Indulgence for a Romantic Dinner

This is a long postponed entry which I am obliged to write because its always compelling to share my experiences which I assume that, given normal circumstances, others would love to read about as much as I enjoyed experiencing it myself. Or, on another perspective, might be due to me writing it in such a way that it’s more interesting reading rather than experiencing. I leave this judgment to my readers, if there are any in the first place.

Well, the topic brings me to my graduation dinner at Ipoh with Tomi’s family and extensions (me included, with Nasa’s boyfriend Davin, who happens to own the very first Mitsubishi Sedan Lancer in Asia, which I got to sit in, leather still smelling new). Reservations were made at Indulgence, apparently the nicest place Tomi could find that was suitable enough to commemorate the occasion of us both graduating and also Nasa’s belated birthday celebration. Also, Tomi wanted to go there because we never went there before, despite so many couples retelling their romantic nights doing dinners there during Valentine’s, anniversaries, courtships or even “Just because its Wednesday”s. For those who do not appreciate subtlety, it is suffice to know that certain couples enjoy expressing their love to one other on any day for no apparent reason for celebration. Whether or not it is because money isn’t an issue to them or whether they love the spontaneity without considering the cost, or for those who manage money more competently, already budgeted for in their “dating expenditures”.

I am no spoiler about the place. For those who have never been to Ipoh, just a background on the place where Indulgence is a nice restaurant serving modern fusion food that is creatively prepared by Chef Julie Song and her team. Why I say it is creative, well, as if going through the many pages of its menu was not confusing enough, a waitress(might have another name for the person which I am currently unaware of, too lazy to google to find out), brought a blackboard to our table sprawled with chalkwritings of today’s special, which had really weird sounding delicacies like geoduck (think its pronounces as gee-duck) and fish names that would even put Jaron into confusion despite him watching so many animal documentaries on television. Whoa that was a long sentence. Haha. The setting of the restaurant looks like Delicious by Ms. Read. Am not sure whether there are any relations between both restaurants.

For the food review, Tomi and Uncle Watt decided to go with the easiest course which was steak. But it was disappointing when it came, due to its size. Mine was called Mirabello, such a nice name with a nice paragraph of explanations but it turned out to be fancy fish with tempura batter that had vegetables in it, and accompanying chips and salad. I was hoping for something more interesting, given such a nice name. Asun and Aunt Kirsti’s crowne chicken had nice presentation as it was served in a small pineapple. Davin had some weird bird-nest looking pasta alfredo style which he didn’t finish coz he was either too tired from driving, or he was occupied in talking about anything and everything. But dessert was really awesome with me finishing off the very last piece of Tiramisu for the day. Asun and Aunt Kirsti ordered the same dessert of Berry Surprise, funny name given the fact that it sounds very similar to Ah Bengs trying to pronounce a similar word, “Very”, and from the fact that Ipoh is overpopulated by them, no offence.

Click here for pictures.

All in all, it was a nice dinner since it was spent with the entire family. My family was missing from the picture because they chose to spend the night at Lumut since Ipoh hotels didn’t have a swimming pool for mum and a jetty for Jaron and my dad to occupy their time with fishing. On other unrelated matters, they actually managed to catch 2-3 puffer fishes (ikan buntal) which they let back into the sea (no cruelty to animals reports here). Besides toasting to us making it thus far and entering into worklife, I couldn’t help but feel like a romantic because it was my ideal night of family and friends and being treated like the youngest in the family, since I’m always acting as the eldest in mine. For every family, there’s something special that sets it apart to be called our own. And these moments are one of them. I am also thankful for my family where dinner doesn’t have to be lavish but laughter and good food is always abundant. I am hoping to share the same joy with this family in the future.

S.H.I.T Part 1

The acronym above stands for how i feel right now which is So Happy It's Thursday! I have been away from office the whole of last week, firstly because i finally attended my graduation ceremony after 8 months+ wait since December last year. It wasn't much of a ceremony unlike those in the US where people got to display their various personalities and stuff they were passionate about but its the usual Malaysian ceremony with really long speeches and not much commotion when graduates received their scrolls. there were a total of 846 of us, a small number consisting of those from Civil, Electrical and Electronics, Mechanical, Chemical, ICT and BIS faculties, including a small handfull of Masters degree receipients. N1 La0hia fared quite well since Jalen, Grace, Ken Li and Chan Yet won the Rector's award for their faculties respectively. Mien Pin won award for Chemical Engineering and the most celebrated receipients were Ken Li and Chan Yet yet again receiving the honorary Chancellor's award, which is the highest award granted to graduates for being all-rounders with outstanding achievements both in academic and non-academic fields.

I was there since Friday after work since there was a rehearsal the next day in the afternoon. Was supposed to stay up the whole of Friday night at church catching up with juniors after their daily prayer meet and Friday night movie nights but I was so tired by the time we reached plus the fact that my bedtime has already been set to a routine that I sleep by midnight latest so I skipped the night watch and woke at 5.30am for Dimsum breakfast at Ipoh with them instead. After rehearsal, Saturday night was spent having Ipoh’s famous Taugeh Ayam Kuetiau with Tomi’s family and dropping by at Bercham to meet those juniors with Grace and Chanyet, and later N1 La0hia at some mamak around greentown area. Its funny how our batch is different in a sense that going out drinking is not part of our activities. Its either because there’s just too big of a group to go out or no one’s really THAT interested in a night out clubbing(such a cliché word) and would rather prefer going to a mamak to watch EPL while catching up on latest gossip here and there from Yee Fong or me mostly, or teasing Tuck Fai of his latest pursuits since Dougie has already secured Winnie for himself (nearly typed winner, haha). I’m glad that most of us have secured jobs within Petronas, meaning that we are all part of a huge family and keeping in touch is easy. But for those whom I have yet to keep in contact with, do keep reading my blogs or at least drop a Hi at jamietan84@gmail.com so we can network our way up the corporate ladder, or start populating the earth with the way we know best;p

After all the hype of graduation, when flowers and teddies were received and mortar boards(square hats that people wear during graduation, overheard some girls getting confused by the name and mistaking them for “Murtabak” instead) were thrown into the air while camera shutters kept snapping away, the uncomfortable truth that there’s absolutely nothing else to look forward to except for retirement as we enter into the unknown hits us all. For me, since I spend a lot of my time in the LRT, always wonder when will I get a place of my own, and where it might beI’ve mentioned my dream of buying one of the old houses on the hill around Jalan Gasing near Pei Yen’s house where I would knock down its old structure and build a completely new, modern one. Well no harm dreaming. For now, it will be walking to LRT and putting aside cash till I see a need to move out to a nicer place or get my own car. In the meantime, there’s no necessity for me to buy a car. Partly because of the fact that I’m trying to champion for Global warming, and also I am more confident when taking public transportation compared to driving in KL. Well, can’t say that KL traffic is that bad compared to crazy Indian drivers.

Seems like connection is really slow at the workplace so I will just include my usual link to my Graduation pics. Last but not least, many thanks to those who have made my graduation a memorable event, N1 La0hia, my family, Tomi’s family and my beloved juniors whom I wish I could have stayed around longer to make your lives miserable by reminding you guys of how I vaguely remember terms like Assignments, Tests, Finals and all other related terms and would need them to explain what that means to me now;p