The Muted Bravado of a SMG

Faith in love

Just had this most outstanding meal and this chinese restaurant! There was a lobster salad, sharks fin, roast suckling pig, fresh-caught changi pomfret, abalone with mushrooms, fish maw and dumplings... mmm. Fantastic! The food was delicately prepared and very well seasoned.

The restaurant itself is very simple, practically zilch on ambience.. its at the bottom of a HDB block, only half of it is air-conditioned, quite spartan in decor. But the service is fast, polite, dedicated.

Only downside is, its a bit pricey. 8 adults and 2 kids was $500 plus (don't ask me about the breakdown, the receipt just said "dinner"), but on the other hand, for such excellent food, its worth every penny.

I suppose that just goes to show how good the food is. I mean, we've spent less at places way more posh and felt totally ripped off.

Please! Try it!

Chin Lee Restaurant
Blk 115 #01-285
Bedok North Road
S(460115)

No idea if its famous, but theres quite a lot of newspaper clippings and those "Singapores Best Eateries" type award posters around.

But, great food! What more do you need?

Anyway the dinner was to celebrate my parent's 36th wedding anniversary!

36 years.. thats a very long time, I think. If I've learnt something from my parents relationship, is the importantance of patience, tolerance, faith, trust, and giving.

Today I was talking to a close friend of mine who seems to have lost faith in guys in general. Quite the fad now, I think. After all, guys are jerks, whats there to like? She even (laughingly, I'd like to think) suggested that she'd like an exciting guy to have a fling with. Because flings are fun without all the relationship problems and stress. Because, after all, guys are ruled by their "you-know-whats".

More and more of my friends now no longer think they'll get married, nor will they want to have kids that'll grow up in a broken family. This callousness is not surprising, I suppose, considering the oft-quoted statistic of the rate of marriages being only twice that of the rate of divorce.

More and more people lose hope of ever finding the right partner to spend the rest of their lives with. I mean, its a scary thought. Even a pro-relationship guy like me can't really imagine being with the same person for the next 60 or so years.

I suppose thats where the tolerance and faith and patience et al come in. You just do the best you can with the person you're most mutually attracted to. Every relationship has problems, after all. Differences in personalities are bound to cause sparks, but thats what makes relationships interesting, right? But the tolerance etc. is what gets you through, when the weaker relationships are filing for divorce as the children cry on the streets.

Maybe I'm being melodramatic, but one thing I've always felt strongly for is that whenever possible, unhappy couples should still stay together for the kids. I don't think its fair for the children. You wanted the children to be born, so don't you shirk the responsibility.

But anyway, I still believe that its possible to find a good long term partner. As long as both of you are mature individuals and know what you want out of and what you can provide for the relationship, nothing will come up that can't be resolved. Besides, sometimes love takes time.

Love at first sight, being struck by the thunderbolt, hearing bells when you kiss your true lover, that only happens in romance novels.

I suppose love must be nurtured. Some say grown out of friendship. Well, whatever works for you. Sometimes love must be put on hold because the lovers aren't emotionally equipped yet. Sometimes you outgrow love.

But still, you have faith that one day you'll find love. Or (at least I think so) life will just be less meaningful in the long run. I just want, when on my deathbed, to look back on my life and think "I've led a good life". So, I still have faith.

Perhaps I'm still too young, too naive, perhaps I'll understand better ten years down the road. But I know that my parents are happy. That when their 50th anniversary rolls around I'll want to throw a second wedding dinner for them. If for nothing else, just to celebrate that love need not always die or fade away.

Thus, thanks to them, I still have faith.

p.s. Don't mind the long rambling entry. I don't write too coherently when I'm tired but can't sleep cos of a full gut. That doesn't however mean I don't believe in what I write. Because I do. And please, no "Who's Faith?" jokes. Though come to think of it Faith Tan would be a pretty name.. *muses*

posted by Đirestraits @ 10:54 pm