... celebrate your 30th birthday at an "old" place?

Nostalgia is in the air.

Perhaps it's because we have reached a milestone in our lives, or just a plain feeling of wanting to revisit some memories, nostalgia seemed to be a theme in the two 30th birthday parties I have attended thus far.

During the Fridays preceding her birthday, KC dragged us to some of the bars and clubs that we (or rather, she and the rest, I was not there all the time) used to frequent, for "old times' sake", as she put it.

So, off we went - the first weekend, we went to St. James - at Movida and then to the Boiler Room. It was quite interesting, to say the least. I have never been to Movida in the many times I went to St. James, so it was an eye-opener. The crowd was, well, mmm, much older than 30, haha. The Boiler Room was, as usual, rather crowded and the band was energetically belting out contemporary rock and R&B hits, but their crude jokes left much to be desired, and marred a good night out. Or perhaps I was not drunk enough to ignore those crude jokes. :)

The second weekend, we went to New Asia Bar. I felt the club has lost some of its former glory and it was scarily empty the last time I was there last February on a Friday night. It was more crowded this time round, but we left and headed to ChinaOne instead. Enough said.

In the end, KC had her birthday party at Cuscaden@Chijmes. Not really an old haunt but another branch of an old haunt. It was a cosy party, with a small live band and lively banter amongst old friends.

YL celebrated her birthday next, at the Night Safari! I must say I thought it was a rather unusual place to have a birthday party. There was even a party bus which ferried everyone from Bishan MRT to the Night Safari. The whole group caught the "Creatures of the Night" show and went on the tram ride.

We stopped to walk along the "Leopard Trail", but got split up into 2 groups when one group gamely walked through an enclosure of flying squirrels, while the other group went another way. The flying squirrel group was rewarded for their bravery and they managed to see the leopards, while the other group saw none and had to contend with photos that the other group took! It was a novel way to celebrate a birthday and it felt very much like a school excursion. We even took a group shot at the Night Safari sign to commemorate the event!