J30 (The Preparation)

So you want to throw a party? Your brother's turning thirty?

Throwing a birthday party for someone is often a stressful and time consuming event, so remember to be prepared early.

The ingredients you will need are:

1) Someone to plan it with you. Often, your brother's girlfriend will be the best person to plan the party with you. She helped plan last year's birthday sabotage, after all.

This time last year. For someone who's just been saboed, he looks pretty happy.

2) A programme.

A party theme often works well. It gives people a chance to dress up, and also gives shape to the rest of your plans, including:

i) Music. Play music from the birthday boy's era. You will be surprised how the party turns into a spontaneuos karaoke session.

ii) Games. You can shape your games around the theme, and also, around the birthday boy. The more entertaining the games, the more people will forget that you didn't have much food at your party or alcohol.

iii) Decorations. You can decorate the house according to your theme. Decorations may require some laborious preparation, and a good idea is to actually use photos from the birthday boy's past. The more embarrassing the photos, the better. Ring Mum up and ask for nude kiddie photos. That always guarantees a laugh.



Be prepared for many sleepless nights, adrenaline rushing as you toss and turn in bed, coming up with ideas for the party. Prepare for last minute printing of said photographs and a mad scramble to get the main decoration ready, at your workplace.

3) Help for preparation on the day itself. Enlist the help of your brother's kindest/most creative friends in preparing your house. Your housemate, who is a genius with handiwork, will also be of great value.



4) The element of surprise. Get your brother's girlfriend to take him on a trip to the gym on Saturday morning, and pretend that when he returns, you will go out for yum cha. Have him dream about the plates of siew mai and har gao as he turns the key to the door. If you have done all the above well, it should look a little like this:



Enjoy!