10th Oct 2009

So I had “thee” most surreal day.

I brought Zhi Ying to Ellen’s Stardust Diner for her 20th bday lunch. Remember I told you guys about the singing waiters and waitressed waiting for their chance to get outta the diner and onto broadway? Yeaahh.. that diner.

So I got our server to sing THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG when the “death by chocolate” cake with ice-cream was being served. I handed him two leftover candles and a lighter secretly when I told Zhi Ying I was gonna ask where the bathroom was.

Guess what. Today HAPPENED to be “Birthday Saturday” and it seemed to be EVERYONE’S birthday! My gosh! They sang about 6 or 7 birthday songs before Zhi Ying’s. It’s no wonder she got a little suspicious. Hahaha anyway, it was worth it. I videoed the entire surprise down. Wooohooo!!! She doesn’t think much about bdays. I wonder why. I ABSOLUTELY adore birthdays. Someone celebrated her 21st bday at the diner. I thought that was cool place to celebrate a 21st. If only I didn’t have to spend MY 21st bday studying for a history exam. Wellll… at least I’ll remember my bday for life. Hmph.

So after the fabulous bday lunch, Zhi Ying and I walked down to 42nd street to take the train. I was greeting her with loud “HAPPY BIRTHDAYS” and loud BIRTHDAY SONGS. She was so embarrassed! Well, that’s the point isn’t it. Hahaha. I guess she was finally relieved when we finally went our separate ways at the train station. I guess she was pretty grateful as well. And that made me glad.

I decided to go to Staten Island. Yup. Just like that. I was there March 2008 but I never actually got off the station. I just took the ferry there and back. Hahaha. So this is actually my first time to Staten Island. I wanted to just find a diner nearby, have a hot cocoa and head back. However…

“Tuttoriso” caught my eye. There was a jazz trio playing inside. The price looked kinda reasonable so I went in. A band of three Japanese. A female flotist, a pianist and a double bassist. They were playing some bosanova melody. Sounded a little like “The girl from Ipenema”. I sat for about half an hour. I guess I ordered a little too much. Haha. Shan’t talk about that. The band left. Before that I heard them talking about a performance tonight at Holy Child Church. The trio was gonna play there. Anyway after a couple of bla bla blas, I made my way to pay at the counter and asked the waiter, Matthew, what was there to do on the island. Matthew asked if I wanted to attend the performance tonight at the church. Well, since I had nothing better to do, I thought, why not? Well, in between my “why nots”, I hesitated thinking if this guy could be some creep. I went outta the diner and across the road. I wanted to slip off when I saw him waving from across the street. Argh. Alright. Anyway, I did wanna go to this concert.

I hesitate to write this part of the entry cuz I have a feeling dad and mom would fly over here and personally see to my death for going out with a stranger. Well… he wasn’t EXACTLY a stranger. We exchanged some nice words… like… I told him… “These potatoes tastes REALLY good!” and he replied he will tell the cook. Arrghh anyway, I really wanna record this interesting day down. And nothing happened to me. I prayed about it. So Thank God. Anyway, this’ll prolly be the first and last time. Okok. This WILL be the first and last time. I HAD to have this experience at least once in my life!

So anyway, Matthew wanted to grab some dinner. I just had water cuz I was completely bloated from the food at “Tuttoriso”. I learnt that he works at the diner twice a week. He’s a singer and guitarist on Fri and a waiter on Sat. He’s also fixes bathrooms and tiles them. Before this, he was a park ranger and before being a park ranger, he was a school teacher. Hahaha! Interesting fella. He’s most proud of his job being a park ranger. HAHAhaha! He’s half American, a quarter Irish and a quarter Spanish.

Anyway, back to topic. This really nice couple overheard me asking Matthew what was there to do at Staten Island, so they kindly told me there were old Victorian houses at St Pauls. I really wanted to see them so Matthew and I went in search of the houses. Unfortunately, they were no where to be found. Argh. Staten Island is so confusing. The roads are as complicated as in SG, except there are a gezillion times more roads. Anyway, we saw some REALLY REALLY beautiful houses. Took some pics. But seriously, it’s not the same thing. You really had to be there to experience how cosy these houses were. They’d look perfect during the Christmas season.

Matthew had to check out how to get to the church so I HAD to go back to his place with him to google the directions. I stayed downstairs (with his housemate), a cuppa Russian tea, a Congo (Yeah. He plays the Congo) and a terribly outta tune piano. It was so broken that when I hit one note, about 3 sounds were heard altogether.

After about an hour, we were all set and ready to go. He drives a red truck. Pretty cool huh. We got on and made our way to “Holy Child Church”. He got lost for QUITE awhile. And we were even about to give up. We finally reached the church at ABOUT 2015. I don’t really know cuz I had a really REALLY urgent need to use the bathroom. Argh… that tea… The performance started at 2030 but when he called, the staff said they start at 2000. So we weren’t late.

The performances were really pretty good! The acoustics was AWESOME. Not too echoey like many other churches. I liked the Haydn trio. A few members of the Japanese band composed some modern pieces. They were pretty cool. But I liked the classical pieces more. Ha ha.

After the performance, he stopped by 711? Or what seemed to look like 711 to get a banana and Canada dry soda. Then he dropped me off at Staten Island Ferry.

Even though, sometimes Matthew couldn’t really understand me and me him, in terms of jokes and why I seem to laugh at everything (well that’s cuz Asians sort of laugh to be polite) (cuz of cultural differences and also since he’s never been to Asia AT ALL, overall, it was a really great experience. An ADVENTURE, I would say. Hahahahaa! Yeah. That’s how pathetic staying in ny can be. I have to call THIS an adventure.

And dad, this might not be the way you want me to do it, but I CAN SO network.