The last few years I haven't been doing much for my birthdays as I guess I never really thought it was that big a deal. Strange, as when I was a child my mom was always pretty big on birthday parties for me & would put in lots of effort into making fun-looking food & games for my friends & I!
Maybe I got my fill of birthdays when I was a child haha. But I think I'm lucky that I got to experience that when I was growing up overseas, because for Asians it's usually more of a close-knit family dinner affair rather than rowdy kiddy parties.
Anyhow, the last time I celebrated my birthday was for my 21st, so I decided to do something this year!
Officially hitting...
...my mid-twenties
I can no longer pretend to have "just" legally become an adult.
I spent my birthday weekend (24th & 25th July) with a staycation at Grand Hyatt!
They put me up at the Grand Club Deluxe Room, which comes with a little living area so that was great for my little birthday get-together!
But my favourite part definitely has to be the bathroom!
The bathroom is so big & grand; though I didn't get round to even using that bathtub haha.
Changed into my birthday outfit to go down for dinner!
But before that, we also spent some time taking pictures of my pretty birthday cakes & sweet treats!
Spoilt me had TWO birthday cakes hahahaha.
I'm not usually that much of a sweet tooth person, but I was suddenly in the mood for it & what better excuse than a birthday? Om nom nom nom!
This white & floral cake was kindly created by the in-house Hyatt pastry chef!
Isn't it so pretty? Frankly I didn't expect much as it's not exactly Hyatt's specialty (compared to an actual bakery) so I thought it would be a more generic cake, but we were all very surprised to see this!
My other cake with super cute ombre pastel pink layers & dripping purple cream is by Creme Maison Bakery! The floral cupcakes are by them as well & I loved it! They're able to do any form of customisation & you should really check out some of their very cute designs on their Instagram!
Creme Maison Bakery
Also had these bear macarons by The Macaron Shop, as well as normal pastel macarons!
They have a whole bunch of other cute character macarons such as Elmo & Hello Kitty :O
The Macaron Shop
(website)
Birthday outfit!
Floral crown // Topshop
Crop top // Tobi
Clutch // Saint Laurent
Necklace // Chanel
Flats // Primark
Crochet skirt // Oh Vola
Oh Vola
(website)
Fun fact - the Chanel necklace was my birthday gift last year from Yutaki, Qiuting, Wendy & Shuyin!
This year Wendy & Shuyin couldn't make it because they were in Osaka!
So for dinner it was just Yutaki, Qiuting, Miyake & I & we headed to one of Hyatt's many restaurants, 10 Scotts, for the buffet dinner!
Buffet ANYTHING is super exciting hahaha.
I actually really love grapes as well as the very sweet melon pictured above!
Grapes are possibly my 2nd most favourite fruit, with the first being apples. I can easily finish a whole supermarket box of grapes in one night.
The buffet dinner included this special set-up of various small treats ranging from dim sum to prawn burgers! Each set has 2 persons' portions, so for the 4 of us we got 2 of these stands.
Pictured is the pumpkin soup!
But there was also mushroom soup (everyone's favourite), which I had 2 bowls of!
It's astonishing how filling all these small varied items can be...
We were so stuffed at the end & couldn't finish everything!
Omg Qiuting had like FOUR helpings of this special prawn dish!
It was really good but I can't believe she literally took FOUR plates hahahaha.
And to end of... we had this really refreshing berry cocktail!
Thankfully it didn't taste too strongly of alcohol & the berries really complemented it.
But Qiuting & Yutaki have the worst alcohol tolerance ever so they became red-faced & hyper after just one glass each *facepalm* LOL
When you're trying to take an OOTD & your friend photobombs you.
Snuck a shot of Yutaki posing for his OOTD!
Group pictures! Thank you to the 3 of you for spending my birthday countdown with me! :D
To be honest, I was a bit moody that day because I'm not really into this sort of hosting-gathering thing (unless you count just letting people come to my house) so I was a bit out of my comfort zone. And to make matters worse, everyone had something on before my birthday gathering! So I was quite sad thinking I was going to be there alone in the room for the afternoon until everyone could come in the evening, but the 3 of them turned up together earlier than I expected :)
Also, it so happens that my boyfriend's mom shares the exact same birthdate as me LOL.
Never in my (short/long) 25 years have I met someone with the same birthday until now.
So yeah he couldn't be there with me that early either!
Oh yes if you're wondering what I got for my birthday...
