There is a place where we never grow old. Where the flowers in the garden smile a perpetual spring. We drink from the river where we swim. The endless days of games and a little mischief we remember ever so fondly.
There is a place where we meet. We eat to our hearts content and we never run out of teasers and desserts. There are times when life moves at the speed of light, yet we still find our way here. Simply because we want to. And we love to.
There is a place where we breathe. There is nothing more suffocating than the way we live our lives these days. I wish we are all young, ambitious, sexy and silly again, for we will breathe better and have more time for each other. We will tell tales of what we want to be when we grow up. Again and again.
There is a place where we hang our family portraits. I can still remember the photographs of you lying in bed with your favourite magazine. The sounds from the speaker blasting across the kitchen as you sway to their beats. The pictures of us fighting over everything stupid faded with time but you know fragments of New Years and Christmases and birthdays and breakfasts and dinners always stay beautiful and young.
There is a place our friends come to. Warm greetings and cold wines are all we need. We will talk from dusk until dawn. It does not matter what the topic is. There is a game we like to play. It is called true and dare. And there is no secret strategy to winning. Just some honesty and lots of affection.
There is a place I come back to. God knows how exhausted these feet are. I often speed a pasta dish while the television entertains itself. It is always the second run of the new comedies. That shows how I have missed primetime. There is leftover tong sui we made the night before. Unlike wine, sweetness sours with age. But I gulped it up as enthusiastic as I was while making it yesterday.
There is a place where I raise my white flag and call it a day. I surrender to the night, despite the endless calls that beg this body to smoke, drink and dance. Curling up beside the window with a cup of tea and a good book is what I truly desire. And I fall asleep, thinking about this place that I miss ever so much.
There is a place where I dream of the sweetest of dreams. Where my family and friends are together with me again. Where we will eat, drink, play games and hang new, wonderful portraits before the sun sets its shine upon these smiling cheeks of mine.
Yes, there is a place. And I’m home.
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This post is inspired by Lifeforbeginners and dedicated to the wizardry Kenny Mah as he enters his third decade on 23 January this year.
Pictures were taken at Delicious @ Dua Annexe. The food was good in general while my smoked salmon pasta with caviar was just alright. The cream taste was milder as compared to Marmalade Kafe’s. A great alternative to the overcrowded Delicious at Bangsar Village.
Other birthday wishes:
Lyrical Lemongrass
A Lil' Fat Monkey
Fatboybakes
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May everyone find their way back home safely this lunar new year.
