13.12.2024 Friday - today is Sam's birthday and she receives an award

I sleep in, hoping to treat Sam to a birthday breakfast. I mention laksa and she takes us to the shop at 3rd Mile. 

She has a meeting at the EPF building, they have some certificates of participation for us. She is dressed up nicely, but complains that her hair is flat (it isn't). 

Sam rings me at 10:15, it isn't certificates that the Employers Provident Fund are giving out. It's an award for Best Employer for small businesses (under 50 people) - they had invited for a prize presentation yesterday but we were not able to attend. 

How fitting! Getting an award on her birthday. 

At 5pm, we head off for an old fashioned treat - a movie. 

A Cantonese movie about a wedding planner who takes up a job as a funeral planner after the pandemic. He is the agent for the funeral parlour, the 'brains' while his partner, an ancient Taoist priest is the 'brawn'. The title in Chinese is Breaking Hell - a ritual conducted by the priest which enables the dead to transit into the next realm. 

I like it, the dialogue is very authentic and the main characters are flawed individuals with their prejudices and challenges. As the lead actor says 'the living need salvation as well, because life can be hell'.