I turned 30 last Thursday and Leah had thrown me a surprise party after work. Actually it wasn’t a surprise party since she told me about it the day before but she had been organising it for over two weeks, with amazingly long email trails. So throughout Thursday in the office I have to pretend I didn’t know there was a celebration after work. At around 6:30PM, my boss tried to delay me by asking me to talk to him about some personnel issues, while everyone left the office. Then he asked me to go and have a quick drinks with his wife before Leah and I (allegedly) went to dinner.

Of course everyone were in the pub when we arrived and I had to pretend to be surprised! Leah bought a delicious chocolate cake from Dean & Deluca which everyone devoured in the middle of a packed pub. Beer and cake, great combo! The people at work bought me a $50 iTunes Music Store gift card which I’ve already spent some of it this evening. They were trying to get me a electric butter warmer as a joke (or may be not) but unfortunately it is not sold in the US. After a few drinks some of us went to grab some dinner and I was treated with a tiramisu and candle at the end. So I had two birthday cakes! Woo hoo!

Though not really surprised, it was great to spend my birthday differently this year. Most years Leah and I would have a nice dinner with a few friends and that’s about it. It was a shame that only people I work with turned up in the pub. Other friends didn’t managed to join us due to work commitment or whatever.

Technorati Tags: Birthday

A long time ago, in a country far far away called Britain, I was working as a software consultant being paid handsomely. I bought the latest PC laptop from Gateway when I already had a top of the range desktop just because I could afford one. It had all the leading edge technology then; Pentium III 500 MHz, 15″ LCD display, etc. Until I moved to NY 18 months later, the only travelling that laptop had done was between our apartment and the office which is about 15 minutes walk if I walked slowly.

Then after six months of trans-Atlantic travels the Titanium Powerbook had replaced the Gateway and it was relegated to the dark corner of the cupboard. And there it stayed until we moved to Hoboken. But I had my faith in it and took it along with us through two moves. I knew one day I would find a useful task for it.

The Gateway was briefing let out to stretch its legs when I was between jobs and started the ecto project, which requires working in a Windows environment. But again, it was banished back to the cupboard when the Compaq laptop arrived.

Finally last week I’ve found a good home for the Gateway. My boss’ sister who is living temporarily in NY and earning $120/week, before taking up a job in Boston was lacking a computer. My boss had already tried giving her his wife’s old laptop but that one’s hard drive died soon after. So when I learnt of her predicament, I knew that’s where the Gateway should go to restore the electronic karma. Thus I have reduced the number of laptops in the apartment from 4 to 3 and the once spurious machine is now a reliable servant for someone in need.