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C9

Falling on a Saturday, my daughter’s 9th birthday was rather celebrated with family. The idea of throwing a party in school would mean celebrating it on a day other than her actual birthday. It’s not much of a tight spot but neither would it be exact… Thus, Feb. 19th proved its fitting essence. 

Before another year adds to my daughter’s 9 years of existence of which is a closer stage to adolescence, the thought of taking advantage of her still not into “can-I-just-celebrate-with-my-friends” sort of awkward moment was rather set into an ideal perspective. Quite simultaneous, my brother was in town for a business trip. Being the generous person that he is and as a fitting birthday treat for her niece, he delighted us with a hearty breakfast before heading back to Manila. Having planned for an intimate family get-together for lunch somewhere similarly conveying that natural warmth for an ambiance, I asked my brother to extend a bit and join us to make the celebration more jovial. I recently found out about this new place with the potential of imparting that sought liking for a place. 


I thought my kids would like it there with its farm animals to interact with. It’s an opportunity to vividly instill in them the simple joys that could be used to define their life ahead. Amidst today’s technological breakthroughs, among the young generation, Farmville is more familiar than the real thing; if you know what I mean… Compared to fine dining or lavish kiddie party perhaps, the rustic touch and practical approach of the place appealed to my daughter (and my son as well) and the celebration was as well an observance of family togetherness as I would have wanted rather than the usual gauge for affluence as an insinuating motive for a social gathering. My daughter’s next birthday will be essentially celebrated though as she’ll be 10. After which will be the time she turns 13; then sweet 16; then eigh---- – oops! I’m aging too fast… Before she would prefer “independence” come a time, we celebrated this year not with limitation of revelry but a commemoration of life’s wide-ranging meanings…

C9 stands for various meanings totally unrelated to the subject. Or I could probably make up a correlation to it like one C9 meaning used as a short hand for how it’s pronounced in Cantonese meaning housewife… Before my daughter even grows closer to an age of which the probability of that happening is physically possible, we celebrated her last single digit age... But that’s not really the case. Less the complications as it should, I’ve made up 2 meanings of my own; Chakai’s 9 and we simply celebrated the feeling of being in “Cloud 9”…

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