An Entrepreneur’s Journey

After the video presentation, Dennis walked into the the room…..holy cow…all his close friends are there. He didn’t expect that there are so many people inside the room. All the while he thought it will only be a small gathering with the SCG.

Even John Stamoulous is there to give his wishes.

Sinyan asked Dennis to go to the door, opened the door….dadah!!!!

There stand Adelene…….

Dennis just couldn’t believe his eyes. He walked away from the door into the room, still in haze. Two days before his birthday he had an intense chat over the phone with Adelene who is in Canada. He couldn’t take the surprise that she’s there for his birthday. All along only four person knows about the arrival of Adelene. Lilian, Sylvia, Sinyan and Adelene herself. These girls are so good at keeping a secret. But I know, they are suffering inside, girls need to talk.

Dennis and Adelene finally had a hug, Dennis tears gate opened again.

Four surprises, four cries from Dennis. The SCG birthday party’s standard is rising. Every birthday party is getting more and more exciting.

If you need have to plan any surprise birthday party, you can look for our creative brain Sylvia and Sinyan. You can find them in the blogroll.

I am very sure they will give you a SURPRISE!

With Dennis, Jean, Andi, Lynn, Sylvia, KL and me moving up to the hotel room after surprise no. 1. All of us are looking forward to surprise no. 2, we are anticipating what will surprise no. 2 do to Dennis. We are very sure it will open his tear gate like a tap.

Once the hotel door is open, the rest of the room was blocked by a white color bedsheet hanging from the ceiling. Then a video was cast onto the bedsheet, showing photos of Dennis growing up. Together with the music selected by Sinyan, Dennis gone into another tears flowing exercise.

Dennis never thought the hotel room is in this way. He thought we are only having a gathering, but the video was a surprise for him.

Hang on there for surprise no. 3…

Jean, Lynn and me met Dennis for Dinner. He actually came quite late because his boss wanted to buy him a drink. Lynn got to leave when he came because she had to bring Dennis’ friends to the hotel room. To avoid suspicious, she told Dennis that she is meeting another friend for a while, but will meet him at 11:30pm at the train station.

So the dinner party left with Jean and me accompanying Dennis. Suddenly Dennis asked,

“Has Sinyan done with her father’s day dinner?”
“Not sure. I call her to check.” Thinking that I better made that call, if not he would.

Called Sinyan, she just finish her dinner, and is on her way to Singapore. (This is a setup. Sinyan is already in the hotel room preparing for more surprises)

Throughout the conversation with Sinyan, I purposely spoke loudly, wanting Dennis to hear the conversation.

Finally, it’s time to proceed to the train station. While waiting for the train, Sylvia called to check our location. She told us she and Kok Leong will be waiting at the hotel room instead. (They were actually on the small garden above the train station preparing for surprise no. 1)

Reached our destination. Lynn and Andi were already there. We proceeded up the designated escalator that will lead to the small garden. Once we were in the garden, the name “DENNIS” arranged with lightstick were on the ground.

Then Sylvia and Kok Leong popped up with a cake, and birthday song. They also hanged our well-wishes on the trees. Dennis grab them one by one, reading each one of them brought him to tears.

Surprise no. 1 ended with Dennis doing a “What I feel like saying..” with more tears.

Proceeding to the hotel room, with more surprises…

2 days ago was Dennis’ birthday celebration, Sylvia and Sinyan has been planning the party for 3 weeks. Both girls did a wonderful job, from planning, getting the party goers, organizing, execution and keeping secrets. Yes, lots of secret.

After changing the plans for a number of times due to some strange circumstances, the girls decided to have the party in a hotel room in Amara Hotel. Thanks to Sylvia who managed to get a discount from her friend.

I arrived in the room at 4:15pm, Sylvia and Sinyan were already there setting up the room. Jumped in to help the girls, like blowing the balloons, setting up the projector screen.

Shortly Jean arrived, she started to use her creativity to decorate the wall with some special papers she brought.

Andi came about 5:30pm. He was one of those creative people in the team. He started to contribute ideas, make some love shaped cards for everyone to write love notes to Dennis.

Sylvia and Jean started to make some flowers with those long balloons. In no time we have many of those balloon flowers. Andi took those balloons, tie them nicely together. Here we have a bouquet of balloon of flowers. These people are so damn creative.

