Gifted

The days leading to and even after my birthday made me realize once again how gifted I am. From the phone call from Japan to the calls from Manila. From the texts from the US, Vietnam and Manila to the emails from across the US and Europe. These little things reinforce that factoid that I'm gifted with so many wonderful people who are so generous in giving their love and friendship.

The gifts came in all shapes and sizes: 5 line messages, 50 minute conversations, and that one thing that I love and never fails to put a smile on my face -- surprises!

First surprise came in the form of a big envelope from Japan. It was dropped off the house just as I was about to leave, and this caused me to act like an excited kid inside the MTR. Slowly, I began opening the gift and discovering what good things were inside. The first thing I opened was a gift of words: a letter that got me smiling from TST to Fortress Hill.

As I arrived at the office, I started bringing out the gifts one by one. There were 4 different items: the first two were a box of Pocky Crush and 3 boxes of Dars chocolates - sweets from Japan that I always indulge in whenever I'm there.

The 3rd gift was this really cool hoodie:



It was a two layer hoodie that had a trucker vibe to it. The red plaid hoodie is inserted into another brown hoodie, and the effect is layering without the bulk - and this is tres perfect for autumn. So perfect that I ended up using it the very next day. (And I used it on my trip to Manila last weekend, and my trip back to HK this morning - yup, that's how much I love it.) Plus, the brand of the jacket is equally cool! It's so revolutionary.



The last gift was a collared tee with a western motif and funky buttons. Also in brown, it looks perfect with medium wash, boot cut jeans. I wanted to take a photo of it, but I was wearing it the very moment these photos were taken. Maybe I'll take another photo of it once it comes back from the washers.

Now that's what I call Presents Perfect.

Just when I thought the gift giving has finished, another package came 2 days after. This one came in a funky corrugated box of a Japanese product (the box was in Japanese characters, so I have no idea what was in there originally.) When I opened the box, this familiar package was the first thing I saw.



It's a box of High Raisin cookies from Hazel. Mark gave me the same box of cookies and I really liked it. Now that I have a bigger box, I'll probably share some of these yummy things. Well, I'll probably share one.

And beside the big box was a small package wrapped in red paper. After opening the pack and unraveling the bubble wrap, this beautiful red thing appeared.



It was a special edition red iPod nano! Totally, way, super, uber cool! Mark and I were in Ginza when they launched this product and we spent half an hour just roaming around the apple store looking at this. Everybody knows that red is one of my favorite colors that's why this iPod is perfect. Just perfect. Now I can listen to "Going out of my head" over and over in private. Hahaha. But I won't use it while i'm crossing the street - Mark's orders. Harhar.



Aside from the gifts, the thought behind these gifts are what I cherish more. Reading and re-reading the letters that came with it made these more special by a hundred fold. And that is what really, really makes me feel so gifted.