Like Malaysian politics these days, mention Valentine’s Day and suddenly everyone has an opinion. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. I am not about to jump on that bullock cart and debate the virtues of paying for overpriced foie gras and even more overpriced shrubs. After all, I have been a recipient of both in the past, and I will not deny that I have felt good about receiving them.

What matters is that not a day passes by that I don’t look forward to the end of the day when I get to see the Bald one, even if it is for a brief 10 minutes. Our hectic lifestyles (our own choosing) dictate that we do not see much of each other, but I look forward to that moment when I step into our home, smell that familiar smell, and see that familiar smile. I’m touching middle age, and I’m still a sucker for romance. But not just for one day in a year….I’m greedy….I want it all.

So on 14 February 2009, we didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, not because we were in denial, but because it happened to be a weekend and we were looking for an excuse to get sloshed. Besides, my dear friend Fatboybakes throws the most amazing parties based on even more amazing excuses (this time, it was in celebration of Thaipusam, although the idea of being inebriated on a holy day is just sacrilegious).

Yes, Fatboybakes calls me Thamby (little brother, in Tamil). I, in return, call him Tangechi (little sister). It is no Freudian slip nor does it have anything to do with his repressed maternal instincts (of which he has none, I must protest) but it has everything to do with the fact that we are childish and take joy in speaking in tongues (in our case, an extremely limited version of Tamil) and puns.

I think we ate everything that he served, but I can’t be sure, thanks to the twenty-something bottles of champagne that were consumed from 12 noon to 10 at night. There were sausage rolls, a chicken and mushroom pie, HairyBerry’s exotic gourmet platter, assorted cheeses, roast Australian ribeye and yorkshire pudding, seafood mousse, assorted gourmet sausages, roast duck pasta, wasabi mash, truffle mash, and a garden salad with pear, walnut and quails eggs. One word describes it best: sublime. After all, words (and I’m a poor wordsmith, I’m afraid) cannot do justice for the delicious food, so lovingly prepared by Tangechi, for a party of seventeen.

He baked two cakes and a bit. One, a very popular Mint Chocolate Mousse Cake with Lindt chocolate, a cake that will be spoken about for generations to come, and the other, a delicious heart-shaped Pavlova decorated with peaches and mangoes but lacking in passion(fruit) thanks to a maid who threw it away, not realising that a shrivelled fruit didn’t mean it was past its expiry date. The molten chocolate cupcakes were a surprise addition, but they received the attention they deserved.

Thanks, Tangechi. It was a fantastic party and it is such an honour to have my name (even if it’s just Thamby) on the menu. In the words of Kylie Minogue, I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky……

Happy Saturday and Sunday!