Merry Christmas!!!
We had no intentions of doing anything this morning, so we slept late, lounged in bed drinking coffee and watched a college football game on TV. It was Christmas Eve back home and I called my dad's house where my family was gathered for the annual Christmas Eve party. The phone was passed as I talked to everyone and even took a family photo. We took hot showers, again; just can't get enough of the glassed in shower, and got as dressed up as possible. Basically all this means is that we put on a clean shirt, our long pants and a little make-up.
Yesterday we had made a reservation at the San Francisco Steak House for 2:30 pm. It seemed appropriate that we would have Christmas dinner there since we were also missing our peeps in San Francisco. We went to the front desk and asked our buddy to call us a cab. We could hear him telling them that we wanted to go to the Petronas Towers. After a few calls, he told us that he had contacted 4 companies but no one would come. Maybe if we offered to pay and extra 5 ringgits.
P- What!?!
G- Oh no! We're not having this shit on Christmas Day. Let's just go catch the metro.
P- I don't want to be sweaty while I eat Christmas dinner, and we're wearing long pants so we'll be sweating before we get to the top of the hill.
Desk clerk – Try to stop a taxi on your way to the train. Walk to left because that is direct street to Towers.
P- I can't believe this shit!
We walked to the street and started walking to the left. It wasn't long before we flagged down a cab with a driver willing to put on the meter. We turned left on the main street leading to the towers and came to a complete stop in traffic. We took this opportunity to write down the info posted in the cab on how to report any misconduct by cab drivers. As it turned out, we sat in that traffic for about 45 minutes and would have been better off taking the metro. At least this cab driver was nice enough to call the restaurant, on his cell phone, and tell them we were running late.
Finally we arrived at the towers/Suria Mall. It was more crowded than Christmas Eve!!!! Most of the people with dinner reservations weren't coming until 7 or 8 pm, so we were seated in a room all to ourselves, with a huge mural of scenes from San Francisco to one side and windows overlooking the park and fountain to the other. It was Christmas, so we were going all out!! Phyl ordered a glass of white wine and I order an absolute and tonic. We were served bread, that was fairly close to sourdough, and garlic butter. It was a set menu and our appetizer was prawns, avocado & caviar. We ate slowly, savoring every bite.
We were never rushed and the meal was served at a nice pace. The main course, was turkey with gravy (the turkey was moist and very tasty), a slice of apple and walnut dressing (too small, but yummy), mixed vegetables that included brussel sprouts, and REAL mashed potatoes with gravy. We chewed slowly and savored every single bite. It was practically orgasmic!!!! Not a grain of rice was in sight. Halfway through our meal, we ordered another round of drinks. It's Christmas! To hell with our budget!
Dessert was the only disappointing aspect of the meal. Listed as Christmas pudding, it was really some kind of fruitcake with powdered sugar and a cream sauce. We tried to pick out the bread portion and dip it into the sauce. No matter, the meal had been very yummy. We savored the remainder of our cocktails, paid our bill (about $80.00 USD) and went downstairs and sat by the fountain. The day was cloudy and cool, the area around the fountain was packed with people and we enjoyed the evening people watching and sitting.
Around 7:00 pm we took the metro, walked back to our hotel, and watched Indiana Jones as we ate butter cookies and drank milk. Once it got late enough to be Christmas morning back in New Orleans, Phyl called her family. Even though there had been nothing traditional about it, the day had been enjoyable.
