Midweek Oasis

I had a great night out on Wednesday. Thanks to Caustic Yoda and his friends from New York, as well as some old friends from Singapore. We had dinner at Lau Pa Sat and then had couple of drinks at Emerald Hill and Arab Street. Part of the fun was going back to Emerald Hill after nearly half a decade and discovering a very cozy nook in Arab Street - most of it however was the company.

J and D were New York residents who were on a 3-week, perhaps month long trip of Southeast Asia. I really liked both of them. They were B-school grads, lived and worked in NY - all of which ratcheted up my estimation of how they rated on the intelligent-suave-cool scale. Not that they were not any of the above, but they were both incredibly warm human beings above everything else - unassuming yet intriguing personalities, whose conversations weaved between present and past - their Cambodian experience with street children selling postcards was told with as much good humour being stared at while touring the Singapore National Museum; stories of this trip were peppered with references from past trips and updates about friends from New York. What I found remarkably reassuring was the way they shared their experiences - they did not make headline statements about Singapore or Cambodia or anywhere else, seeking to sound well travelled or worldly wise. They did not dissect, examine and make a thesis of any of their experiences. They were not boastful nor condescending yet ribbed each other good humouredly throughout the evening. I think much had to do with the lilting cadence of J's narration and the gentle smile with which D made most of his observations. It was also good to have 'met' a part of a good friend's life, of which I had only had very fleeting glimpses thus far.

It was nice to have spent a light evening not talking about the economic crisis or the imminent collapse of the banking system. Not arguing if investment bankers had had their comeuppance or whether capitalism was dead. It was my midweek oasis.