Am I delirious?

Last evening was my FIL (father in law)’s 80th birthday. To celebrate, a surprise birthday party was organized for him in the same restaurant that Cart and I went to, to celebrate our wedding anniversary some years back. Without him knowing, his friends were all there. There were about 20 of us altogether.

Celebrating birthdays the Italian way can be quite dramatic – it’s perfectly normal to have your birthday cake brought to you, with fireworks.

I had a lovely evening, eating loads of good food and here are some pictures of them so that you could be jealous :

This was our appetizer with mixed seafood.

Pasta with clams (there was another type of pasta with fish, but I didn’t manage to try it … aww!!!)

Risotto con crema di scampi which was absolutely delish.

Baked Mediterranean Seabass with zucchini and potato … mmmmm.

And we ended our meal with some macedonia

And the birthday cake! My nephew’s sharp eyes immediately spotted out that this isn’t FIL’s name. Oooh … Someone at the bakery did a typo 😛

But as the evening went on, I started to feel sleepy and I was fighting to keep myself awake. Suddenly I realised that all of the ladies in our group looked like makciks (makcik is the affectionate term that Malays call an aunt be it if they were related or not)

The only thing missing is the headgear. But it was nor hard for me to imagine them with. Even the way that they chatted with each other reminds me of a typical scene when a makcik meets another.

Am I delirious?! Or am I subconsciously trying to find things to connect about things that I grew up with so that I don’t feel homesick? I don’t think that feeling will ever go away. There are people who live overseas for more than 10 years, acclimatized themselves and yet still miss their place of origin.