Ann’s Birthday Party

Unlike her past birthdays, Ann Gabriel did not have a single son or daughter with her for her birthday on December 18th, this past year. Eldest daughter, Dr. Sharmini Gomez, was in Switzerland with her family and husband, Dr. Terence Gomez, who was posted there over a year ago on a UN assignment.

And younger sister Ann, named after her mother, had flown there with her husband and daughter to spend the Christmas holidays with her sister.

Son Paul Gabriel was in Caracas, covering Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's trip to Venezuela for the Star in his column "Jottings from Caracas."

Anita Gabriel was baby-sitting for her sister and brother-in-law, who were at a function. Anita, one of seven "outstanding Malaysian women honoured for their contribution towards raising awareness of female-related cancers" was recently presented with the PRUlady Achievement Award by Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad in Kuala Lumpur.

Another son and daughter were abroad as well.

In lieu of her children's absence, Ann invited some friends from Tiara and from her work place, Educare, over for a get-together.

Son-in-law Robert Schuster from the US roasted a leg of lamb and made a mashed potato dish to go with it for the party. And in keeping with the taste buds of Malaysians, Robert jazzed the gravy with a "pedas"touch to go with the lamb. His dish was given the thumbs up by guests See Meng, Irene, Nini and Uma. Not-shy-one See Meng helped herself to three helpings of lamb, and everything else with it! "Any time better than Lafite Restaurant," she exclaimed. By the time she had the trifle dessert, which was laced with cherries, orange slivers and peach slices, she was positive she was more stuffed than a stuffed Christmas turkey.

With wine flowing freely, Ronald and Gopi kept entering the kitchen to refill their glasses. They were in safe hands, they said, since they had a back up and very sober driver in Pushpa, wife of Ronald.

For those who fancied Malaysian fare, there was fresh chappati, curry, and egg sambal, done earlier in the day by Kalvinder Kaur, (who was featured in the November 18th, 2006 issue of Tiara Times) who had been requested to do some dishes for the birthday bash. Kal had to babysit so could not attend, whilst sister Baljeet had gone to Penang earlier in the day – that left two guests short and more to go around for the others.

After a sumptuous feast, the guests started regaling one another with snippets of their life. Newlyweds Nini and Gopi Krishnan, an IT System Administrator, said he knew his wife for eleven years before popping the question. He took so long since, in IT terminology, " I had to get to know and learn about her, and study her likes and dislikes. After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime decision, so one has to be sure not to make a mistake," he opined.

But he did not propose to her on bended knee. "We were on my motorbike when I asked her whether she would marry me, and from behind, I could only hear her say, 'What, what ,what?' I was afraid she would say no," he admitted. But new bride Nini had been smitten. "Every day, for one year, when I came to the office (they worked in the same set up) there was a rose on my table. And though he had nothing to do in that part of the office, he would make it a point to have some excuse to make his way there daily to say 'good morning' to me."

He had this advice for people who wanted to know the secret of a great marriage – after only three months of marriage, was he qualified to give such views, someone asked. "Well, I feel that one can’t go wrong if one keeps a line of communication open all the time between spouses. I never fail to greet my wife and ask how she is, every single day. I always have time for her, and sit and talk to her. I believe in communication. And that, to me, I feel, is the secret of a good marriage."

The rest of the guests threw in their share of life experiences as well and the evening was punctuated with peals of laughter at the amusing anecdotes, whilst everyone concluded in the end that Malaysia was the best country in the world to live in.The merrymaking went on till the wee hours of the morning before the guests went their separate ways.

Many happy returns of the day, Ann, and we look forward to another such occasion next year.