Missing the wood from the trees

I was invited to a grandniece’s (nephew’s daughter) birthday barbeque party last Saturday evening. I was already in KL because of an ex-classmate’s visit. He is from Australia.

He left early for golf and I noticed he left behind his camera. Called and messaged him but got no response. A friend suggested that I should take it with me instead of leaving it in the hotel room in case it went missing.

As it was my first time visiting my nephew’s new house, I went early. I tried using my videocam and managed to capture a few clips. The birthday girl’s mum had been busy the whole day and could hardly smile. Later, I was to discover that even the other child was left with the childminder! How are the parents going to explain to the child later that she was not present even at her sister’s party?

My nephew expected 50 guests but I estimated the food was enough to feed 100! When we started eating the barbequed chicken wings, I thought of our mongrel dogs in BG. If only it was convenient to save the leftovers for them but I was staying in a hotel so I had to forget it.

The party was well organized in terms of the variety of food and free-flowing beer and wines. After everyone had his fill, it was time to bring out the birthday cake with a nice drawing of Chicken Little on it. It was only then that they realized they did not have a camera ready to capture the scene! I tried using my videocam but it was too dark without a proper flash. Then I remembered by friend’s camera in my pocket! There were a number of handphones with camera capability but considered not good enough. I was most amused by the coincidence: how I decided to take along the camera and ended being the only one with a camera!

Before my friend had left for Australia, he had promised to transfer the images into his computer and burn a cd to be sent to me. Actually I expect him to send the pictures via email so that I can forward to my nephew.

This was not the first time I had come across parents who have forgotten about camera or film or even candles when celebrating a birthday.