One day of indulgence, ??? days of reckoning

Caution: Long post ahead. Pure rambling about nothing of significance. Read at your own peril and boredom.

I guess I’ll never learn. But life is short. Thus, when I have to spend a weekend working, I tend to over compensate (read over indulge) the following weekend. And so I did last Saturday. Having spent the previous weekend on a roadshow out of town, I couldn’t wait to catch up with my regular activities.

With the Sikkim trip cancelled (a sad tale of which I have yet to lick my wounds), Val, my trekking buddy decided to go AWOL. After all, there are no more mountains to train for a climb this year. Thus, I had to rework my exercise regime. So, the plan was to meet up with Bell for Body Combat at FF Menara Manulife @ noon.

But that was not to be as I was caught in The Curve with ze parents, helping them with some banking matters. Yup! Banking on a Saturday is unheard of these days but CIMB just opened a new branch at The Curve which provides banking services 7 days a week! Smart move by CIMB ~ catering to the upper middle class clientele of Mutiara Damansara and its likes. (Incidentally, I am excluded from this reference.)

I digress. In any case, I ended up spending more time than I intended and missed the Body Combat class. By the time, I completed the task of being a filial daughter, I decided heck(!) I really needed the exercise. So, off I went to FF The Curve, got on the treadmill and pushed myself for a 15-minute run @ 9.5 level with a 5-minute warm up, warm down walk. Boy! I was so out of breath and out of shape. Bah! I was probably breathing very heavily and felt stares upon my unremarkable self. It was not until later that I discovered that just the week before, one chap in his 30s or 40s collapsed and died on one of the treadmills at The Curve. Talk about eerie.

In any case, the run was not enough. With determination burning in my heart, I went for the Body Attack class. Yup! I must be insane. After all, I haven’t been doing any high impact cardio sports for months. (Trekking doesn’t count as it involves more stamina than immediate energy.) For the uninitiated, Body Attack is an extremely high impact cardio class with non-stop jumping/ hopping tracks. It helps work out your leg and arm muscles as you are continuously moving during the entire session. Halfway through the class however, I had to call it quits. The flesh is willing but the body is weak. Truly, it was weak to the point of body aches. Bah! In any case, I had a dinner party to attend later in the eve to celebrate Bell’s 30++ coming of age. Hehehe … She’ll kill me if she reads this.

I had only an hour between to rest before I was out on the road again to pick up Bell and gang for her birthday bash. Bell, with her nose for finding cosy, expensive fine dining spots, directed me to a restaurant called Cava (which serves Spanish and Italian dishes) in a little street somewhere in Bangsar. The ambience was great, the food fine, the wine well chosen, the company a riot! And thus the inspiration for several conspiracy theories was born on that fateful evening.

The night wore on and we moved on to Souled Out for after dinner drinks to join more friends and friends of friends. Surprise! Surprise! There was a life band of old foggies playing at Souled Out. And it was in celebration of Octoberfest. Yup! Strange things do happen here. The Germans celebrate Octoberfest in Malaysia on November 11th. Hmmm … Despite the crowd, we managed to find seats for more than 10 people. Truth be told, I can’t recall how many people joined us in the end. The crowd were singing along to songs from ABBA and an older selection. Conversations were rife. The guys called for a bottle of Black Label. Alrighty, it was a long night of much liquor and loud conversations. After nursing the second glass of Black Label mixed with coke, I decided to quit while I was still ahead. I was feeling sleepy and that’s a clear sign that my alcohol tolerance level was about to be breached.

The party ended at 1+am, I think. The night was still young for some but I certainly had enough. After doing my driver duty, I got home, had a quick shower and hit the sack. I did not surface until well after noon the following day. My day of reckoning has arrived. And it was a quiet day at home to recover.

We are now into Tuesday, and I am still recovering from my single day of over indulgence. Perhaps age is catching up.

To those who actually read through the entire rambling, hallelujah! And good night, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite!