The gathering I was attending, was a birthday party. When dessert time arrived, the cake was presented to the guest of honor with an odd looking plastic flower bloom stuck in the middle. Someone put a match to it and, surprisingly, the flower opened, candles burned, a flurry of sparklers were ignited and it began to play the happy birthday tune. In time the sparklers stopped sparkling, the candles burned down but the tune kept playing. The cake was removed, cut up and served. Later i went to get tea and noticed the caterer looked a bit frazzled. I inquired as to the reason for this and he replied he could not stand to listen to any more of the Happy Birthday tune…yes! the flower was still playing. Two hours later I went back for water, the caterer had cleaned up and left already, but the flower was still there singing Happy Birthday from the bottom of the sink…I tried filling the sink with water and drowning it …it kept going. I plucked all its petals, pulled out the stem…nothing doing…it kept playing! As far as I know it was still singing when I left the party later that evening…I guess it was a fitting symbol as the birthday girl was celebrating her 90th birthday and she too is still going strong!