Qiuting & Miyake got me a new pair of Ray Ban sunglasses as I lost mine in New York! T_T
Qiuting also gave me an angbao to defray the cost of the staycation hahaha (I tried to reject but she was super fierce wtf; being "adults" means we now give angbaos haha).
And Yutaki gave me new camera lenses for my DSLR, which I used for many of the pictures in this post! It has the ability to do that whole, front-sharp & back-blur thing which instantly makes my pictures look 50x more professional hahaha omg love itttttt!
Like this below!
New earrings my boyfriend got for me! I didn't even realise he took these pictures of me till I uploaded everything to my laptop. He likes the new camera lens too; like I said, it instantly makes us feel more professional lolol #AYGPhotographer
Waited till the next day to get pictures of my lovely bouquet of flowers!
Omg the mix of pinks, greens & whites is so pretty!
This bouquet is from the sweet girls at Fleuriste! Fleuriste also offers a floral subscription service where they will deliver flowers to you on a regular basis depending on your preference & schedule!
Fleuriste
(website)
My Creme Maison Bakery cake! I had asked for matcha strawberry flavour & was really surprised that I could really taste the matcha! They have a ton of other really unique flavours as well that you should definitely try out!
The inside of the Hyatt cake! Not only pretty outside but also yummy inside!
Don't know the exact flavour for this but I think it may also have some strawberry!
Here's how the stems of the flowers are poked into the cake if you're curious!
Looks like SO MUCH work :O
Spent some time at the pool that day before dinner! :D
I really like the whole chair-in-the-water concept.
I mean it just seems very shiok if you get what I mean; lounging but still keeping cool!
Also, the restaurant in the background is the poolside BBQ grill where we had our dinner!
More on that below.
Red monokini specially designed by my friend Sophia Chong, owner of The Juice Market!
This piece also comes in black, navy & khaki & I bravely ventured away from always picking black...
The Juice Market
(website)
After washing up was BBQ buffet (yes, again) dinner at Oasis.
Oasis features all-you-can eat BBQ meat & seafood!
Even had Peking duck! I love Peking duck but sadly it's pretty uncommon in Singapore!
Had so many fresh oysters & prawns that weekend :) yum yum yum
Here's my cut of steak which was really good! You can ask the chef to grill what you'd like to your desired doneness & mine was done perfectly. Really tender with flavourful seasoning.
Was great eaten on its own although the buffet does consist of sides like salad & potato gratin.
And last but not least... the staff surprised me with another birthday cake!
Super sweet of them & it was really an unexpected touch to end the evening.
The service at Hyatt was really fantastic & I remember how I was greeted as soon as I got out of my Uber car. I guess the staff deduced from my small suitcase that I would be staying at Hyatt, so they came up to me right away in Hyatt's driveway & offered to assist me in my check-in.
Everything was handled very smoothly & promptly! Hyatt's convenient location in the middle of town is also great (I spent the night celebrating at Zouk & also stopped by the nearby 7-11 for snacks)!
If you'd like to check out Hyatt's hospitality as well, you can take a look below at some of the ongoing deals for their room & restaurant reservations!
Hyatt Room Stay
Buffet at 10 Scotts
BBQ Buffet at Oasis
Grand Hyatt
10 Scotts Rd
(website)
Thank you for having me Hyatt!
As for how's life been since turning 25... I officially feel older. Somehow 25 sounds SO much older than 24! Or maybe it's just a matter of getting used to. But 24 sounded like it was still on the cusp of adulthood. 25...? Mid-twenties. OH & I have now officially progressed on to the next checkbox on every survey/form there is out there hahahaha.
You know how forms ask you to mark your age range & it's usually something like this:
# 12 - 17
# 18 - 24
# 25 - 40
Something like that. I distinctly remember the 18 - 24 category because I always felt it was unjust to lump my age group with teens still taking pocket money & studying LOL #indignantyoungadult
So I guess now that I'm in the next age range, I'm officially in the you-should-be-working category, which is how I interpret the 25 - 40 age categorisation for surveys.
Which I am. Working I mean.
Time has really flown by & I'm both in a hurry to speed it up & in a haste to slow it down... A decade has zoomed by since I won New Paper New Face :O Even university seems so long ago. But at the same time I need time to pass quicker so as to amass savings, settle down, get on in life... Can't I be 25 years old with the prospects/social status of an established 35 year old? Dammit.
I do realise I talk about this whole growing up thing a lot... I guess I both anticipate & dread it.
Happy Birthday! Staycations are a great idea. -Hanna Lei
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