The plot

Dennis wants to meet the gang for dinner, before proceeding to the hotel. To give him a surprise, we have to tell so much lies for this surprises.

First, Sinyan has gone back to her hometown, Johor, to have father’s day dinner with her dad. She can only join us later.

Then Sylvia and Kok Leong are going for Taekwondo training. They will meet Dennis at 11:30pm at the Train Station to proceed to the hotel together.

Andi is held up in work due to the latest transfer to another department. He will also meet him at 11:30pm at the train station.

Adelene can only be back on the 22nd of June from Canada.

Only 3 genuine cases, Vasu has some family commitment and won’t be joining us throughout. Lilian is attending a wedding dinner, and will be joining us at 11:30pm. Joseph is in China for his business trip.

People who joins Dennis for dinner is Jean, Lynn and myself. We have an important task to accomplish, that is to drag the time till 11:30pm for all the surprises to be ready.

Stay tuned for surprises in the next posting.

I am so blessed to have a bunch of super duper, fantastic friends. Last week was a tough week for me, with decisions to make, personal issues and emotional turmoil going on.

I had never experience this kind of emotional roller coaster in my life, it was really bothering me, affecting my work and my productivity as well.

Though I had so much going on in me, so much pain, but I know that there is a bunch of friends who are always there for me. Over the weekend, they never stop asking how I am feeling. One after another, they msn or sms me, showing their love and concern. For once I was showered with so much love.

Knowing that I am supported by so many friends, I felt extremely blessed. Frankly, not many people in this world has such loving friends around them, some consider to be fortunate to have one or two, and I have one whole bunch of them.

To Sweet and Crazy Gang (SCG), you are the best people in the world. All of you showed me true friendship, love and support. I promise this to you, I will give my best to this friendship, contributing in whichever way I can. Thank you everyone.

A birthday party that took me by surprise. Credit to the Singapore Crazy Gang (SCG). Thank you, Vasu, Andi, Yiming, Dennis, Andrew, Byron, Joseph, Jean, Sylvia, Sinyan, Lynn and Yvonne for taking the effort to prepare this surprise birthday party for me.

A great plot with great planning, the gang succeeded in keeping me in the dark till I reached home. While I just done with the training, preparing to have a relax evening with Jean, beer and chips, never did I expect I’m fallen into their loop hole-less plan.

Holy Cow #1: When I walked into my house at 8pm, my mum came out from the kitchen excitedly, “Happy New Year.” I laughed at her, “so fast Happy New Year.” Oops, she realized she said wrongly, “Happy Birthday.”

Wow, being her son for so many years, she had never said “Happy Birthday” so excitedly. And I did not suspect anything, thinking probably she was in a good mood.

Holy Cow #2: The moment I open the door of my room, I saw balloons hanging in the air, balloons on the floor, light sticks placed on the floor like the lights on the airport landing ground and a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE made with light sticks pasted on the wall.

I was surprised to see all this. I stand outside my room, and keep going, “wow, wow, wow, wow, wow” I don’t know how many times I said that. Jean and my mum join in the “wow” too.

I turned around to look for Yvonne (my sister), thinking that she’s the one who decorated my room, but I can’t find her.

After I have calm down from that surprise, I went into my room. First step, second step, third step…….

Holy Cow #3: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”. Balloons flying towards me, party poppers popping in the air! Oh my God, the whole gang was hiding behind my cupboard. If I ever delay going in, someone might have faint from the lack of oxygen. They closed the windows, off the fan, so that I won’t be suspicious. My goodness, with eleven of them hiding in my room, with windows closed, fan switched off, it’s a sauna in there.

I am soooooo shocked to find the gang in my room. I must admit I’m unable to react at that moment. I guess I stood there for a good 10 seconds, too shocked to do anything.

Until Joseph said, “So Joe, what do you feel like saying?” I couldn’t hold my tears back anymore. Dennis added it in, “Brother just let it go.” F*** Dennis, you love to see tears right?

Holy Cow #4: The gift they got for me was amazing. I would never expect to receive a bouquet of flowers in my life. Andi made one for me. Getting flowers was such an amazing feeling, no wonder all girls like to receive flowers. Thank you Andi.

