Special: My 21st Birthday! (korean BBQ, pusheen cake, dim sum)

Happy birthday to me! My birthday was earlier this month on the 3rd of August and it was monday! I did my primary 'celebrations' by spending time with the family the day before my actual birthday on Sunday which was also the day I picked up my much awaited custom cake! I really would have loved having a party or get together with friends but besides being generally harder to get friends together as we get older, it's even harder for me as 99% of my friends from school are all over the world as I didn't study and live in Singapore growing up. 

Being a TCK or Third Culture Kid makes having many long term friendships or reunions rare although it doesn't hurt at all when people come and go. We're so used to short term friends and moving around! Having moved back to Singapore in 2010 I have awesome friends from school and colleagues from work but a party wasn't on my planner this year due to so many things going on.

Continue below to see my simple birthday!

My 21st birthday celebrations with family!

We started the day before my birthday with family time and a walk at Punggol park!

It was really nice and quiet despite being a sunday, however only 10 minutes into our walk I realized I wanted to visit the waterway park and not just the regular one! We got back into the car and dad drove us over!

On arrival at Punggol waterway park, I spotted and decided to pose with my future car!!! Isn't it gorgeous!?

This was my first time visiting the park! It was such a pretty sight!

The park is still very new and hasn't had its official opening yet! This is part of Singapore's man made waterway in the north east area!

A part of the waterway with large sprinklers!

My first attempt at taking a family shot! So fail as I cut everyone's heads off!

Our best shot! Almost everyone made it in!

There are features like this throughout the large park! I plan to revisit in the future and rent kayaks to paddle through the large waterway system!

It was no surprise when we spotted this gorgeous yellow bellied bird! Throughout Singapore it's common to spot very interesting tropical birds!

A shot of new flats being built for the future town that will be around the waterways!

We headed to this small korean BBQ joint called Goki Day!

Although a Sunday, we were their only customers! Apparently their two shop space restaurant had been reduced to one as well as their buffet spread in the back being cut back according to my brother who had visited multiple times before!

The only food shot I took as we were all too hungry and just go straight into cooking beef ribs, pork belly slices, spicy chicken, onions and enjoying the side dishes like kimchi, pancakes and kimbab!

After a gut busting delicious lunch we headed to pick up my custom birthday cake from Bloomsbury Bakery!

Their small bakery is located near Boon Keng mrt station and is famous for their niche items and classic ones like Orh Nee (chinese yam paste dessert) cake, chendol cheese cake (a local coconut milk and shaved ice dessert), speculoos cheesecake and lemon meringue tart!

My pusheen cake!! I went back and forth with multiple e-mails to get this cake! It wasn't cheap but it was done very well! Although I did forget to add hands for pusheen in the sketch which I approved!

Close up of my custom pusheen cake! I got the idea of this design from gifs and facebook stickers of pusheen!

For dinner we had a delicious at home cold dish which was mostly made of premade items like smoked duck, smoked salmon, japanese baby octopus, japanese scallop, smoked mussels and fried dumplings. We added boiled prawns and I made a fruit salad with dragon fruit, apples and mangos!

A delicious broccoli stir fry with sea cucumber and mushrooms!

Also  delicious dish of fried yellow noodles with lots of vegetables, slice pork belly and prawns!

My custom pusheen birthday cake by Bloomsbury Bakery all jazzed up with my own star candles and happy birthday sign! Isn't it the cutest thing you've seen?

Birthday cake posing with the parents!

A fun shot because why not right?

I was just full of joy every moment I looked at the cake! It was just tooo cute! I ended up keeping the fondant pieces on top in a box and they're still all in good condition now! Also since I was home these photos are 100% make up free!

A shot with my brother before we light my pusheen cake up!

My cake all lighted up! I loved how I had pusheen and stormy celebrating with us too!! I'm a big fan, can you tell?

And OF COURSE I posted my cake to my instagram @blackmentosbeautybox and then tagged pusheen...and then I woke up to this! HAHA!

The next day on my actual birthday on a monday, we went out for a dim sum lunch! Round one! Har gao, chicken feet, prawn wantons, taro dumplings, mango prawn dumplings, raddish cake and vinegar wantons!

We then added on delicious baked char sui stuffed pastry and egg tarts!

Deep fried prawns wrapped with bean curd skins! This was absolutely delicious!

Also a favorite of my brother and me, cheong fan, one stuffed with prawns, the other with char sui!

My dad was at work but my grandmother managed to join us! Can you believe she's in her early 80s? Also, I started feeling ill that day, the next day I went to the doctor and then for a week I was sick with fever and flu symptoms! BOO.

To recap simply, my 21st birthday was no large bash or grand celebration like I know many people to have but it wasn't right this year for that kind of thing. I look forward to when I'm older and away and I totally will love to plan a sparkly, big, birthday dinner with lots of friends! The biggest things I take away as each year passes is that there is more responsibility, more appreciation and I really do consider and think about things in a much more practical and holistic way. 

What did you do for your 21st birthday?

Are you a fan of my Pusheen cake?

Let me know!

Feel free to comment!

Thank you!