A Short Story: On the side...

When you have a meal, there's always either a salad or fries or mashed potatoes or bowl of soup on the side.

The thing is, you've ordered the main meal. The side dish inevitably comes with it whether you or your dinner companion like it or not.

Some people go all out, avoiding the side dish as if it was unbearable to eat it or for their dinner companion eats it as well.

Some people just push the side dish aside. Pretending not to eat it (probably because it's a side of Fries and they're on a low carb diet) but they look at it furtively, steal glances and gobble up a few when they think the Gods of Dieting aren't watching.
 
If no one sees it, then it's alright. Right?


But then one day, your dinner companion says, it's okay. "I know you want the main meal but it's ok to have the side dish, it really is. I don't mind." You look at them expectantly and wonder if they're just testing you.

"Ok, lets have the side-dish together, shall we?", you say.

Then the two of you start comparing side dishes. Which ones are tastier? which ones have more fat? more lean meat?more protein? looks more promising and so on an so forth. Sometimes not coming to an understanding but always reaching a compromise.

So you go about your brunches and dinners having side dishes along with the main meal.

"Why don't we have two or more side dishes together?, says your dinner companion happy to oblige you.

You two plan and set your meals such that, you'll both be having side dishes to eat and plenty of it too. 

And slowly yet  surely you start eating side dishes exclusively.

Because they're more to your taste maybe? They've got more umph? They're more attractive with their salad greens and baby tomatoes? Because they're less greasy than the main meal of roasted pork knuckles, hence less fat and more appetizing to you?

The main meal gets poked and prodded and moved around the plate. You chew on it half heartedly and finally you stop eating it altogether. So it sits there, getting cold, not getting eaten but you've already ordered it.

One day whilst on the way out to lunch at work, you see a new restaurant. You find this restaurant serves side dishes in a Main Course Size. *ka-ching!*

Your eyes dazzle, heart beats faster, you feel woozy and your throat feel dry and needs a long drink of water. You can't believe your eyes.

You're hungry! You're ravenous... You haven't had a bite to eat all day!

So you have your fill of it, trying side dishes from goodness knows where, traveling to any and every restaurant that advertises this wonder or wonders!

Come eat my Side Dish!

Main Course Salad! only $9.95

Get it while it's hot, boy!

I've got the best corn on the cob in town! Sweet, dripping from the melting buttery juices!

You know you want it, you forget work, you plough your way through lunch through to afternoon tea. All the way through to supper if you could... eating and having. Going from one restaurant to another. Side dishes galore.

Meanwhile, your dinner partner having already ordered is wondering why you're late. Cause you had appointment for, well, Dinner. You arrive completely satiated, full to the brim, trousers a-bursting at the seams. You sit at the table and say your hi's and hello's with a tummy full of side dishes.

"I'm hungry! I'm ravenous... I haven't had a bite to eat all day. I hope you're hungry cause you're in for a treat!", says your eating compadre excitedly upon seeing you.

You flinch, just a little and say,

"I'm sorry.....I've had a lot of side dishes...I skipped work in the afternoon and went off to a new restaurant to have their Main Course Side Dish set....then to a Hotel nearby where they had a salad side dish buffet..and then... two more pub lunches..and a cafe....and... I'm full"

Your Foodie partner assures you that it's okay,

"It's fine.. I'll see you later then alright? What? No it really is alright! Nah I wasn't so crazy about this restaurant anyways. You better get on back home and have a rest ok? Lets have dinner soon?"

As you leave, you glance through the windows of the restaurant. He sees you and smiles and waves goodbye animatedly to you. Then you only realise, standing in the street looking in, his table is full of small bite sized portions of Main Meal. But he's not eating his main meal. So it sits there, getting cold, not getting eaten but he's already ordered it.


And he feels pushed aside.

Sweet talker..gimme another bite.

Met two lovely ladies today.

We talked about relationships over iced coffee in see-through plastic cups.

We talked about business.

We talked about the love of my life. My professional life, that is....

Pastries and Desserts.

Main courses are food for the body.

But Desserts are tricky sneakier creatures...

They're food for the Mind. (they don't make you smart, mind you....I wish they did!)


Even though your body is full, you'll always make room for dessert.

Desserts are made pretty and more often nowadays looking like architectural masterpieces.

