Credits

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Weird?

For some weird reasons, which I cannot comprehend at all, the only thing that's on my mind now is Sushi Tei at Metro City in the Xujiahui District of Shanghai, Puxi. I don't know why, but I just keep thinking of that place.

I remember the time NAla and I went there with Annie, Simon, Herman and Jerilee. We had so much fun and laughter, mostly laughter more than anything else (inclusive of food).

I remember how I would always cab down and drop off right at the step of Sushi Tei just to go Metro City to shop for the latest electronic gizmos. And if I take a bus (on the off chance), I would always manage to miss a few stops before noticing my mistake. Hahaha.

I seriously don't know why, but Sushi Tei's layout is firmly stuck in my mind.

):

And since I am at it, here's some links (and maybe photos, if I can manage) of some of the places that I usually go to and stuffs. Just click on the names? Hahaha.

Armanni and Babyface are the gay clubs/bars that my lecturers frequent. Every morning on the way to skl, as I share the same coach with them, I would always hear them talking about their latest exploits at those bars or arranging meetups at the clubs.

Guandii, supposedly the most happening club in Shanghai, is really happening. Like really. Trust me, I was there one cold winter night with Uncle Simon, Jojo and erm. I can't really remember who. Jojo got me in for free and Uncle Simon, who said he would protect me that night, wanted to buy me milk instead of the drinks I normally had. But I was so proud of my Uncle Simon, because he was really serious of his job and really protected me well. But I digress.. Guandii is happening, but it is so much so that everyone goes to that place until you have practically no space left at all. It is packed to the brim, no kidding. You will feel suffocated inside since there's no law about not smoking indoors yet.

I tried to find the bar in which I first met Bobo, the Peter Ho lookalike, but erm. Pardon me and my VSTM, but I've seemed to forgotten the name of the bar. Hehehe? But if you want his number, I still have it. :D 1381*******. Hahaha!

Mayfair Hotel, which was near our apartment, is our constant hide-out spot. NAla and I would always go there whenever we wanted to go somewhere, but not too far from home. We ALMOST wanted to move house and move into the service apartments that Mayfair had but we decided that there are better ways to use our money.

Peace Hotel, or rather, He Ping Fan Dian, is the oldest hotel in Shanghai and is located near the Bund. I remembered the late nights when I walked around Shanghai and whenever I walked past this hotel, I always feel awed by it. The street along which this hotel is situated reminds me of Alex too. Because every night, after he knocked off from work at 11+, we would always skate along this road. Or rather, he would skate while I would walk slowly, people watching. And because skating is his passion, he would always look so happy and carefree to me, the particular image that I have in my mind when Alex is mentioned. Sometimes, that image makes me want to cry because of my rash decision to come back, I've spoilt so many things in his life. I want to say sorry to him for everything, but he has been missing ever since I left Shanghai, so much so that his boss couldn't even find him. Oh, and when my family came over to visit me, my dad brought my siblings and I there on the sly for a meal since my mum was in the hospital accompanying Emma who spent most of the Shanghai trip recuperating in a hospital. Why on the sly you ask. Because the menu in Peace Hotel is absurdly overpriced (like doh!) and my mum would probably go bonkers if she ever found out.

Grand Hyatt Shanghai might be the most eye-catching of all hotels in Shanghai since its lobby is located on the 57th floor of the Jin Mao Tower, which is incidentally the tallest building in Shanghai and that makes Grand Hyatt Shanghai the highest hotel in the world. When AnYeong came over to Shanghai, this was one of the places that NAla and I brought him to. We wanted to show him the bird's eye view of Shanghai but in the end, we decided to act like we were actually staying inside the hotel and walked in and out of their gym like nobody's business. After a while, An Yeong and I got pretty embarrassed with it and we waited out in the lobby for NAla. Hahaha. (: And Ah Ben and I were supposed to go there to stay for a night when he came over to Shanghai but I abandoned ship at the last minute and came back home. Meehee.

Shangri-La Hotel was where we had our National Day Celebrations and we went there almost every week for practices. That was the only time I managed to lay my fingers on the piano in the lobby. And when we were there, we caught the F1 powerboat race which was going on on the famous HuangPu river of Shanghai. (; And after every visit to Shangri La, NAla and I would always head down to the other side of the Bund to Red Dot cafe to just sit and daze. (:

I suddenly remembered Watermelon Boy from my old apartment in Shanghai. He always sold his watermelons around the bend. He looked like an ahbeng, albeit a cute one and was around 21 years old maybe? And everytime I walked past, he was always looking and whenever I turned in his direction, he always had a smile ready for me. There was once when NAla came over to my place and she said that Watermelon Boy had a crush on me. Hahaha. And she was just so dead serious about it. So one fine day, NAla and I decided to buy watermelons from Watermelon Boy. We initially wanted to buy just one watermelon, for NAla since I wasn't that keen on watermelons. But Watermelon Boy gave me one watermelon free of charge and that made NAla even more convinced that he had a crush on me. And off we went, lugging 2 watermelons to my place and that was all that we had for lunch and dinner. And since we were lazy to cut it, we decided to just split it in half and just spoon everything off. Hardwork, I tell you. Sometimes, when I walk past, Watermelon Boy would be sleeping but his friends would shout at him that I was walking past and he would wake up in a great rush that one day, he nearly fell off his lorry. HAHAHA. I wanted to laugh all the way home but I figured that was too mean. A few weeks later, Watermelon Boy's boss sent him elsewhere to sell watermelons and I never had watermelons in Shanghai ever since then. Lols.

Anyhow, I am going to end this episode abruptly since it's time for dinner! :D And to round things off, guess which song reminds me of Shanghai?! Lin JunJie's Jiang Nan. That was the one song that kept spinning wherever I was, whatever I was doing. (;