Sublime supper

I had a wonderful long-awaited supper with a dear friend early this morning, and if not for the dear friend's husband who was waiting for his frog's leg porridge at home, I suppose our conversation could have gone on and on. I was filling her in on what's been happening recently in my life and she was updating me on her upcoming holiday and a lot more stuff. Mostly personal stuff.

We went to this coffeeshop at Geylang Lorong 3 to have the porridge. The place offers an "order 3 frogs' legs, get two more free" deal. We decided that both of us could eat three legs, and we asked them to pack the other two legs for her husband who was still waiting up for her despite his very tiring work routine. I ordered lime juice and she went for a herbal drink (luohanguo with longan). We also ordered a dish of stir-fried vegetables (doumiao).

I found it interesting that the lady waitress who was serving us kept recommending us their top dishes, which of course would have also meant high prices. We resisted all her polite recommendations. We had opted for a table by the roadside, which was on hindsight a bad choice because there were many vehicles stopping by and some cabs parking there, on the prowl for customers. So we breathed in quite a bit of car exhaust plus some cigarette smoke from the nearby tables.

We were discussing the cable show Ed because we found out only during supper that both of us watch the cable show. I was telling her that I thought the actor who played Ed was very cute - he has that shy demeanour and blue eyes. I've a very soft spot for guys with a gentle and soft demeanour, even though some sometimes hide behind an aloof facade. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the two main protagonists in the show, and we both wondered what the third season would bring for them. She said it took her a while to get into what the show was about, and how a bowling alley fitted into it. I watched only the last two or three episodes of the second season as well.

Then she talked about the Oprah Winfrey show, and how the recent episode showcased a new way of getting 3D images of a person's heart and how the 3D images could be moved around to get a look at the different areas of the heart. Oprah's heart condition was like that of a 19-year-old - her heart arteries were strong and clear! I then told her about this article I had read on the Internet about the effects of drug and alcohol addiction on the brain, and how brain activity is impaired by such addictions but that the brain starts recovering 100 days after the person stops taking drugs or alcohol.

She then told me that she was going to do ear-candling. I was intrigued because I didn't know how that worked. She explained to me that a hollow candle is placed into the ear, and the wick is lit. The heat causes a vacuum to form in the hollow candle and so the ear wax is sucked out through the candle. I've never done that before, and I told her that I may schedule myself for ear-candling or a hearing test (either I've got too much ear wax or I'm losing my hearing). The tendency to talk louder is linked to hearing loss because one talks louder in order to hear one's words clearer. My friends have been commenting that I talk too loudly in public.

There were some interesting characters in the coffeeshop, and one group of them left. I was so distracted by them that it took me close to 30 seconds to continue from where I left off. I won't say what actions led to me being thrown off my track but suffice to say they reminded me that I was in Geylang.

My friend and I talked about many other things but, as usual, the most important, precious and personal ones will be safely stored in the memories and in the heart. She is also one of the few friends who understand me well and can be patient with my nonsense, my spiels, my ramblings as well as my intensity.

We kind of told each other that we would leave by 2am. But we were still settling the bill around 2.30am. My friend called her husband to tell him to wait a while longer for his porridge. :-P

We stepped away from the table and the coffeeshop. She very kindly waited for another cab to come by (despite thoughts of a very hungry husband) before we both boarded the two cabs and went separately on our way home. I smsed her to say that I had a wonderful time catching up with her.

This is part of what life is about, isn't it? :-)