And although you're already full, your mind tricks you into having "One more slice of that heavenly flour less chocolate cake with the high-gloss chocolate glaze accented with a sliver of gold leaf"

Ah me... my life banks on the gluttony of people. And as a race, we are un-apologetically so.

Who wouldn't say no to a towering chocolate fountain with big luscious ripe red strawberries?...

Even when people say they want low sugar, low carb, low this and that..it still is dessert baby..it's delicious.. it's inviting, in fact that ice cream bar with the home-style vanilla bean ice cream and the bits of crushed oreo, fresh berries and perfectly whipped cream and a shower of almond slices baked to golden perfection just calls you...

It's screaming... EAT ME!...

You know you want it.

Give in to the temptation and have your cake and eat it too..

In fact I've got a Banana Raisin Walnut loaf cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting just lying there luxuriously in my fridge, waiting to be ravaged...

 *yummmm*

Fills me with LOVE. :-)

Oh my Blog..:-(

I have neglected my blogs for almost a year now... this I know..

Then I asked myself Why?...

here are some ideas I've come up with.

1. I'm not angsty anymore. No anger = no fuel = no fire = no Blogging
2. I'm not doing anything noteworthy.
3. I have been doing things much too "noteworthy" to put it down in black and white on this, my web-log
4. Most of the interesting stuff I want to tell people, I do it in the here and now on Facebook. (I don't even Twitter, not enough space for ranting)
5. I've been genuinely happy. And we all know how preachy and boastful it sounds when people write about their own happiness.
   

Note:
Things Write about :
Own misery ( yes ), Others' misery ( No! )
Others' Happiness ( sure why not? ), Own Happiness ( Hell NO! )

So which is it?


Yes the past year has been happy and satisfying for me in the arenas of personal, sexual and relationship growth.

Things I thought I'd never do, I did. Things I wished would happen to me, did!.. Ask me for the sordid and salacious details in private!

I went to Bali again! :-)



I'm too old to be angsty...I wouldn't say jaded, but not as bright eyed and bushy tailed as before. I'm piqued by things that fascinate me more than excite me. Because fascination borrows from your mind, heart and imagination and turns something interesting into a magical show.

I am awed at watching Stars as night, their gases burning bright..the Universe is a wondrous thing. And the most fantastic thing about our universe and our existence is that, it is a series of random events that has brought us humans into being. And for us to have the appreciation of that, is truly amazing.

I am awed at watching the Sun rise through the trees and watching the lightening day. The colours shift from Dark night - deep blue - violet - pink to orange and yellow and finally the bright sky-blue blue skies of the morning.

I enjoy a good laugh.


I realised I quite like mid sized doggies with personalities and a penchant for clean laundered tidy whities. Buddy Brutus is # 1!!



I relish good chats with friends. I love my friends but better still, I'm still willing to make new friends. Some people have friend quotas which gets filled the older they get. Not me. Of course you fight, you laugh, you hate them sometimes and love them most of the times. They're your Mates... it is their duty (to be a Mate).



I love Robyn (all her recent music), Delorean, Microwave Popcorn, Simgsons, South Park, Big Bang Theory, Iced Caramel Frappuccino (double blended), Kent Reds, Ramli Burger (Burger Ayam double Special Satuuu) watching the Moon rise. Closed eye visuals, followed closely by Laser Lights, that "WHOAAAA-I-gotta-it-down-for-a-minute" feeling, airconditioning, My sisters and Dad, sleeping wow I realized just how much I love sleeping this year and Choco-Potato Chip (get it from Royce's chocolates yummy!)




I dislike (because hate is such a strong word) waiting for people to arrive, leaving late which means arriving late, cardio workouts, headaches, limited space on my external hard drive, brussel sprouts, serial misspelling, American Idol, Reality TV shows that feature law enforcement (C.O.P.S or Bounty Hunter), not getting what I ordered, being told "I told you so!", being lost with a blurry sense of time, queues, traffic jams, people complaining nonstop about traffic jams, jars I can't open, melted KitKats and overtly dramatic situations.


So, I've just been getting to know Me better, I guess..

ah...

You live and learn.

At any rate, you live. *

*Douglas Adams quotes (British comic Writer, 1952-2001)