HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME: THE BIRTHDAY CAKE DILEMMA

Hello Hi,

Today is my birthday and I wanted to take a little break but how could I not write on my own birthday? :) Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes, you have made my day!

My last BellaNaija post can be found here and my youtube video too is here. Today, I have a short but true story written below and I hope you all enjoy:

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE DILEMMA

Like some people, I have a birthday tradition – I must have a cake on my birthday (it doesn’t matter who buys it), with my name inscribed on it and nobody else can eat any piece of the cake that has a letter of my name except me. Thus, some of my friends think that I am weird and I remember the shock on their faces the first time they heard me yell “please don’t cut or eat my name” on any of my birthdays. Eventually they got used to it and it just happens to be one of my idiosyncrasies. If you also think that I am weird, that’s ok; I’ve never strived to be a usual personJ.

A short while ago, I moved to a new country and my birthday was approaching for the first time yet there yet I had not figured out where I was going to get a cake from. So I called a friend who had been around a little longer than I was to make enquiries.

“DQ makes the best cake in the country! You should definitely get one from them” he assured me and so I placed my order two days before my birthday last year. I asked for a large sized cake because I wanted all my newly acquired friends and colleagues to have enough to eat. I also needed something big because I had asked the cake shop to write my name in full – Happy Birthday ‘Ugochi V Ukah’.  The cake was ready for pick-up the next day and I went hurriedly to grab it. I was excited when I saw it because it looked pretty; I do not remember the exact colours of the icing now (probably white and gold or blue and black) but my heart was filled with joy knowing that I had my whole name to eat all by myself. I got on the bus, guarding the cake while standing throughout my journey. A few people offered their bus seats but no, I wanted to be sure that the cake would not roll over from the stand and so I remained standing until I got home. The cake paper wrapping read – Keep Frozen and so I quickly put it in my refrigerator without unwrapping it and went to bed almost immediately, half dreaming about the cake.

The next day was my birthday; as usual I dressed to impress (myself), wore a pair of heels and took a couple of selfies. Usually, I walked to my work place but I could not on that day because I did not want to sweat or carry a cake for the fifteen minutes journey so I decided to take the bus. The bus came ten minutes later than scheduled but that was okay for me as I was able to get a stranger by the bus stop to take a few more pictures of me in the beautiful sunlight. Eventually I got to the work, I realized that the paper bag covering the cake was wet but I assumed that there may have been some liquid in my fridge which had soiled it or maybe something else on the bus. I did not think much about it but needless to say, nothing prepared me for the event that followed soon. Leaving the cake on my desk, I went around to invite my colleagues to come during lunch time for some cake. It was then that one of them requested to have a look at my beautiful cake and so I had to take the wrap out. Lo and behold, my cake was melted!

I stood there surprised “Why is my cake flowing?!” I started to ask, “Er, why is it pouring?!”

“Because it’s an ice cream cake” he replied.

“Ice cream what?” I was confused. “What is that?” I had never heard about it in my life.

“It’s a cake that is like an ice cream. So it can melt” he replied, looking surprised at my reaction.

“Why would anyone want to make a cake like an ice cream or vice versa? And why was I not told about this?” I began to question him as if it were his fault.

“But you bought it from DQ, they only make ice cream cake” and he showed me the paper bag where there were instructions on freezing.

It did not make sense to me because firstly, I just assumed that freezing and refrigerating would have the same effect, that was why I had not frozen it and secondly, I never knew that such cakes or ice-creams existed; not even my friend who recommended the bakery had warned me. Once again, my being new to a place had taught me a new lesson and I was reminded of how much more I still had to learn. I was quite sad and wanted to continue arguing but by this time, the cake was becoming worse so we ran to the kitchen and put it in the freezer with the hope that it will re-freeze by lunch time.

By lunch time, the cake had managed to solidify a bit but there was no sign of my name anywhere on it as the icing colours has melted and formed various shapes. Therefore, I could not separate my name only for myself but I did not care much at this point. I was just curious to find out what it tasted like and I wanted everyone else to enjoy themselves. We had to use cups to drink the cake and true to my friend’s word, it was the best that I had ever had and everyone seemed to have fun. The rest of my day was lovely as well; I went out for dinner with some friends but one thing remained on my mind – I knew I wanted to have the ice cream cake again but in the right form as it was supposed to be.

And so this year, I got another ice cream cake with my name again but only ‘Ugochi V’. I ran straight to keep it in the freezer and sent an email to my colleagues for another lunch desert. It read:

Dear All,

For my birthday. I have brought an ice-cream cake today; yay! This time around, I made sure to read and follow the instructions and I ran straight to the freezer (not fridge) and put it there (see picture as proof). So hopefully, it remains in good shape.

So please come and eat some during lunch time for desert at the kitchen. I have some plates but I also kept some cups just in case we need to drink it again like last year 

I hope to see you all during lunch.

Thanks,

Vivian

 This year, I was prepared – the cake was still intact and so was my name. As we all enjoyed the cake, I did not care much about who ate my name; rather I was just happy for a second chance to get this right, even though it had taken me a whole year! J

                                                     

I would like to use this medium to say how thankful I am to God for keeping me and my family and giving us all that we need, thank you to my family and friends, and thank you for reading. 

Happy birthday to me, Cheers!

Please leave your comments below as usual and follow me on twitter: @vivio_gogo and Instagram: @ugochiukah for more updates.