Perfect day

What is a perfect day? As my birthday approached, I asked myself and a few people this question: How would you create a perfect day for yourself? How would you pamper yourself?

I want my birthday to be a perfect day, especially seeing as my days on earth are numbered. I'm not dying any day now but I have reached a stage when years lived and years remaining have reached an equilibrium.

Turns out not many people have given much thought to having a perfect day. When probed, some said they would go shopping or spa or bookstore or stay at home with a good book or the box. Some don't even have plans for a good lunch, which was what I had planned to do. But who could blame them for having such boring answers? The caveat to this question was that you need to spend this perfect day by yourself. Well, at least in the day time.

My supposed perfect day got off on a bad start. I woke up with a pounding headache, perhaps from too much anticipation. I was at work in the morning and my colleagues gave me a 'surprise' by singing the birthday song and giving me gifts and shopping vouchers. That kind of compensated for the headache. When I got off work at 12pm, I drove to town to check out the Marmalade Pantry at ION that a couple of people recommended. The place was crowded on a Tuesday afternoon, so it must be good, I thought. I walked in even though I didn't like the menu and requested for a corner seat. The captain told me that the corner table was not available and put me wedged between 2 groups of rowdy women. I sat at the table for all of 10 seconds and stood up to leave, telling the waitress that I had changed my mind. I didn't think I would have much of a good dining experience.

I walked aimlessly in ION. Hungry. Then I decided, I would dine in the next restaurant that served cod fish. No such luck in ION. I moved on to Wheelock Place and stopped by this Japanese restaurant called Sun & Moon. I asked the waitress if they served cod fish as I was craving for some. She said the most beautiful 3-letter word at that time - yes. So, I stepped right in and was shown to a dark corner in the restaurant. The ambience of the restaurant was more Western than Japanese, with soft lighting and sofa chairs.

I was quite happy being left in a dark corner where I could still have an outside view. There were 2 other lone diners in the area - both were caucasian women. I remembered my female friends who told me they did not like to dine alone and would rather 'tabao' or have a quick lunch when alone. I quite enjoyed my own company. No small talks. No comprising on what I want to do. No need to worry about my quirky dining habits, like chewing ice.

My teriyaki cod fish set lunch came with fried potatoes, sashimi salad and a bowl of steaming white fluffy rice. Oh, how I love my starches. It was a very good meal. The rice was a gem. I have not eaten such good Japanese rice in a long time. Soft and starchy - that's how rice should be in a perfect world and on a perfect day. The perfect day was taking shape at this point.

After the good lunch, I went to Marks & Spencer and bought some chocolates and cookies, which were discounted as M & S was having a sale. Perfect shopping experience - checked.

Then I moved on to Far East Plaza to hunt for a pair of shoes and a white cardigan. Although I did not intentionally limit my shopping list to these 2 items, I ended up with only the shoes. The place was not like it used to be. I recalled there were a lot more shops. Must be the recession. But I was happy with my shoes - it was something I had been searching for for some time. I had to abandoned the Godiva milkshake in Takashimaya as I wanted to go home to nurse that headache before my date in the evening.

Dinner was at a modern French restaurant at Purvis Street called Gunther's. The food was superb and the service was great. But somehow, I felt like I was being watched constantly. The place was very small and the ratio of diners to wait staff was like 2 to 1. I liked the food and getting dressed up for dinner but I would prefer the ambience to be more casual. Our dinner that day:

- Free flow of freshly baked bread

- Lobster salad

- French onion soup

- Wagyu beef (for him)

- French lamb (for me)

- Selection of desserts

I was the only person taking pictures and was afraid that the wait staff would stop me from doing so. If they stopped me, I would say that I was a celebrity blogger, I decided.

The bread was very nice - warm and crusty. And they served real butter, not margarine.

My apple juice and sparkling water.

The lobster salad was out of this world - sweet, light and juicy, served with cherry tomotoes, some veg and a layer of crispy potatoes underneath.

The French onion soup was alright. They claimed it's made with Belgium beer. I guess either French restaurant or posh restaurant has no concept of sharing. We ordered 1 serving of soup to share but they gave us 2 and charged us accordingly. Miss smarty-pants at the corner of my left-side brain snorted, 'Fine-dining. Duh.'

My phone camera, or rather my skill did no justice to the wagyu beef. It was succulant and tender with the right amount of marbling and cooked to perfection - slightly burnt outside but still pink inside. No gravy whatsoever. This will be my last meal before I die.

Best lamb dish I have ever eaten, served with a thin layer of potatoes and gooey cheese underneath and with the right amount of fats too but I wished it was a little burnt and crusty on the outside to bring out the flavour. Still, this could not beat the heavenly wagyu beef.

This tiramisu was a surprise, with compliments from Gunther's. Even the surprise-maker, my hubby, was surprised by this gesture.

This was another surprise. We didn't order desserts as the surprise-maker had planned to bring me to another restaurant near his office to eat molten lava chocolate cake. The biggest surprise was that we had to pay for these even though we did not order them. Oh well, we enjoyed the dessserts tremendously, so we will not quarrel about it.

The left most one was a chewy cake with crusty exterior; the white truffle macaroon was chewy and good too; the biscuit was alright and valrhona chocolate was rich and bitter.

I simply couldn't eat another bite of the remaining desserts on the plate even though they were really yummy.

Check out the bathroom. They use L'occitane!

It's hand towels, not paper napkins.

So did I have my perfect day? Well, other than the headache, it was almost perfect. But it was all over too soon. It got me thinking: what is the point of it all? You spend indecent amount of money and effort creating a perfect day and then it's over before you can savour it. For that matter, why bother to go for holidays and then get back to the same rut after a while? My 'Aha!' response: so you can look forward to more of such wonderful experiences in the long journey called life. Another 'Aha!' answer: so that your book of life will not be blank; it will be as colouful as you want it to be and when you look back, you do so with a smile. I am still smiling.