Changing Seasons...

Weekend of 9th & 10th June

Saturday


It’s mah birthday!! Its mah birthday!! Mah birthdayyy, mah birthdaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Yes, in case you haven’t noticed so far, it’s my birthday, the 9th of June. So what plans are afoot for this lucky birthday boy that has a birthday this year which nicely fell on a Saturday? Clubbing, drinking, womanizing, bonging, anything and everything. WRONG. Maybe I’m getting old or getting bored with things or simply suffering from pangs of arthritis. Some of my friends asked me to join them for the ‘UV Nation’ party @ 1U, on their tab, plus free shots to boot. If this was offered to me 5 years ago, I would have said ‘yes’ faster than Bart Simpson can pull his pants down. But, now is now, and well, the time for me to give them a reply took longer than my grandfather can say ‘Viagra’. In the end, the reply was “maybe next time lah, thanks anyway guys.”

Call me an old hack or a freak of nature. This is me already, maybe it is evolution or simply aging, but I’ve changed somehow. Seasons change whether you like it anot, like from summer to autumn, it is an act of nature, an act of God. And when you leave a season, you leave the honestly of that season and have to confront the next. You cannot bring along the ideals from the past season, but only face the ideals of the next. Like how summer loves the flowers and winter harbors the snow, clubbing was the summer and serenity is my winter. But seasons are a cycle and can come full circle, and maybe, just maybe, I can welcome my summers once again? HhhMmMmmMm, interesting thought….

So, I did not prefer the club lights, but how it would be great to have the sky lights where friends can gather and chit-chat under it until the nights go old. I suggested ‘Sky Bar’ or ‘Luna Bar’, but it was not to be as some friends that I contacted were not free, mainly my fault for informing them of my plans so belatedly. However, whatever the conditions, whatever the outcome, there is always a certain rose that seems to be by my side always. Even though in the beginning of that day family circumstances compelled us apart, but eventually this rose found its way to my arms and I knew right away that this particular rose I could not, and would not, let go. For my special day my rose promised me new settings, and assured me of great likings. I imagined my rose to chariot me to a destination far, far away…but it was a place not that far at all, but in fact, it was at Shrooms, KL….

We went upstairs and immediately a few slabs of giant and super heavy menus greeted us. The menu was lush with ample selections to consider and temptation trickled all over me from head to toe. What to order, what to choose? I really wanted the Norwegian Salmon accompanied by a side of escargots and lobster, but I think I was demanding too much. Since I am not paying, I thought to myself: “Lets see what the rose is ordering and I will follow along those lines.” Moments later, the waiter jotted down the first order of the day: ‘Bento Set’. “Ahh??!!” I screamed inside myself, we are at Shrooms and we are eating Japanese canteen food?! My face was alight with shock but a re-assuring hand clasped upon my hand and told me that the real reason why we are here is not the main course, but for the delectable desserts on offer. And to top it off, my dessert order was already arranged before I even knew it. Wah, a surprise!!

As for the drinks, it was not the usual orange juice or ice lemon tea. I was feeling abit naughty and ordered the peach margarita and it was a wickedly mischievous concoction of tequila with hints of peach and mixed brilliantly with dashes of lime, topped with the usual sprinklings of salts at the brim of the margaritian glass.

The food was embraced in full pleasing vigor and the drinks accompanied it with no complaints. We chit-chatted throughout the night and sipped into the modern elegance of the environment, adding to the already pleasurable food that has gratified our taste buds. But why stop here? It was time for greater delights and it was time for dessert. Initially we ordered the ‘Bomb Alaska’ but it was not to be as the chef was unable to fulfill our request. With ‘Bomb Alaska’, the dessert is to be set alight, i.e. on fire, and the blue flames will sensuously lick the entire dessert. It would have been a fantastic piece to end the night, but alas. No matter, we then substituted it with ‘Pannacotta’ and although it was not as spectacular as the bomb, the taste was sensual and fulfilling none the less. Presented in an artful fashion, we sipped the dessert blissfully into our lips and into our hearts. We conversed merrily and before we knew it, the night was at its close and thus we departed with good memories, excellent culinary contentment and a good night to commemorate a special day that is my birthday.