Holy Cow #5: The rest of the gang got me another special gift. Sylvia and Sinyan actually printed out my articles in my website, Millionaire Idea, compiled them into a book. And the gang wrote a short testimonial on this book. They brought me to tears again, they succeeded once again. I am shocked to see Adelene’s name in there.

Holy Cow #6: Lilian called from Shanghai to send me her wishes. Though she couldn’t join us, she made the effort to call. I am at a lost.

After cutting of the cake, we moved out to the hall, to have some red wine, fruit juice with alcohol, chit chat. Finally the night had to end, the gang got to leave. We had our usual M&Y hugs, once again, I’m in tears.

Holy Cow #7: Sylvia and Sinyan actually got a second gift for me. They send me this photo when they reached home. They went to the bookshop and placed the book they printed on the display window. These girls are so creative.

The gang are pressing me to publish a book of my own. After a night like this, how can I turn them down. I will dedicate every book that I wrote to the gang. Thank you for believing in me.

Thank you everyone for making the night my best birthday ever. Thank you everyone for being in my life, being my friends. I can boldly say this now. I have a group of close friends who support me and always shower me with love. I’ll give my 100% commitment to this group.

The singing was fantastic. Everyone sang, without the fear of being judge. Lilian, next time you must sing, no exceptional.

Everyone sang to their full. Seriously, I never had so much fun singing in KTV except with the SCG. This is the first time, we can sing and chat on MSN. Thanks to Sinyan who brought her laptop and her island wide wireless network.

Finally, I found a perfect partner to sing 你最真贵。Sylvia, this is our song, ok…. Kok Leong, please don’t use your kick on me. I am only a 文弱书生。

Sylvia, amazed that your voice can go so high. My gosh…

Jean, finally you open your golden mouth to sing. You actually sang quite a number of songs today.

Sinyan, you seems to like FIR songs a lot.

Lynn, I like the way you add humour to those songs. Suddenly the hokkien or the super low key. Funny, funny, funny.

Andi, as usual at your best singing hat. Seems like there’s no song that you can’t sing.

Dennis, your power strength voice. Because of you, next time we must stand by one ambulance when you sing.

Vasu, the top performance with singing and dancing. This man just loves to perform. Freaking high “I”.

Lilian, only the first S.H.E performance, then demoted to ejector. I want to hear you sing.

This is the best KTV session I ever had. We were not just there to sing, but to enjoy each other company and friendship. This is the fellowship of the ring. It can never be broken.

Gather at Cineleisure for our lunch. The whole gang was here, no one was absent..hooray. The whole gang was there to celebrate Adelene’s birthday.

Sinyan and Sylvia were testing the powerpoint slide that they did up for Adelene. My gosh, these girls are darn creative. I wonder how did they come out with that storyline. I could never do that. They spent hours and hours cutting out photos and pasting them onto the slide. Sinyan and Sylvia, you are simply awesome.

Proceed to K-Box KTV after our lunch. Getting ready for the finale.

Dong..dong..2pm on our side, 12am, 10 May in Canada. Phone call to Adelene over in Canada. Shewas still wide awake, online.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY”

Though we couldn’t see her, we could feel that she’s in shock turn joy. She actually believed all the lies that we told her for the purpose of this surprise phone call. I couldn’t believe she’s so naive.

She actually asked, “how is Christine’s baby?” Adelene, that was a lie to divert your attention.

Of course, this is the greatest set up by the SCG. No one can escape or suspect anything.

While chatting with her, Sinyan sent the powerpoint slide to her via MSN. With Sinyan’s webcam, Adelene was able to see everyone of us.

We could hear Adelene’s laughter while she was watching the slides. I must say, those slides are really funny.

Gradually, Adelene began to feel the love by all of us. She was crying……I could sense tears in my eyes too.

After we hung up, we kept the MSN and webcam on, so we could still chat with her while we sang.

Then she typed,

Adel: Hey Kok Leong called me too.
SCG: We know, it was part of the plan.
Adel: Holy!!!!

KL was the finale, to give her the final blow.

Only the SCG is able to create such extraordinary birthday surprises. What an awesome gang!!!