Dinner with David, Mark and the Debator Grls at Brazil Churrascaria

The reason why this entry is one day late is coz i had a nasty fall when crossing the road yesterday that left me with a blue-black ring fingernail which really hurt yesterday(thank goodness the roads were empty and no one i know was around there...i hope). Well i couldn't possibly blog on friday night coz i was drop-dead tired. Well its a long story that starts with my plan.....

None of us had any idea how to get to David's Rest so i went and did some researching on the net and ended up at www.streetdirectory.com, so i decided to trust it and use the routes that came up with. According to st.com we had to take bus number 28 from Tampines interchange to Joo-chiat and alight on the 33th stop along Changi Road. From there, we change to 154 which will bring us to the 33th stop along Bukit Timah Rd and we walk in to Sixth Avenue. So i called up the Grls on Tue and asked them if they knew of any other route and if we shall take this route together. Since they were lost as well, we decided to meet at 5.45 pm on Fri the 11 Nov 2005 at Bengawan Solo at Tamp Interchange. At 5.45 i called Steph and she said that she was in TM and was going to TM Mrt to wait for Jashan, Sin Yi was still in Bedok and Denise was going to take a cab from her place. So at about 6 we got onto 28 and took a 45 min ride from Tampines to Bedok and any public transport commutor would definitely know that such a ride is absolutely ridiculous. From there we rushed to get onto the Mrt when Jashan went into the toilet to touch up on her make up while Sin Yi and I were fuming at the other side of the barriers. I had to msg David to ask him which is the Nearest Mrt to his restaurant, Newton Circus, and he had the shock of his life that at 6.45 we were asking him for directions to the place.

Well if it wasnt bad enough that we were late, the "sick" train that we were on halted about 4-5 times to carry out System checks and at almost every check one of us would do something crazy that just draws more attention to this group of 4 grls, 2 in black and 2 in pink( according to Jashan at the 2nd halt i made this hilarious yet weird noise that madethis already irritated guy turn around bewildered.)At Orchard, the crowd to get onto the NS line was so thick that Sin Yi and I(we were the ones that were hurrying) managed to squeeze onto the 1st train that came along while Jashan and Stef were left behind. When we finally reahed Newton, we finally met up and Stef was having fits from laughing( when we were on 28 i suddeny burst into laughter when i had this crazy thought enter my head...that was the same thing happening with Stef.) When trying to get onto the NS train, Stef thought i should hold on to Jashan's hand so that we do no loose each other in the crowd but instead of grabbing Jashan's hand she grabbed some other lady's hand that let her hold and gave Stef a weird concerned look. So it was this look that caused Stef to continue laughing throughout the entire taxi ride to the Rest.

Meanwhile, Denise who reached there at 7.30( late according to David but relatively according to us) had to endure and entertain David and Mark who joined us later. David had mentioned to me that Mark might join us if he finished his essay earlier( essay?????). So he did finish his essay and reached there much earlier than us and gave us his signature grin when we arrived giggling for not apparent reason. David gave us his usual fatherly lecture while Mark just continued looking around.

David finally decided that we had learnt our lesson on punctuality and asked us if would like to have something non-alcholic to drink. Denise and I went for the Watemelon and Honeydew Mocktail while Jashan went for the Bahai Cooler( dunno the spelling) and i cant recall what Stef and Sin Yi ordered. While we deciding on the drinks, a waiter placed a plate cheese buns(which are really small and cute) on our table with some accompanying dips. Those Cheese buns were really good appetisers. Then we headed over to the Salad bar which had cold salads on the bottom row and the hot/cooked ones on the top. It was really cool, there was this Greek Cerel thats called kus kus i think, rice, lots of different dressings, veggies, stringie mushrooms, palmshoots, baby potatoes, potato salads and lots of other things.

Stef and I decided to swap places so Jashan and i can comment on the stuff etc without having to talk across the table. Dinner was loads of fun with lots of educational experiences. Brazil is definitely a must for meat lovers as the waiters go around with skewers of barbequed meat and cut some off right onto your plate. The menu is only for the beverages and desserts. The sight of so much meat can be pretty disgusting for people like me because, all sorts of meat is offered: beef from the calf's hump to chicken heart and chicken livers(chicken hearts are actually slightly bigger than half a walnut).While watching everything around me, i finally decided to try the palm shoot. The thing about this palm shoot is that it looks like marshmallow but doesn't taste like one, when you first bite it, there is a bland taste followed by this very salty/sourish taste as it has been marinated in vinegar and something else. When i was trying to chew it and swollow it down, i could feel that everyone's eyes were on me coz my eyes were shut and i think i had this grimace on my face. Mark was happily eating and dropping little funny comments every now and then especially when Jashan and I were grossed out by the way David describe the meat( its from small baby lambs....u know small wooly sheeps....now that is plain disgusting after the chicken hearts.) For the first time, we actually got to see Mark's funny side, i mean we know that he is debatory funny and all but he is funny and he is also really shy...i wonder why.

We were happily having dinner when my mum just had to call and get all mad about what time i am going to be home and all. She demanded to speak to David and calmed down when he told her that he would drop us off to Novena right after we are done eating. Ugh...and on the other end Jashan's mum was ordering Jashan's bro to keep calling Jashan and remind her to be back by 10. So much so for being teenagers but then there is a limit to that especially when you have indian parents. Right after this, when the waitors came to take away our plates, the Grls just stood up and left for the toilet and i tried to go but i couldnt since i was on the inside and my foot kinda got stuck with Jashan's Chair. So here i was with David and Mark trying to act normal when i actually wanted to laugh. Actually come to think of it, it was't that bad, there was a slight bit of silence in the beginning but it got over when David asked me about how are my holidays going and what i have been up to and the conversation just went on from there with Mark saying something really soft that i had to say " i am sorry, what did u say".

Before the Grls came back, the dessert platter had arrived with small red strawberries with mango puree in the middle and a tiny mint leaf on top, coconut crambeole(its a french dessret and have no idea about the spelling) with some banana pudding or something.Everything was just wonderfull. After i finished of the last strawberry, David asked us if we would like to have ice-cream, at first i said yes to lemon sorbet but i realised the very next second that i will not be able to finish it coz i was absolutely full. So David, Mark, Sin Yi and I didn't have any ice-cream while Jashan, Denise and Stef had Chocolate ice-cream.

So once they were done, we left the restaurant and we chit-chatting or rather we Grls were criticising David's choice of his car colour: champagne while Mark's was Dark red with a tinge of maroon. When Mark asked us which colour we prefered, all of voted for his and David grunted at us. I was forced to sit infront in the passenger seat while Jashan, Stef, Denise and Sin Yi squeezed behind and squeeled "oh so cute" when they saw this small yellow duck filled with beans or something. Throughout the entire ride, we were all teasing David untill we finally got off and actually thanked him for dinner.

Even though David zoomed off right after that, our gathering had not ended, while going down the stairs we decided to take a photo and asked this guy who looked so dazed that i wondered if he was suffering from jet-lag. So before we went on different trains, we all decided that we shall meet soon for just talking and nothing else before we starrt on training and improving ourselves.
There is something about this small group of us that just allows us to bond and enjoy without having to worry about something else. It like the stupid and crazy things that we do(Jashan and I spotted these 2 cute white guys and somehow they knew that we were talking about them etc) and have fun, its not like we can do such crazy things with our friends at 32. So there u go we may all be different but we can all understand each other like no one else can do. Thats what friends are for.....