An enchanting day
An enchanting day with our Flower Prince
Warning! Very long article!
This article was written after a long day and in the wee hours of this morning, so I apologise for any mistake, typo or grammatical error. Due to the tight timing and I badly needed my sleep, I did not have time to do the Chinese translation. My sincere apologies. Let’s see if I can manage this later. As no photography or video filming was allowed during the event I have no photos of the actual event to show.
Yesterday’s event was the third Park Sihoo-ssi’s birthday celebration I have participated in. All of them included visits to his ancestral home in Buyeo. It was the second time the evening celebration was held in Buyeo at the Lotte Buyeo Resort. While I had inertia about going to Buyeo again, yesterday turned out to be a most enchanting day. A day well spent in Flower Country with our Flower Prince, Park Sihoo-ssi.
We started early, setting off from Seoul at around 8.45 am to head to Buyeo. There were 7 bus loads of around 280 fans from Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and me, from Singapore.
Along the way to Park Sihoo-ssi’s ancestral home, we had a rest and brunch stop. Next up was Seodong Park and Gongnamji Pond where we saw new spring flowers starting to bloom. Beautiful, pure white magnolias. Budding cherry blossoms. Fiery red, pink camellias. Gorgeous green weeping willows. They all added to the charm and beauty of this Flower Country, even though the blossoms were just at the very beginning of the season.
The beautiful Seodong Park and Gongnamji Pond
We took in the history of Buyeo with its heritage as part of the Baekje Kingdom when we visited the Buyeo National Museum. Its rich culture and history were on display as seen through the old relics that had been unearthed and exhibited at the museum.
Then it was off to Park Sihoo-ssi’s ancestral home for a visit. As usual, we were most warmly welcomed by Park Sihoo-ssi’s father and his brother. His grandmother also came out later to join us. It was amazing to see this pint size little lady who has brought up such a strong and healthy son and in turn grandsons. They must make her proud. Our sisters at Sihoorang, Park Sihoo’s Korean Official Fan Club had decorated his ancestral home with bright and cheery sculptured balloons, showing their love for this man. Everyone wanted photos with Father Park, Brother Park and Grandmother Park and even their pet dog Jindoori! It was a nice day to spend in this rather remote, unspoilt and enchanting country home.
And Park Sihoo-ssi’s new house? Is it ready? Well, you heard me report what he said in Odaiba…it will be ready next month! Hahaha! Sorry, the family had requested for no photography of the new house, so of course I respected that and did not take any!
Even their family pet dog Jindoori greeted us
We then adjourned to the Lotte Buyeo Resort to check-in, freshen up before heading for dinner and the most enchanting evening!
Lights dimmed and the regular charming lady emcee, Kim Tei, came on stage to make her introductions and a brief rundown of the event. Unfortunately, not understanding a word of Japanese or Korean, I can only share what I could discern of the evening or from whatever help I could from chicken and duck talk. So please pardon me if I have interpreted anything incorrectly! My apologies in advance!
The floral lace beautiful welcome!
This being our Flower Prince’s 39th birthday celebration, the emcee prompted us to rehearse and practise singing a birthday song for Park Sihoo-ssi in Korean. Once she was satisfied, it was cut to a video of photos of Park Sihoo-ssi’s past birthday celebrations, to the tune of his “Shampoo” song.
The emcee came on stage and welcomed everyone for the Park Sihoo-ssi Birthday Tour 2017 and then all attention were focused at the back of the room. Out came our gorgeous Flower Prince, in the pink! Pink jacket and trousers complemented by a white tee-shirt with what looked like light texture of string prints. The overall look enhanced by white pocket squares with black trimmings and white leather shoes with beige lined seams. He was the most enchanting vision of a tall, fair and handsome prince!
Entrance to Lotte Buyeo Resort
And to add to the enchanting occassion, he personally went from table to table to present to each of his princesses a light pink rose…so romantic! And our prince charming did not forget to present one to emcee Kim Tei too! Our very thoughtful Flower Prince!
He thanked his princesses for coming from afar to Buyeo to celebrate his birthday with him. I could discern something about flowers in Korean, so I presumed he was talking about Flower Country and the theme for the evening.
Then the lighted birthday cake was wheeled in, we sang to our prince and wished him a happy birthday. Park Sihoo-ssi was asked to make a birthday wish. When asked what it was, he said it was a secret, and so it shall be but we all hope that whatever he wished for would come true! He then cut the cake with a long knife, making short work of three layers of the beautiful cake in one slice…how mighty, our prince! And all this culminated in song about “congratulations and celebration…” and the burst of confetti and smoke shots.
We love you Park Sihoo-ssi, mani mani 많이 많이! And he reciprocated by making us a big love sign and telling us he loves us back!
