Craptastic street dinner

Get this: Dad bought a table at this dinner which happened last night. Word is that it's organised by the local mob, I don't know. Which would be no problem, except for the rain yesterday. It rained most of the day - from mid-afternoon all the way into the night.

Despite the fact that I only left the office around 6.30 p.m. (shit happens), we were still pretty early as the turnout's pretty slow because of the thunderstorm. My mum called her sister and her family, her brother and sister-in-law, and Gran along to fill up the table as Dad wasn't gonna show that night. (I should mention at this point that the dinner's held on the street in the industrial area near Mayang Plaza - makeshift shed for the night, the works). So when we first got there, we saw my uncle and auntie and chewed the fat for a while. It was still pouring heavily and our table was next to an uncovered rain gutter, rain water pouring unto electric wire used for the AV equipment for the night. Sounds safe, no?

So to stay on the safe side, Mum took it up with the organiser and they literally MOVED the table, cutlery and all, to the back of the dining area, near the makeshift kitchen.

The food was so-so, but the service was damn freaking SLOW as they took forever to plate the food and get it out for us bloody hungry diners. We were waiting for what seemed to be forever for the first dish (and the rest of the menu, basically). Being placed near the kitchen didn't really help as I was getting myself annoyed for no reason that they haven't assembled the next dish as we were digging into the current dish we're eating. Gah. If it was Friday or Saturday night instead of Wednesday night, I wouldn't have minded so much, but come on... the rest of us had to go to work the next day!!

The entertainment's really craptastic - singing PYTs and an auction of gold-painted feng shui items in varying degrees of gaudiness and dust collection potential. I couldn't tell if it was only ONE singer with several costume changes or there's more than one person singing - that's how far from the stage we were. It's times like this I wish that the AV equipment was out of commission because between the singing and the crappy remixes of old pop tunes I wanted to shoot myself. I was contemplating killing the singer on stage with a killer delivery of a chopstick or carrot stick (as an ode to Shoot 'Em Up), except that I didn't have access to the latter at that point in time. I was laughing my head off when the singer on stage mentioned (in Mandarin, of course) that she'll be signing autographs later. (I should mention that they were selling albums and posters).

As it is with dinners of this kind, there usually is a lucky draw. (We were given the stubs earlier in the evening). It was really dumb of the organisers to have the lucky draw towards the end of dinner as people are more eager to leave than to stay for it. (They had wasted way too much time on the damn auction). Out of the numbers we got, 2 got drawn (my auntie went up after me, I heard). As we were about to leave, I heard one of our numbers being called and I ran towards the stage from the car (we parked nearby, so I didn't have far to run). I got the prize (a tiny hamper) from the local state assemblyman and the moment recorded digitally (DAMNIT!!!), which made me wish that I sent my bro instead. I was cursing at myself as I got off the stage and we went home right after that, which was great cos I didn't think my bladder was gonna hold it anymore.

My first glimpse of the hamper was the small bottle of SKOL as the tower item. Once we unwrapped the hamper at home, it was pretty obvious that it was sponsored by Carlsberg as the bottom layer consisted of 3 cans of lychee-flavoured Shandy (which we've been meaning to try anyway) and three malt drinks. Stocking fillers were a beer bottle cosy (at least, that's what I thought it was - could be a pen holder for all I know), a multi-tool that had both Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, pliers, a tiny LED flashlight and knife. The only item I kept out of the hamper was a little baggie holding five clear green dice which I thought were pretty cute.