Mr.Tan

Today is my father's a.k.a Pa's birthday!

Yerps, Mr.Tan is turning 49 this year. And i must admit, he doenst look half his age =P
But Pa, the reading glasses is cramping your style just abit ler hehe...

So just like many of his past birthdays, he woke up at 7am this morning, did some weird excercise like movements in the front porch, woke the lazybums up *points at Les and Rachel*, went out to buy breakfast and is now downstairs reading his book. No celebrations, no elaborate lunches or dinners, not even a birthday cake. And thats how he likes it.

Once when i asked him why he didnt buy us birthday cakes on our birthdays anymore (half hinting my 15th bday which was a few months away =p), he told us that birthday celebrations were for when we were little. And that as we grew up and understood the world and our purpose in it more, birthdays were yearly wake up calls. It is the time of year when we sit and reflect on ourselves. What have we done with the 49 or 20 years granted to us on earth? What have we done to enrich the world with our presence? What have we said to help another life live better?And only if and when we realise we have done enough (which i never have on my yearly wake up calls) then we have a reason to celebrate.

Haha...kind of a party-pooper eh? There are alot more un-conventional things about my Pa that i adore. Some who meet my Pa think that he is really quiet and a lil too strict. And he is! But if you are preveilaged enough to listen to a few of his ideas and arguements, you would agree with me that the world needs more people like him.

Mr.Tan 101:
-Apricotts
-Elephants
-Missions
-Reading ( books are the greatest friends cos they teach you selflessly and cant scold you if you neglect them for awhile)
-Children (tho they are kinda intimidated by him at times)
-Magic tricks ( to overcome the intimidation factor)
-Backpacking
-Perfect block writing (all round-round wan like donuts)
-Pork knuckels (tsk tsk)
-cooks with the simplest ingredients ( spagetti in duck sauce, spagetti in tomato sauce, spagetti in dark sauce)
-people watching ( he likes studying the characters of different people.Carefull, me and sis already become specimens)
-admires patience
-On talking (Only speak when your actions fail to convey your intentions. If you have nothing good to say, dont say it)
-On shopping ( Once the size fits, buy 5 of the same set.Need more variety? Buy 5 of the same set of different colours then)
-5 minutes rule ( if u spend more than 5 minutes infront of the mirror doing your hair, something is wrong witht the hair cut)
-10 minutes rule ( if you spend more than 10 minutes bathing, get a new shower head)
-15minutes rule ( if you spend more that 15 minutes on meals, you are wasting ur time)
-has 3 daughters who adore him.

Thats my dad, not the conventional kind of fathers but special nontheless.

Anyways Pa, you dont read my blog (at least i dont THINK you do, and scrolling back at my posts i hope you dont =P). But i think its time somebody celebrated your birthday because you HAVE done something to enrich the world when you gave up our time to help in missions, you HAVE said someting to help another life live better when you believed in your daughter,enough to help her gain her own confidence in herself.

Happy Birthday!

Flashback: There is only ONE SINGLE memory i have of him buying a birthday cake for his own birthday. We were still very young back then and my mom couldnt be home to celebrate his bday so Lesley and i were pretty bummed cos having so little birthdays of our own, we thot is was supposed to be a big thing that Pa was finally getting his birthday too. So we hintted and begged him to get a cake which turned out to be the size of a slightly larger muffin. And both of us wanted our pic taken with the birthday boy so Pa had to blow the candles out twice while short stubby fingers snapped blurry-sengeted photograhps. Aww....