November 25th – a date to remember.

It seems like each year has only one day & date. It was only like yesterday when it was November 25th… of last year.

28 years. That is how long it took us to get to our 28th Wedding Anniversary. Even if we wanted to take a shortcut, it still would have taken 28 years.

I still remember the time I asked her to marry me. It was just after attending Uncle Ronnie’s (Atkinson) and Aunty Maryjane’s 25th wedding anniversary celebrations. I believe it was December 28th, 1994. I was inspired to sign up.

Her response was not what I expected. I thought it would have been a simple, “Let’s do it!”. But no, she had other ideas. When I asked for her hand in marriage, she said, “Let me think about it”. Huh? Got like that one meh?, I thought to myself. Plus, she never gave a specific date when she will come back with an answer.

I was not really a good waiter at this waiting game…wait and see… wait for the results. I was on pins, needles and nails. I was walking up and down pathways of fiery flames…with thick, shoes on. I think it was during that time, that each day stretched out to 36 hours. It is as though I could see the second hand on my watch, move each second in slow motion. The background music was an orchestra playing, with all the violins and cellos stuck on that musical note of worry, waiting to move on but couldn’t unless the scene changed. A lot of drama…like a Bollywood movie. I love Bollywood dramatic movies, especially when they slow the action parts in slowmo. They are absolutely in a class of their own.

On New Year’s Day, 1st January 1995; she gave me a new year’s card. When I opened it, it just said, “YES!”. I knew it all along. Just that I wanted it in black & white…actually, I would have accepted it in any colour.😉😁

Hitched on Nov 25th that year. And the rest as they (who are the “they”?) say, is history.

Jeannie wanted to have dinner at The Social at Empire Gallery Shopping Centre, Subang Jaya. Laura, our daughter; helped make a reservation on our behalf.

The Social had a sort of nice setting. Christmas decorations were already up. Christmas music was piped in, softly. We were shown to our table….just next to a Christmas tree, which made us, especially Jeannie; more happier.

I saw wagyu beef burger on the menu and decided to go for that. I’ve heard so much about wagyu beef but never tried it. So, wagyu beef burger it was.

Jeannie went for a fried rice dish, with fried chicken.

We did not have to wait too long for our meals to arrive. Just looking at the wagyu beef burger, it looked quite ordinary. But then, looks can be deceiving. Unfortunately, in this burger, it was not. My meal came on a chopping board(?). The potato chips were in a wired basket, to probably give it the idea of sparklers.

I thought the wagyu beef was nothing more than just above average. The impression I got of the chef (cook?) who prepared this meal was as long as he knows how to put the meat on the grill and throw in some sauces, flip it a couple of times or so; it would be done. I was expecting much more from “wagyu beef”. Jeannie kept reminding me that this was processed wagyu beef. I understood that part but couldn’t it have been even a bit more better than the average burger? The chips were nice.

Jeannie’s meal came on a plate. It looked good and appetizing, too. The fried rice came with a sombrero on. Jeannie liked her meal. I tried a bit of the fried chicken. It was nice.

The whole evening was not so much about the food. (I think. yeah…yeah…😏 and I am going to talk [write] more about wagyu in days to come.😉). We were relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. It was kind of cool that Laura made the dinner reservation. In fact, she had spent some days looking up places for us to have our dinner or spend this evening; where we would have loved to have dinner. The Social is a great place to dine.

We ordered the same coffee that we had the last time we were here. The coffee comes with ice-cream. Locally, it may be known as “coffee float”. The educated may not know what that is. If you say, “affogato”… “Oh, affogato, which is coffee with ice-cream. Why didn’t you say so?” But I did!

The affogato was another disappointment. When it came, we, more like I; did not quite know what to make of it. It looked like a fruit cut in half, or a near full boiled egg, cut in half, with a small pitcher of coffee by the side of it and bits of sweet crackers.

We had to call the waitress and ask what happened to the way we were served affogato the last time, where it came with a scoop of ice-cream and a small mug of expresso coffee. Then, we, at our own pace, pour the expresso slowly (get it? expresso…slowly) over the ice-cream to enjoy the perfect culmination of coffee with the ice-cream at that point, where the blend reaches perfection. She said, “We don’t talk anymore…”. No, no, no, just joking😂. She said, “they don’t serve it that way anymore”. There goes that expectation of perfection where the hot expresso is poured over the ice-cream…where it flows down the side of the cold ice-cream, reaching that desired temperature mix, then eating it.

Jeannie and I did have a wonderful evening. 28 years would not have happened if Jeannie did not say “YES”. Looking forward to many, many more adventurous years together.