the end of bad birthdays

Consider the paradox of celebrating the day you were born on All Hallow's Eve - a day people go out of their way to honour the dead. By coincidence or not, that morbid energy has translated to a personal stroke of bad luck around and on October 31st for me.  

Between dealing with relationship problems, break-ups, my grandma admitted to ICU, or falling seriously ill at this time of the year, I had given up on birthdays. I was on the qui vive this year - out of habit more than anything else thinking, okay let's prepare for the next big tragedy shall we?

Leading up to the week of the 31st it seems like history will repeat itself. By some heavenly miracle though, it was mended and ta-daaa no repeat of yesteryears. Come the actual date, I felt nothing but bliss.  

And so I threw a party! 

For me it was bidding goodbye to the chain of bad birthdays versus celebrating the actual birthday itself. I wanted a chilled out day by the pool with some of my closest friends at home. No compromise on serving delicious yet healthy food though. None of that typical party grub of deep fried, full fat, processed stuff. (read: pizzas, sausages, chips...). 

Poke bowls were the first thing that popped into mind. They're relatively new to the Malaysian food scene and despite the poke in its name, has nothing to do with that now so yesterday location-based augmented reality game. Keep it classy guys, please.

Poke bowls are a Hawaiian delicacy that have been around forever. It's like a salad, where you choose your base of brown rice, greens or both then load it up with condiments such as cucumber, edamame, corn, tomatoes before rounding it up with freshly marinated raw proteins (my favourite is salmon). And don't forget your dressing - Aioli Lime is the bomb-est!

They're my new obsession basically, and I wanted nothing less than THE FISH BOWL at my party.

They make THE best poke bowls in town. Rule of thumb is you can't have a good bowl without fresh quality ingredients and these guys just get it right.

Naturally, they were a hit! People were going for 4-5 rounds I kid you not.

To balance out all that healthiness, there was of course cake.

I left that part to my boyfriend. Well, almost. 

Told him he had to order it from my friends at KEKANDCO or he better be prepared to get his face smashed with the not KEKANDCO cake.

It was the one thing about the party I told him to keep from me as a surprise and omgggg, I loved, loved, loved the design when he brought it out.

 It was inspired by my recent addiction to watching Youtube makeup videos by my favourite Youtuber, Kathleenlights. SO pretty, it almost broke my heart to cut it up.

Big massive love to this girl for bringing the party to life! She took it to herself to plan, organize, prep and clean up after, without me even asking. Especially with the food. Cannot thank you enough my JEEEEEL! What will I do when you leave??? 

To top off an already amazing week, I briefly caught the 6-1 win to Watford while cleaning up after the party.

Not realising the impact of the result, this popped up on my phone:

Best birthday, EVER.

xo - Reem