Hazia’s Reflections

So, we sat facing each other…

At first, he scared me by saying that he is not adventurous when it comes to food. Turned out that he meant he didn’t like caviar, escargots and sushi, that’s all. We spent quite some time deciding what to order. I think we ended up with every animal there is. LOL! Let’s see if I can recall…

Appetisers were green mango salad with duck meat, prawns wrapped around sugar cane sticks & salad and duck meat in crispy rolls. Main dishes - black pepper prime beef, grilled lamb and sticky rice. The waiter suggested that we order green curry duck or something else instead, everything was dry, no gravy at all. No, we were good, we loved everything served:)

He was sweet and attentive alright but it was still tough getting him to talk about himself. He was so hooked in getting to know more and more about me. Since he is the creative, fun-loving type, I found the 3-question quiz a useful tool. So, I asked him to describe 1) his ideal cube, 2) his kind of horse and 3) imagine himself in the desert. I shared my answers when I first tried it out too. So, I discovered - he is a down to earth guy, unique, he likes strong and resilient women and - this is the most interesting - he is at a major cross road in his life ie he is suffering a mid-life crisis at 40. He said this quiz was dangerous as he found himself spilling so much and the interpretations were pretty accurate too. LOL!

He was married till 3 years ago, for 7 years and he has a 10- year old daughter and an 8 year-old son who live with their mother nearby. His ex-wife is 3 years older, they still have a good relationship and he values her advice. She lets him see the children anytime he wants. She is engaged and getting married soon though. He just said that they separated simply because the ‘magic’ was no longer there. When they first got married, they had a lot of fun. However, after 2,3 years, she grew up but he didn’t. Marriage was quite a bad experience for him and it would take some time until he dares go down that road again.

Since he is quite Westernise in his ways, asking him direct questions seems natural. I didn’t have to beat around the bush. He has been dating but is not seeing anybody at the time being. He has no qualms about women asking him out.

Okay, all that didn’t change the fact that I was doing a lot of the talking. He wanted to know everything about me. He was a damn good listener and he was genuinely interested. Funnily, he said listening to my ‘working life nightmares’ over the last 12 years was similar to watching a horror movie. It was scary but you still want to watch it. LOL! He said contrary to what I think, the ones suffering from culture shock wasn’t me, it was the people around me. And he felt like ‘chicken shit’ next to me. That was quite an experience and no wonder, I was burning out real quickly. LOL!

We talked some more until the waitress brought us the bill around 11pm, without us asking for it. Ehm, closing time, it was time to leave. So, we got into his car and adjourned to Bangsar. The conversation then got more interesting, and intimate:)

- to be continued - (I’ve got to go. I met him again yesterday and we’re going out again tonight:))