JEWELLER Sharel Ho's birthday is actually next weekend, which gives her two daughters some lead time to get their mum a present.
Said Khai Lie, 9, and Khai Ling, 5: 'It's a surprise, so we cannot tell you now.'
Whatever the pair of cheeky chirpy misses have in store, it'll be equally precious to birthday girl Sharel as the gift husband Fred produced.
At the party for his wife's 35th, in the Tanglin Club's Churchill Room, Sharel stuck up two fingers.
Not a copycat gesture of Churchill's V-sign, but so Fred could slip the fabulous big ring on. A seven-carat ruby encircled by waves of diamonds, it requires two fingers to show it off.
Jeweller Fred said, 'More than 2,000 stones, I had to wait for them to sleep before I could work on the design, at 3am.'
The ring doubles as a brooch and triples as a pendant. 'Sharel wanted something loud.'
Pssst! Cost alone is $170,000. 'For high-end jewellery, small profit margin,' Fred said. It would retail at $200,000.
Birthday girl shone in a Chinese New Year orange sheath by Heng Nam Nam, the 40 yards of tassels the perfect length to accommodate both the Twist and the Limbo.
Yes, it was a rock and roll affair. 'You must come,' Sharel said, 'I hired a band to play all the old hits.'
Elvis was alive and kickin' by the sound of it, some members dining elsewhere in the club poked their heads in, and saw silver balloons, gold bows and red rose petals, and one o'clock, two o'clock jumps.
The delighted Sharel said, 'This is the first time I have had such a big birthday party. Since 3 plus 5 equals 8, why not?' (For Chinese, '8' is fortuitous. Didn't ask about her 17th and 26th anniversaries, but hope to be invited to her 44th.)
The guest list was 138 close friends and personal clients. One businesswoman said, 'Eh, Sharel, 138 is actually 3 you know.'
What must the people sitting next to us think of all this superstition?
Turned out the celebrity couple was actor Huang Shinan and his actress wife, Pan Ling Ling, last seen in the huge hit, Little Nyonya, and there is no more pantang (superstitious) community than the Peranakans.
So everybody hit it off rather splendidly. In fact, Ling Ling and Shinan are matching off their two sons, 10 and 7, with the two Ho girls.
Pan said, 'My big boy told me he wants to marry a nyonya because they are so pretty. But not one like my character in the show.' (She was wicked.)
The lights dimmed, the 9kg birthday cake rolled in on castors, Sharel put on a top hat and swung into Sway, her surprise for guests - she'd never sung before.
She didn't miss a note. And the party continued to hit a high one.
Ending with a single lucky draw where one guest went home with a $5,000 ladies ring courtesy of the Hos.
This article was first published in The New Paper on Jan 18, 2009.
