Though he did a fine job of summing up our weekend in Malaysia. The highlight for me was the dinner at Tamarind Springs, a beautiful restaurant in a tropical setting. I'm happy to have seen, in person, the iconic Petronas twin towers, but I'll admit that the sight made me miss New York's own iconic twin towers. Sometimes it's hard to believe that they only exist in memory.
Christmas is all wrapped up, the purple trees of Orchard Rd. disassembled. We completed that dreaded task of removing our home decorations; it was a wistful few seconds. We've retained the $7 tacky tinsel tree that we bought in HK two years ago and it performed just as dazzlingly this year. Its silver 'needles' shimmered in the gentle breeze of the perpetual air-con until the time came to collapse it like a pancake.
We celebrated New Year's Eve at the bar of Oso, the Italian restaurant. There was a fair sized crowd and some noise, nothing too memorable. The next day's event in the season of consumption was Paul's birthday meal at Morton's steakhouse. We were given a cozy corner booth and were asked if we were celebrating a special occasion. A coworker of Paul's recently dined at Morton's and clued him in to the offering of a complimentary dessert if they know it's your birthday, so we shared this fact with the server - since he asked. Paul's gratis cake of choice was American style cheesecake imported from some presumably well-known bakery in The Bronx (I forget the name). As part of the over-the-top service, they took our photo and presented it to us in a Morton's birthday card. Ah, the gluttony. I had to go along with it as Paul's birthday request. I had no choice.
Last thing, I complain all the time about the constant heat and humidity here, but I may keep it to myself after seeing what you all went through the week after Christmas. I had flashbacks of digging our cars out, especially when we lived in the apartment on Grymes Hill, only to have someone occupy the spot seven seconds later. We eventually acquired a house and driveway, but that only solved the parking space anxiety at home. S.I. libraries, where I worked, notoriously lacked parking. Once, I was forced to 'steal' a cleared spot in New Dorp after a huge snowfall and I was greeted with an obscene note upon return. I was probably lucky that it was just a note. Regardless of the conditions, I would still have to get to work in snow, ice, falling snow, falling frogs - whatever the case - as long as the library was open, and the library was always open. And more than once I cursed my own acquiescence as my car would tailspin while I drove 5 MPH in dangerous conditions only to arrive late and be docked the time from my annual leave.
So I'm not rubbing it in when I say how relieved I am to avoid winter, by chance, a couple of the whitest winters ever. I wholeheartedly sympathize. As I write this, it is snowing there again for the third time in two weeks. Surely the cleanup has to be better this time, right? Right? I hope you all have enough milk at home. Did you go out and stock up on milk???
Having said how much I hate snow, a chilly day would be lovely. I miss a change of seasons - even in Hong Kong we got a pleasant break from November to March. I've forsaken half my wardrobe, and I really miss wearing beautiful boots and jackets. It's considered rainy season here, which is difficult to distinguish from non-rainy season, though the rain does seem to fall for a longer time each day and on more days than the rest of the year. On Christmas night, in the pouring rain, it was a brisk 73F/23C, the coolest I believe I've ever experienced here. I've been taking walks/jogs at night and enjoying the cool weather while it lasts. By cool I mean that I sweat but it doesn't actually pool and roll down my body parts. So the grass is always greener in somebody else's hemisphere.
