Here was a bright sunny Wednesday. I had not checked my emails for a couple of days and I was swamped with news of every variety.

The one that concerns us is cheery invitation from Maria to her Asiatische Feier. Brilliant. Not wanting to travel the good half an hour to her abode alone, I immediately SMSed J-Dawg and Manuel, expecting them to ever dependable and up to the occasion.

I was not expecting J-Dawg’s reply: He would be at Judo and would be finished only at eight. Meet me at Oly? Considering Maria’s party should start at that particular hour, this meant we would be late. Oh well, fashionably late and all that, I reckon.

The next one almost had me falling to the floor: Manuel apologises but he’d be en route to Poland. Again? I like the kid’s travel fever, if you know what I mean. (If you don’t, oh well, too bad.)

Come eight p.m. I was a-waiting at Oly. No sign of Blue Mike. U-Bahns came and went. Finally he appeared, just in time for us to grab the last decent U-Bahn. We were both half-stuck in the doors, but never mind.

I wondered why he was grinning like, well, a monkey, and soon found out. He had bruises all over from Judo practice and it was extremely exhilirating for the fellow. Me, I never get any people who like pain. It would certainly stop me from enacting violence upon someone who enjoyed it, but that’s a different story.

We got to Maria’s a good hour late, but not many had turned up at that point. Familiars included Useless McGyver, Apostolos, Sadok, and surprise, surprise, Mingxia! Glad there was someone else who could speak Chinese there that night.

(The fact she continually praised my Mandarin helped matters too.)

And what could we do but celebrate Maria’s efforts in decorating the place. Tibetan flags and cloths, subtle candlelight, and of course, authentic Asian dishes, made the night one to remember.

I was particularly impressed with her Tom Yam soup, spicy but more importantly, seasoned with slivers of snake. Yup. Schlange.

And there was Mingxia trying to teach J-Dawg and I mahjong. Tiles and gambling till dawn, that’s what this game meant, if it was played well. I missed a demonstration unfotunately, cos I had to leave early for it took a good hour to get home from Maria’s.

Turned out Mingxia was taking the same route as me, so we decided to leave together. Much too early I know. Oh, yeah and I must mentioned I was pleasantly surprised to see Andrea after so long. Also the bloke from when we were at Manhattan last month. And just before I left, Florian arrived. Bad timing.

This is interesting cos I only realised the next day, at the Seehaus biergarten with Hadi, Erich and J-Dawg, that Andrea’s brothers were Florian and Christian. Now half a sec or more we were all completely confused cos the only Christian I knew was Florian’s apartmentmate, and the rest kept insisting that that guy was not Christian.

I maintained that there was another Christian. Erich retorted that there were Christians all over the world. Groans. Finally I figured out the bloke at Manhattan’s was Christian, and they suddenly remembered the other Christian.

I swear, I get into these arguments breathing and leave them barely alive.

Anyway, so Mingxia and I left the party, escorted by Maria to the S-Bahn station. Had a very enlightening conversation with her during the trip home. I feel good about my decisions, after hearing her experience and advice. This was the lady who gave me the first palm-reading of my life, after all.

And, oh, Maria? Excellent party.

P.S. Just remembered my conversation, almost entirely in German, with Maria’s fellow countrymate in HK, Melanie. I apologise profusely for my lack of command of your language, but your Cantonese was wonderfully spot-on!

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Copyright © 2002 Kenny Mah Ying Fye.