My birthday lunch

Things at my workplace can be so unexpected.

I would come in one day and expect a free day ahead, but then I would be bombarded with tons of work. Sometimes I came to work, expecting to be my boss' Siamese twin for the day and get stuck with her for project planning sessions. Turns out she leaves me alone and I spend the day counting down the minutes to 5.30pm.

Today something unexpected happened...my colleagues REMEMBER my birthday (which falls on 4th February) and they treated me out for lunch at Gino's in Ara Damansara!

In the morning, they were talking about eating out and complained that they got no transport. I ignored the hint (I hate driving ok!). Around 11am they brought up the subject again and they invited me and they said that they're going to treat me out for lunch since my birthday will be on this Friday. So if people invite you for lunch and offers to pay since your birthday's coming up, you can't say no, right? So I said yes.

I thought that I'll be driving so I took out my keys and prayed silently that I won't get stopped by any police because I left my driving license at home. Luckily my colleague Ain was driving.

The food was awesome! We ordered fettucine carbonara, Mamma Mia pizza, seafood platter, Italian apple pie & brownies with ice cream for dessert. The seafood platter consists of mussels, prawns, cuttlefish and grilled dory. My colleagues forced me to eat the mussels. According to them it's very delicious. I said no thanks, I don't like mussels. I've never tried mussels before. I'm not adventurous when it comes to seafood. Usually I'll stick to fish and prawns. That's it.

But they insisted that I tried the mussels and before I sank my teeth into it, I prayed that I'm not allergic to it (yes, I pray a lot). Hmm...the verdict: I feel like I'm in an episode of Fear Factor. Only the garlic butter taste makes it tolerable. Eating mussels feels like eating lizards (though I've never tried eating lizards before). It's so...slimy and chewy. Managed to swallow the whole mussel though. Congratulations to me.

Then, satisfied and full, we went back to the office. I struggled to stay awake while reading the Revenue Integrity functional specs.

P/S: No pictures taken during the lunch as I had become camera shy :p