Happy Birthday, Dearest & Greatest Wife & Mother
I’m wishing you another year
Of laughter, joy and fun,
Surprises, love and happiness,
And when your birthday’s done,
I hope you feel deep in your heart,
As your birthdays come and go,
How very much you mean to me,
More than you can know.— Another Year by Joanna Fuchs
If you read this, right now I’m in Bekasi with my wife, and mother of our beautiful daughter, to celebrate her 28th birthday. Happy birthday, dear! I’m counting on Noemi’s precious laughter on this special occasion.
This year’s celebration is special indeed. This is her first birthday with a husband and a daughter. Of course, everything is different than previous years but I’m confident that we both can enjoy every second of our new life.
Now, presents. What do I have for her today? A brand new transistor radio. Made in China. Cheap but usable. And portable, obviously. To tell you the truth, what I really want to get for her (but couldn’t) is the old transistor radio. Very cool! But rare. Why radio? We have had enough with TV shows. While we will not completely abandon the TV, but we will turn into a better (or safer) entertainment medium. We choose radio. Why portable? After experiencing some power outage several weeks ago, we need it to operate without AC power supply. Thus, the portable radio.
Do you still listen to radio? I do. And I love it.
Another special item for today is a birthday card, designed by myself (see the pictures above). Most of the content are photos. Of her. It basically is a summary of our journey from 2006 – 2009. I know we recently talked about how we missed the good old days. When we roam the streets of Bandung. When we went to interesting places. Taking pictures. Here are the memoir of those days. I hope this can brighten our days up a bit. I can assure you that we will do that again, but next time it will be the three of us. A beautiful girl will come along. And we should be thankful for that.
And last, but not least, are special treats I bring from Bandung. Beef and chicken picnic rolls from Kartika Sari Bandung. Who need a tart if we can have some of these? We can party tonight with a couple bottles of “teh botol”.
*Raising my bottle of “teh botol” — Cheers! To our dearest & greatest wife & mother :)