My New Zealander sister-in-law was stupefied when I told her that I made a lot of friends through blogging and she was absolutely aghast to hear that I even met some of them in person. I’ve met Claire, Elin and Ivan in Ipoh, Eugene and Faisal Admar in Penang, Nyonyapenang, Peteformation and so many others in KL and also Annie-Q who is originally from Sibu and ah-nel aka Fatty Old Man who’s actually based in Singapore right now, Melbie and Mandy in Kota Kinabalu, Mar who is now working in Brunei…and a whole lot of bloggers here, there and everywhere. The list just goes on and on.
I don’t know but is it that dangerous to meet someone you’ve got to know online? I would think it would be the same even if you are introduced to someone face-to-face by a friend in person. After all, as Shakespeare says, “The false face hides what the false heart doth know,” or the way the Chinese put it, “You know his face, you do not know his heart.” That, of course, is very true as personally, I did make the acquaintance with some so-called friends who eventually turned out to be quite different from what I had thought them to be, but let’s not get into that.
What I am actually getting to is that the other day, I got to meet Philip in person. Well, he wasn’t really a complete stranger because I knew his sister and I knew him by name as well and his mother, Angela Yong, was a friend of my mother and her family. I had a post on the books that she has written and Philip had stumbled upon it while googling for something and has been commenting regularly on my posts ever since. We agreed to meet for lunch…and we did.
Ben of BenzGifts commented on my link on Facebook saying that the nasi bryani at Rafie was very nice, so Philip and I agreed to meet there and give it a try. He had the mutton…
…and I do wish they would take the trouble to wipe the side of the bowl with a clean tissue or something before serving it so that it would look a bit more presentable.
I had the beef…
…but though I found the curry quite nice, I felt that the rice paled slightly in comparison with what we had at Balkis and the pickled cucumber really wasn’t very good. No, Ben, I don’t think it is all that great…compared to Balkis. Maybe I should give Nur Islamic another try one of these days and see if it’s any better.
Food aside, Philip and I had a great time…chatting and getting acquainted. I had known for a long time now that he is, in fact, an accomplished classical guitarist but I did not know that he had actually released a CD in the States where he is based…and he had been giving recitals/concerts there and also in Malaysia, KL included. Well, personally, I am not into classical music but if you’re interested in hearing him play, you can click the video clip below and listen…
…or you can go to youtube and watch the other video clips available. Happy listening…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 