Sunday

Woke up kinda late, went to a nearby Kopitiam for brunch and started my search for my birthday present. Yup, SL promised me a present and I am not going to let this opportunity slip from my fingers haha. Again, how my times have changed. Last time, my birthday presents I used to receive perfumes, branded Ts, underwear and even condoms. But now, the change of seasons can be drastically illustrated by my latest present for my latest birthday: a computer chair. Yup, a chair people. With a special design for back support too. I don’t know whether people are telling me that I’m getting old or I’ve got too many perfumes already, but this is really something different. I’m not complaining of the present of course…but for a birthday present? True, the main reason for giving me a computer chair is because my existing chair already has one leg broken, two wheels that cannot roll anymore (so when I slide around the room, these broken wheels scratches the floor like nails on a blackboard) and it is also stained beyond cleaning (don’t ask me how the stains come from). But seriously, can these reasons be why they gave me a computer chair for my birthday? My birthday you know!!! Sigh, I was expecting something more posh, like a Gucci keychain or whatever...

But anyway, if it’s a computer chair then it has to be bought from a place more terror and not from ‘Syarikat Ah Beng’ or something. If it’s furniture, where else to look but Ikea? So me and SL went to Damansara and duly bought my chair of choice…

Coming back from my shopping spree, my parents decided to belanja me dinner to celebrate. God bless them!! We decided to skip the usual steaks that we usually eat on special days, so we headed off to SS24 and stalked for something more local in taste: crabs!!! Yup, if you are in the SS24 area and its crabs, you will know where I’m talking about: ‘Fatty Crab.’ The usual signature stuff was ordered: crab in sweet and sour sauce, fried rice, fried chicken wings and roti bakar that goes so well with the crab sauce!!

But let me tell you, me and crab eating is like a scene right out from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. I just don’t know how to hammer the crabs properly, somehow when I whack the crabs, the sauce and juice will just fly all over the place. It’s a total bloodbath I tell you. And no matter how many times I whack it, the shell just would not crack properly. Either it will crack just a little bit or at the wrong place where there is no meat. So I whack at it some more to get the meat, but when I do that, all hell brakes loose and broken shells fly all over the place. People sitting beside will be screaming for cover and people from other tables will be laughing. It’s that bad. As for myself, I can get so much sauce on my shirt that CSI teams can do a full analysis on it. Furthermore, that day I was wearing my GAP T-shirt because I went to dinner straight after shopping in Ikea. My T-shirt was a total disaster zone. Bits of small shells were on the G and P of the GAP logo and multiple spots of sauce was everywhere. I called it ‘multiple-crab-shot-wounds’. Tissue was no help either, I mean how many tissue are you going to stick onto your shirt? I’ll look like a chinese looking ‘The Mummy’. I felt like taking the whole shirt off to save what’s left of the T-shirt, but it’s a public place. Oh Crap (or in this case, ‘Oh Crab’). Usually this is what I do when I eat crabs at home haha, just go shirtless, eat and take a shower later wakaka. Eventually they told me to put tissue over the crab, whack it and remove the tissue. This way, no unidentified flying shells can be seen. Wow, it works!! So I hammer and hammer until I can hammer no more. In the end, the table was a like a war zone full of seriously dead crabs and crab body parts littering all over the place. Satisfied with the food and the damage I made, we left and went back home to digest. Yummy.

After coming back home, i got a great surprise as a few friends came over to my home and wished me 'happy birthday'. They bought me desserts too, which was fantastic!! One of the desserts was pure strawberry heaven and second one was just sweet sensation. Check out the pics!! Thanks guys!! I ate the dessert and later I took them out to yamca and chit chat until the late night...

So it was a birthday with no clubbing or drinking, but it was still a splendid birthday none the less, pleasantly made from delicious food and enjoyable company. So with that closes one birthday and another will coming in a year’s time. Oh god, what will happen then, and what new presents next? More furniture probably, maybe a reading chair that can rock back and forth. Oh god….