boy-Boy's excitement. He had spied Da parking our car. Da was working today and he had just arrived.

Finally! The barbeque was under way. LG was head chef for the night and he marinated the lamb chops and chicken wings using his "secret marinade". As for the satay, my family had bought 50 sticks of uncooked chicken satay and 50 sticks of uncooked beef satay from City Satay. We like their peanut gravy. MF (the wife of my brother, LB) likes their ketupat.

The good thing about having a barbeque at home is that it is very "free and easy" and you do not feel the pressure of time, unlike when you rent a public barbeque pit. Our barbeques tend to run into hours as we take our time to enjoy each other's company and the delicious food.

Boy-Boy had his own dinner (rice with fish and vegetables) waiting for him but he ignored his dinner. The smell of the barbeque was more tempting!

Boy-Boy's patience paid off as he was allowed to share some of the barbequed food. He enjoyed in particular the barbequed mock crab stick and cuttlefish balls.

After dinner, we moved onto Part 2 of the festivities. Yes, cake-time! The black forest cake was bought from Han's Cafe and Cake House this morning. Happy birthday, ZT!

For the sake of the camera, the birthday girl had to do everything in slow motion, from making a wish to blowing the candles to cutting the cake. She looked at the cake and pondered how to cut the cake into seven slices as there were eight cherries.

My brother (LB) came to the rescue. He is the expert at cutting cake into equal portions. As there were eight cherries but there were seven of us, one lucky family member ended up with a slice of cake with two cherries.

Boy-Boy was not allowed to eat the cake as it contains chocolate. Miffed, he ran up the staircase and sat next to Da (who was sitting on the staircase, enjoying his slice of cake). Boy-Boy then gave the Oscar-winning performance of the night and looked piteously at Da's slice of cake, hoping to melt our hearts into agreeing to let him sample the cake.

The sinful indulgence of chocolate continued with chocolate truffles from Godiva. Heavenly!

After all the excitement of the night, Boy-Boy took a little break and had forty winks while his favourite toy was safe in his arms.

After a short nap, Boy-Boy woke up refreshed and ready to play again. Ah... the ball or the bone? tsk, tsk... choices, choices.....

Abba Father, I thank You that my family and I are blessed. We are close-knit and we enjoy each other's company. Every occasion (no matter how big or small) is a cause for celebration. I thank You that we always have a reason to celebrate.