Ring of light.
Wei Chuen and I had our belated Valentine's Day dinner on Friday night. As usual, he had nothing planned until the day itself; I expected him to take me somewhere predictable, like Orchard or City Hall, but he surprised me when he said, "Let's go Changi Village Hotel."
He picked me up from the office and we took about 45 minutes to drive there. His poor cashcard was raped by all the stupid ERP gantries but thankfully we didn't have to pass another one when his cashcard was down to fifty cents.
We went for the hotel's buffet after finding out that our DBS cards entitled us to 50% off for the second person. "So Singaporean," he said. He was right.
The food was Singaporean too - it was Singaporean, not even Asian, and it was pretty good. I was a bit miffed that I only discovered the Indian station, tucked away in a non-descript corner, after I'd stuffed my stomach with a bland, unexciting piece of sambal fish. And I was miffed because the fish curry was really good, but I couldn't eat anymore of it after my first serving because I was already rather full, and I was saving room for vegetarian fried kway teow (it totally wasn't vegetarian though - it had prawns. How was that vaguely vegetarian?).
Wei Chuen cracked me up when he went to the laksa station and grumbled about having to cook the noodles himself - "I didn't come to a buffet to cook." Indeed. And even though I told him the prawns were cooked because they were pink, he put them into the boiling water anyway, just in case.
He gave me chocolates and cookies from Goodwood Park hotel. Last year I made him a card, but I didn't do so this year, or do anything for that matter (except to christen our version of Valentine's Day, which we won't celebrate on the 14th ever again). But I really loved spending Friday night with him, in that exact manner.
We went for a walk around Changi Beach Park after dinner, and when we got to the end of that stretch of the park, we looked up at the sky and spotted Orion's Belt. He's more into astronomy than I am (I'd say I'm into it maybe 5%), and they were just stars, but the night sky was clear and refreshingly unobstructed by any buildings, and the night air was cool from the sea breeze, and then I spotted a ring of light around the moon.
It was magical. I will remember this night, and that moment, standing with him underneath the moon protected by a faint ring of light, his arms around me, the next time I'm annoyed with him, or when I simply need a happy thought to get me through a particularly bad day.
*
A reason why I love him is because we can talk about anything, and because he's my intellectual equal. I mean, I don't think I anticipated that I'd find a conversation about stars and solar systems and aliens fascinating; but our conversation about those topics that Friday night was definitely fascinating. The conversation about solar systems prompted a short discussion on religion: obviously, he said that it's proof of a higher power. To me, though, the fact that the universe is too vast for the human mind to comprehend (as it currently stands) disproves religion, because it becomes self-serving, a convenient catch-all explanation for everything that we can't explain.
But anyway, I don't want to get into that. Religion is fascinating as an intellectual discourse but that's about as far as it goes for me.
Okay, I've obviously digressed. My point was basically that I love our interesting conversations. I love him. He makes me very happy.
He picked me up from the office and we took about 45 minutes to drive there. His poor cashcard was raped by all the stupid ERP gantries but thankfully we didn't have to pass another one when his cashcard was down to fifty cents.
We went for the hotel's buffet after finding out that our DBS cards entitled us to 50% off for the second person. "So Singaporean," he said. He was right.
The food was Singaporean too - it was Singaporean, not even Asian, and it was pretty good. I was a bit miffed that I only discovered the Indian station, tucked away in a non-descript corner, after I'd stuffed my stomach with a bland, unexciting piece of sambal fish. And I was miffed because the fish curry was really good, but I couldn't eat anymore of it after my first serving because I was already rather full, and I was saving room for vegetarian fried kway teow (it totally wasn't vegetarian though - it had prawns. How was that vaguely vegetarian?).
Wei Chuen cracked me up when he went to the laksa station and grumbled about having to cook the noodles himself - "I didn't come to a buffet to cook." Indeed. And even though I told him the prawns were cooked because they were pink, he put them into the boiling water anyway, just in case.
He gave me chocolates and cookies from Goodwood Park hotel. Last year I made him a card, but I didn't do so this year, or do anything for that matter (except to christen our version of Valentine's Day, which we won't celebrate on the 14th ever again). But I really loved spending Friday night with him, in that exact manner.
We went for a walk around Changi Beach Park after dinner, and when we got to the end of that stretch of the park, we looked up at the sky and spotted Orion's Belt. He's more into astronomy than I am (I'd say I'm into it maybe 5%), and they were just stars, but the night sky was clear and refreshingly unobstructed by any buildings, and the night air was cool from the sea breeze, and then I spotted a ring of light around the moon.
It was magical. I will remember this night, and that moment, standing with him underneath the moon protected by a faint ring of light, his arms around me, the next time I'm annoyed with him, or when I simply need a happy thought to get me through a particularly bad day.
*
A reason why I love him is because we can talk about anything, and because he's my intellectual equal. I mean, I don't think I anticipated that I'd find a conversation about stars and solar systems and aliens fascinating; but our conversation about those topics that Friday night was definitely fascinating. The conversation about solar systems prompted a short discussion on religion: obviously, he said that it's proof of a higher power. To me, though, the fact that the universe is too vast for the human mind to comprehend (as it currently stands) disproves religion, because it becomes self-serving, a convenient catch-all explanation for everything that we can't explain.
But anyway, I don't want to get into that. Religion is fascinating as an intellectual discourse but that's about as far as it goes for me.
Okay, I've obviously digressed. My point was basically that I love our interesting conversations. I love him. He makes me very happy.