Surprise birthday cake & Les Misérables

Birthday Cake

After a hectic week preparing for the group presentation for the Introduction to Strategy & Business module, finally we presented the case study on Ready-to-Eat breakfast industry to the whole class. Phew! Great to be the first group to offload this burden.

I was getting ready to leave the class when Yi Duan and Yee Yung asked me whether I could stay back for a while. I told them I was planning to meet up with Johanna (on half day leave) who should be arriving at Cass pretty soon only to find out to my surprise that they have got me a birthday cake!

I insisted in having only 1 candle... Make it simple

We proceed to the cafe in Cass to celebrate. Johanna arrived just in time to join in. For someone who only got the first proper birthday cake at the age of 17, the past 11 years have been a 180-degree change.

Johanna arrived just in time to celebrate together


My Bank Negara juniors, Yi Duan and Yee Yung


My coursemates who celebrated with me. A big thank you to you all!

Les Misérables

To be frank, I am quite disappointed that I haven't brought Johanna to a musical since our arrival in September. Last week I finally decided that we should make use of 31 January to watch our first one. Since there's a 2-for-1 deal for Les Misérables, it was an easy choice.

Les Misérables is one of my favourite musicals, other than the Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon.

After a Beat the Clock meal at Belgo Centraal in Covent Garden (yes, mussels!), we proceed to Queen's Theatre at Shaftsbury Avenue.

Queen's Theatre is smaller than The Palace Theatre where Les Misérables used to be running. However the I noticed that the cast for Jean Valjean is still the same! I found out today that he (John Owen-Jones) has been voted the greatest Jean Valjean in West End's Les Misérables production. He has also played the phantom in the Phantom of the Opera for nearly 4 years in before rejoining Les Miz. He is also highly regarded as the phantom by reviewers and critics. I totally agree with these opinion as his voice is a world apart from the others.

Johanna, who has read the storyline prior to the show, totally enjoyed the show even though the songs are not new to her since I have been playing the soundtracks on my laptop every now and then.

It has been a happy day for me definitely.