The birthday cake
The emcee asked him what he did after our last meeting in Odaiba. He had been spending time skiing! And apparently he just learnt how to ski and simply loved it. He had been on skiing trips twice or was it more? I can’t tell, but each time he spent around two weeks at the ski resort. Wah! A video clip was shown of our Prince doing a great job skiing down a steep and winding ski slope! Perfect! There was some mention of Sapporo which I didn’t understand. I just assumed this was where he would like to go skiing next.
Park Sihoo-ssi had also been indulging in other sports like tennis and golf. He likes skiing best or is it the current flavour of the month since this is the season?
Outside the event hall with rice wreathes on display
While Park Sihoo exited for a change of outfit, a video came on. We saw an animated fairy tale Flower Prince and his enchanting castle. He had been pondering over what he should do to make his princesses happy. Whether it should be singing, dancing or what? As he planned, his rascal cats, Jami and Dami were right beside their dear old dad keeping him company and maybe giving him pointers here and there about what to do? Kekeke! 🙂 🙂 🙂
The emcee shared a slide of a thinking brain and shared that our Prince had been hard at work. He had been working on a mission to make his princesses happy. So we shouted out loud to welcome our Prince again.
And in he came, dressed in the most majestic and princely outfit. Dark blue tailcoat and matching trousers with pink and gold epaulettes on the shoulders, large gold buttons, sleeve insignia in broad gold band and red trims and a badge of honor held up by gold braids. A black velvet sash at the waist added to the overall magnificent effect.
As with tradition, ParkSihooSsi.com’s congratulatory rice wreathe
Our prince showed his princely gestures of how a bow should be executed and how a gentleman should keep his hand behind his back in courtly gesture while in conversation. The emcee asked him pointed questions about the habits of the Flower Prince. These were what I gathered the questions were and how he answered them. No guarantee on whether these were right or wrong, ok? Just to share a gist of what transpired 🙂
How often does he shower? Generally once a day though sometimes he skipped if he were too tired. What sort of clothes does our Flower Prince like to wear? Casual tees and jeans are his favorite. How many times does he look at himself in the mirror every day? Uncountable times! He would definitely look at himself in the mirror when he goes to the washroom! How confident is he with his sports? Very confident! And he did a pose of a golf shot which drew the emcee to tease him about the missed shot in his Instagram video! Hahaha! When he was in high school, did a girl ever tell him she liked him? Well, he attended a boys school, so no girls, though he understood from friends that many girls from other schools thought him handsome and took note of his shoe box number! Sorry, don’t know anything about this shoe box association and what it means…
Then it was game time and Park Sihoo-ssi chose six tables to play games with by aiming his bow and arrow and shooting numbers on a target on a lamp post. The selected tables played games of “five stones”, catch the ball on a hoop, hit a pom-pom with a stick and not let it drop, juggling balls, balancing a water bottle and passing ping pong balls without dropping. Winning tables got hugs or took group photos with Park Sihoo-ssi.
This was followed by an XOXO game around the symbolism of flowers, from the lotus, to cherry blossoms to clovers etc. The final winner got to dance with our prince. And she got swung and hugged as well. Now, that was a giddy princess afterwards, if I ever saw one! She was most enchanted! When asked which flower was his favorite, Park Sihoo-ssi answered that it was called “Everyone”, that is all of his princesses!
Park Sihoo-ssi then shared a message thanking his princesses for coming to his birthday celebration in Flower Country. He had been through a lot, experienced a lot – of learning, going through bad experiences, immense sadness and encountering a lot of hurdles. His princesses have been there through thick and thin, giving him strong support that helped him to have the courage to endeavour. For this, he is most grateful. He dedicated his new song “Don’t leave” to his princesses. A song that he sang with the most heartfelt emotions as he called out to his princesses. A video was shown of how hard he had practiced to perfect this song. Since I cannot take any photo or show the video, I am sharing Big Win’s version of the song again.
Youtube video – “떠나지 말아요 Don’t Leave” by Big Win
In Tudou
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/NbF3nYpJUQI/
To thank his princesses, our Prince then gave his princesses their most coveted gift – one-on-one photos taken with each and every one of his Princesses! And our Prince was most enchanting and charming in his striking leaf green jacket and matching trousers, complemented by his white tee and white leather shoes. I bet every one of his princesses was over the moon last night.They would take this precious gift with them and all those beautiful memories of a most enchanting evening and treasure every moment!
I love my photo! Though I wish my Flower Prince was not confused by where this princess comes from! Not Hong Kong but Singapore, my dear Prince Park Sihoo-ssi! Or maybe I confused you with my dual country presence. Just to clarify, I was born and bred in Singapore but live and work in Hong Kong! Got it now? Hahaha!
But what we Princesses wanted most, unfortunately we still have to wait! No announcement of his new drama…sorry! Let us be patient a little longer! And in the meantime, savor every wonderful memory of our most enchanting day!
