Retro-fied

Term ended yesterday, officially. It was a long time coming but well, only mellowed goodbyes were exchanged. I guess we would miss all those 1st time this-that adventures we share in Uni.

So like always, looking for something new, we ended up in a jazz bar. A 70’s hippie jazz bar. With every passing moment, I was more convinced I was trapped in a time warp. Beside me, my vegetarian friend grew increasingly excited as he turned page after page of the menu. This is by far the coolest restaurant ever to have a fully veged-out menu. And believe you me, it was really cool.

While I was head bopping to what I was certain was retro 70’s music by obscure artists, appreciating the psychedelic light display and slurping Raspberry Julep (raspberry + mint leaves), a friend of mine confronted his chocolate and orange slice.

It wasn’t just an extra moist brownie. Inside it contained the secret ingredient in 15% of the food listed in the menu. Between salivating mouths and politeness, all of us waited to see who would ask for a taste, because after that it would be okay to pass the brownie along.

He took the first bite, pronounced it “Hard to chew, but good…..really good…..uh..the seeds are at the back of my mouth….heheh, am happy, this is good” We smiled and swallowed one last mouthful of saliva and then thankfully the happy vegan asked for a taster.

It was too mild to cause any consequence, add to the fact that it’s a legalise substance. The excitement of trying it wasn’t as exhilarating. But to most of us, the experience was new and worth the effort to blog about. Hemp is a strain of cannabis, the perpetrator of the seedy feeling at the back of the mouth. Apparently this café specialises in Hemp, the secret ingredient. I looked on as another friend tried in vain to remain a lady while biting a mouthful of Hemp burger. She smiled back, catching me eyeing her amusingly.

As time flew, I was dizzy with 2nd hand smoke that smelt like the whiff you get after lighting a fire cracker. I never knew dreadlocks can add the attractiveness factor in a man and vowed to visit this place appropriately embracing the flower power when I come back in September. Alley’s Café is SO the COOL BEANS!


Current Music: The Chiffon's One Fine Day

BoNdI The Dim

2nd year officially ended yesterday. The exit was nothing short of theatrical. Why? I finally proved am a walking, talking, breathing zombie with porridge for brains.

To begin with, I used my wrong foot and I make no excuse for it.

Well, like all academic terms, it concludes with an exam. And I, hrm, sat for an exam not knowing what it was at all. Wait, wait; I knew it was OSCE; where we are suppose to run along, out of breath to the beat of chiming bells going of at 5 minutes interval. Quickly, objectively, politely; pressing limbs, prodding abdomen, peering into eye balls, dipping urine, pricking fingers, hammering knees............To be entirely honestly, I didn’t know what OSCE stood for until we celebrated over Lebanese cuisine and belly dancers. But well, it was too late to make amends.

Fool’s play number 1; CPR

Right; assess danger, check airway, breathing, shout for help, circulation, call ambulance, compress, ventilate…….
Of course, I would verbally say I would remove the constriction without actually removing it. How much more dim can I get!
Cracked up the examiner, lightened the mood a little, but wasn’t sure it was for my benefit.

Fool’s play number 2; Otoscopy

This where we pull your ear lobes to peer into your ear canals. Was my best station as I recall with my gold fish memory.
But yes, I forgot to wash my hands! That’s a cardinal mistake; even a joker will tell you that.
Examiner was happy to change the score sheet when a red faced me added after concluding the examination that I should have prioritise cleanliness before anything else. But still!

Oh dear, the list goes on, but really, I can’t be bothered to illustrate since the above is more than enough to prove my point.

I always say I would do better, much better in fact in 80’s music pop quizzes then being/learning to be a doctor.


Current music: Ben Lee’s Catch My Disease

Ally, Ally, Ally!

What do I remember of my 15 year old self?

Ally Mcbeal. While not defining my life at that point; she was my window to the world of adult liberation; sex, dancing, ultra miniskirts, cocktails and who can forget the fantastic music?

Once a week, I would relish my time where I would rest my arse on the sofa instead of my thinned, insufficiently cushioned work chair, tearing myself away from textbooks or penguin classics – because they were ridiculously cheap.

Ally was my guide. Yeah, we were at opposite poles; she was half way on the relationship roller coaster ride (because at 30, heaven forbid, females are not at the end of the ride!), while I have not quite started yet. I wonder why I thought we were bosom buddies; we had nothing in common apart from severe loneliness, dejection and the propensity to surprise by dancing crazy, inappropriately paced verbal diarrhoea, turn radish red in a blink of an eye….

Watching it again, 6 years later, I wonder how I understood many things…those innuendoes you need to be on your own feet to know. But there are common themes any girl, of any age can relate too. For example Ally thought me early that, ‘Men are testosterone filled mutts’…which with experience you’ll know it’s not completely true. And who knew the deceptively clean co-ed washrooms could be the best place to gossip only to have the very person being discussed come out of the stall? Oh, there was never a groovier place to shake those hips to Barry White!

But the greatest lesson of all is the Ling's 101 on kissing:

Tilt your head,

Worse thing would be for our noses to collide

Now lick you lips..i’ll do it….you don’t want them dry

Now ….just receive….reciprocate, but don’t escalate….

You ready?

You may think you have been kissed Richard Fish, but you haven’t been

The result – Richard was hyperventilating 5 mins later.

Current Music; Vonda Shepherd’s Searching My Soul