solitaire

went to tonkichi at shaw house yesterday. everyone was queueing to wait for a table. there were about 10 people in the queue at least. as all the eyes were looking into the restaurant, waiting to see which table has already finished eating and was about to leave, nobody would have missed seeing this girl who was seated all alone in a table meant for 4.

there were 3 menus on her table, although only 1 cup of ocha. she took her time to slowly scrutinise the menu. item by item, word by word, picture by picture. not a single item on the menu was left unnoticed. in between takes, she glanced at her mobile occasionally to see what the time was.

after what seemed like 10 minutes of scrutinisation, she raised her hand and called for a waitress to take her order. she ordered a special bento set which seemed like a lot of food for one to finish. well since all the items were about the same price, maybe that's why she wanted to order a variety of stuff in a set.

she made a phone call, was smiling when she was on the phone, then put down the phone.

she tried to pass her time by playing with the games in her phone. one game after another, she played. a quick 10 minutes passed, and the food was on her table. she paused her game and took a glance at the time again. what probably seemed like 30 minutes of waiting (i reakoned she queued just as long as the rest in the queue), after her food arrived, there she was, still seated all alone in that big table.

people in the queue were getting impatient. the restaurant was packed to the brim, people were having their dinners, and what were the wait staff thinking when they gave her a table for 4 when she clearly was the only one seated at the table with her food?

bad management. we must complain.

some gave her wierd stares, some gave her puzzled looks, some just tried hard not to laugh at her.

but then again, maybe there were some other "things" which we can't see, but she could? hmm. something to ponder about, eh?

she made another phone call, gave an impatient face, then put down the phone.

she looked at her food, and decided that she should go ahead with the meal instead. the food was nicely displayed. she started with the miso soup, then proceeded onto the potato salad. just when she was about to dig into the pretty japanese fish cake, her phone rang.

she boggled at the number shown on the caller id, it probably was a number that didn't have a name attached to it. she picked up, answered some questions, then put down the phone. she made another call just after that, and chatted along as she ate her food slowly.

slow and steadily, she ate part by part of her bento. she finished the tamagoyaki (fried egg - it's a very expensive dish these days!) from the appetiser then continued over to the buckwheat noodles, otherwise known as soba. she was half way through her full course meal, and it took her an amazing 20 minutes to reach there since the start of her breaking the chopsticks. even the family of 4 who were right before her in the queue had gotten around to the cashier to pay their bill!

time check - 50 minutes since the time she stepped into the restaurant until then. she put down her phone, glanced at the time, then made another phone call.

"walking over now from the underpass? you've been saying that you're going to walk over since 30 minutes ago!", everyone heard her exclaim. she proceeded to put down the phone, sighed, then continued eating her food slowly.

she carried on with the miserly 3 thinly sliced pieces of unagi and her gohan(otherwise known as rice, haha!). she sure looked like she was counting her grains while she ate.

whenever she heard footsteps from the entrance, she looked up, only to one's dismay. i felt sorry for her, but yet i couldn't do anything about it.

after 1 meat-stuffed mushroom, 1 deep fried prawn, 1 piece of deep fried pork loin, 484 grains of rice, 3 slices of unagi, 32 strands of soba, 1 boiled prawn, 2 pieces of tamagoyaki, 2 slices of fishcake, 63g of potato salad, her friends weren't here yet.

she decided to start on her dessert instead. everyone could see that she was bored. she even counted the 11 seeds that she picked out from the 3 slices of watermelon!

alas, after 1hr 9mins 27s, her friends arrived glamourously (and not the least bit remorseful, mind you) at last.

"who are these friends in question?", you ask. they are none other than xuelin and brandon.

"oh, and the pathetic girl?", you probe.

YOURS, TRULY.