The Week That Was

The element of surprise - is a masterpiece of an addition to anything. A string of pleasant surprises, stacked one after the other allowing little, if any time for the reality to sink in is nothing short of, well.. heavenly. For some time I was trapped in an invisible bubble, packed with a disturbing uncertainty and devoid of inspiration. Not after what promulgated in the last few days.. filled with events that shall be etched deep into my memory, hopefully till death do me part..

It all began on an innocent Monday night. At the stroke of midnight, I was surprised (you'd be seeing this word repeatedly, for the lack of a worthy synonym) by a few friends with a cake and well wishes. After the formalities, Harry took out his new, award-winning board game - Dominion. To all those who snide at the mention of board games, just wait till you get addicted to this one. With the ability to change the elements of the game through a seemingly infinite number of combinations, there is no one strategy that will work every time. Those of us who played that night were so excited, that we can't wait to get our hands on the game again.

The following day was peppered with wishes from all over, and a long trip to Indian town for some good food and groceries. It, was, to put succinctly, the typical birthday. By this point, I had agreed to write a history essay for my friend, on the two lives of Charlemagne. Up to then I knew very little of the Middle Ages, but I was certainly enlightened by my research on its greatest emperor. It really wasn't too much work you see, for a Jackson. The next couple of days, I spent quite a bit of time building a couple of tables for another friend.. building from almost scratch that is. The last time I did any significant carpentry was back in high school for our Living Skills project (Kemahiran Hidup.. lol). The work took a small toll on my arms and legs, and not to mention the sawdust; but it was all good fun.

Then came the weekend. It started with the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Kwong Hann and I went downtown to catch the dyeing of the Chicago River as well as the parade, or at least what we could see of it amongst that crowd. The photos we took, on that misty day should be sufficient though, to tell the story and that is precisely what I'll aim to do in my next posting. After slugging it out at the parade, as well meeting a few familiar faces along the way, we finally returned home. Upon our return, i found a package at my door addressed to me. I didn't recall making any online purchases in recent times, and hence it had to be a gift. Upon opening the package, I was treated to not one.. but two gifts!

They came along with a message that only one person could conjure - Julian Tan. I guess this calls for my venture into world of bartending.. That evening, Julian himself paid me a visit at my place. Now his visit was supposed to have been a surprise, but somehow that didn't quite work out. Lol. Anyway, having him here at Chicago for the weekend was exciting in itself. We were to go for fine dining at a restaurant downtown that night - Vivere. Now I did get the feeling it was a classy restaurant, and thus agreed to dress formally for the occasion complete with my blazer. We finally got into the cab, and Julian gives the cabbie an address that didn't sound 'downtown' to me. Somehow, I didn't bother to think any more of it, and just went along. Just as the cab drew to a halt, a small signboard caught my eye. Now it was not so much of the signboard as it was the collection of letters that was spread over it. It read - Alinea.

A guy gets the door for me, and asks me "Alinea?" At that very point, millions of thoughts were rushing through my tiny head, as I couldn't have been bothered to answer the man, and just stepped out - very much in shock. Julian and Kwong Hann followed suit, and while patting me on the back, said - "Happy Birthday!" I still cannot recall much of my thoughts during those moments - it was like I was elevated to a level above, without the use of substances, of course. What I remember of the exterior, though was something very simple, with a mysteriously inviting door. As soon as we walked in, before us was a neon-lit pathway that was seemingly infinite. A few steps down the way though, and a sliding door opens up to our left. Inside, a lady invites us in, and proceeds to ask for our reservation details, which obviously I had no idea about. We were early, in fact half an hour early for our reservation. Lol! After about five minutes, however the same lady returned and told us they had a table available for us. We then ascended into heaven, literally, up a glass staircase with stylish steel frames. Awaiting us was our table, surprisingly bare-topped yet simply elegant. As I was seated, I couldn't help notice it was made of the finest quality of wood. A waiter then comes up to us and asks if anyone has any restrictions on meat, to which I mentioned my total lack of appetite for beef and pork. He then proceeds to ask us what type of water we would like, to which we ended up choosing Perrier's sparkling water. The next question that was put forth was if we would like to pair our dishes for the night with some fine wine. After a slight deliberation, I figured.. why not? With that out of the way, we were set for what I am absolutely positive should lie as my most amazing dining experience for years to come. After all, this was a top 10 restaurant.. IN THE WORLD!

My my.. that has to be one of the longest paragraphs I've written, and I haven't even got to the juicy parts yet. Now I don't mean to play the spoilsport, but I believe my attempt to recapture the rest of that once-in-a-lifetime experience deserves a blog post of its own. So I should leave this story, dangling if you may, for the time being.

The next morning began with a trip to Chinatown for some dim sum, which really for some reason was depressingly unappetizing (Hmm.. I wonder why). Upon this, we finally bid goodbye to the troop from Iowa. The following day, I received yet another gift in the mail.. this time the official coin collection from the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics. This one had Kwong Hann written all over it.

Oh and that reminds me of the sporting end, where it was pretty grand as well (at least for me.. heh), with convincing wins for United and Barcelona during the weekend as well as a massive victory for Manchester United in the Champions League; and Barca are running away with the match as I am writing this. Then there was the opening of the 2010 Formula 1 season, which started off with a Ferrari one-two.. bliss!

Seriously, I have to wonder if one could ask for a more fulfilling week. It was - and by no means am I looking to exaggerate here - almost the best portion of my life to date.. The best, of course would be the many incredible people I have been blessed with in acquaintance..