Grand Dinner, and Then Some

Last Friday night 3 important things happened; first of all, it was the first time me and my wife went out without bringing Sofeah (we left her with my mom), secondly me and my wife got to eat Arabian food (I mean like real Arabian food) and lastly I saw what the real world is really like (having been cooped up in UIA for years).

The 'leaving Sofeah at home without us part' went great. She drank 2 bottles of milk, she slept and also played with my mum. My wife is very happy that went well because in less than 2 weeks time, she has to go back to work (with a heavy heart I'm sure) and leave Sofeah in the care of my mum. She has to learn to drink breastmilk from a bottle and do all those baby stuff without her mum.

Arabian food is sour. Well not he food, the dips are. I think we had like 7 different dips that night and most of them are sour. Why did we eat Arabian food? Because last Friday night, the organization I work with had their Annual Grand Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental and the theme was "Arabian Night".

Surprisingly, me and my wife enjoyed the food. It was a 3 course meal and for the first course they provided us with different kinds of bread and a variety of dips. My wife really enjoyed the first course. The main course that night was rice (briyanni I think but I'm not sure) and kebabs. That was ok. For desert, pudding with grounded nuts. All in all, 7 out of 10.

Also that night, my eyes opened up to the real world. It's not that I don't know what the real world is actually like. But having lived in UIA for years and having my mind and sight protected from a lot of distasteful deeds, my droopy eyes opened up wide yet again.

Believe me, I was not prepared for what I saw that night and my wife was also in similar a state of unpreparedness.

Back when I was a child, my dad used to bring me to one of these events and during that time also I was exposed to these things. However, I was too little to appreciate any of it and the worst I saw was celebrities in skimpy dresses singing on stage (that I can watch on the Tele right?). But I also remembered watching a burlesque show (not all out) when I went on a holiday in Australia, but those are of white people, so that was different.

Back to Friday night, when the room to the grand ballroom was finally opened that night, we were welcomed by belly dancers shaking their hips to loud music on a platform staged all across the room. It was like entering a strip club (which my only experience is seeing it on TV).

Then these belly dancers started dancing all over the place. They circled every table and moved their hips to ogling eyes of the male patrons (well not patrons we were there for the Grand Dinner and not all were ogling I'm sure).

Being in that situation, I didn't know what to do. It was so weird. I'm sure some people consider it as something normal and all, but seriously, I miss the time when I was cooped up in an Islamic environment - belly dancers just doesn't bode well with me especially since my wife is right next to me!

But the platform dancing didn't last through out the night. It was just the night's opening show. Then we were treated to a less sultry but still distasteful shows - especially because the performers are my colleagues!

They have this competition for best performance and the participants are the organization's fellow employees. I think the winning group gets something like a thousand ringgit. There were 5 performance that night (3 for the competition and the 2 others were for show I guess). During all of the performances, I can see my friends on the same table looking at each other feeling awkward and unsettled.

The thing is, next monday we will be seeing those belly dancing, bootie shaking, breasts bouncing performers and are they expecting us to watch them in the same light again? They went from polished sophisticated executives to...I don't what to call them that night.

I can see the older experienced people looking at things rather normally and appreciating the fact that those performers have got talent. The Chairmen actually said that she didn't know they had it in them and was pleased with how the night went. Some of the more conservatives were probably not looking at the stage for the whole night (except for a lame magic show which was totally lame!)

Well that is life I guess.

However, on lighter note, I did win something that night from the lucky draw. That part was pleasing to me (but the grand prize was a home theatre and there were also holiday prizes and a Samsung handphone which I missed out - I got a slow cooker...at least I won something right? Hmm...)