Cafe Mist & Gelato Affairs

2012 is one of those years for me when I want to be very socially active.  Mind you I’m not usually this active every year. The year before Last i.e. 2010 I didn’t want to see a human face. I have the ability to hibernate on yearly basis from social life, for various reasons.

So this year I decided to have a reunion of the old office where I worked. Now there I worked with more than 100 people over the course of 5 years, obviously I made some really good friends and some people I just outright hate, I’m sure they know who they are. So having said that I put aside my differences and invited everyone I knew to a reunion. Also when inviting I made sure I told everyone very clearly that the invitation is open to all just come bring your friends, family whoever, just come we’ll sit down together catch up on the latest, reminisce about the past, enjoy ourselves and go back home thinking the day wasn’t so bad,

However, statistically speaking out of the 50+ invitations I sent out, I had confirmations of 21 people who said they WOULD attend. And in the end as usual no one did, some of them had good reasons, most of them had really lame reasons, and lastly there was a whole group of people who I’d like to say were ‘no show-no call’.

What I learnt from that evening was (this wasn’t the first time though) that eventually in the last 5 years I rarely made any real friends, all of them were just colleagues. So really, all that investment in people that I made these past years was pretty much a waste, eventually only a few stick by.  But fortunately those who do stick by are all that is worth. And with these worthy guys did I have a blast in the end.

Our evening was scheduled to begin at Arena (I never had any games in mind to play), thinking that it is a point in the center of the city and people should not complain being there. I arrived a bit too early can’t help it wrapped up my other work sooner. So when I get there the first thing I notice is the lack of a crowd, I remember Arena to be one of the most crowded places, where you had to fight to get in (ok that maybe an overstatement but it is close by). Then the new thing that hit me was the new entrance and security check. NO wait! The old thing had a security check as well, one that was similar only the old ones never stopped us coz we didn’t sneak empty water bottles and laptops inside in our hand bags. To think of it, and I mean think of it again it is a tiny bit embarrassing to be asked to open your bag when the metal detector screams at you.  Ah but who cares even they didn’t! So we went in and waited and waited while I waited I messaged to the people to confirm how many of them would come in. 2 of them were on their way so I had something to look forward to.

The public there was quite a transformation from what I remember of the last, from the hip crowed we were now down to bald member uncles of Arena with their families, some younger uncles with their families, some newly wed husband wife with their extended families… basically a lot of families. Not that I didn’t like the ‘family’ environment, the excessive families, tiny kids, older kids, aunties and uncles got a bit to my nerves.

Anyway, we spent a lot of time wandering around arena doing nothing in particular then spent a lot more time sitting and doing nothing, but then the sporty amongst us decided to go play. And play they did, however my knowledge of bowling is so limited I can’t tell the difference between an orange or black ball. But I cheered for them nevertheless from where I sat way behind.

My interest was more in dinner as I was starving and I pushed people to get moving to Café Mist, that place was once crowded city when I last visited but this time it was comparatively very empty and I got to sit at a table with a sofa. The environment was pathetic though; we sat by the kitchen where I’m sure their exhaust wasn’t working and the whole café was smoked out. Our first few minutes there were spent coughing and then when our throats got used to the spicy smoke we started sneezing. The tables at café mist are covered with ceramic tiles, these tiles look like a puzzle and for the heck of you it you can turn them around or play around with them.  The one I tried lifting up was oily and greasy and I was certain that the cleaning job here sucks, so I left the tile as it (didn’t want my hands all dirty before I got down to eating).

Collectively all of us agreed on Steaks to order, amongst us 5 we had 3 American steaks, one pepper steak, and one chicken golfer. When they got our serving plates, knives and forks what annoyed me most were the rusted steak knives, plus they were dripping ewww!

Can’t say about the others but my American steak was not amazing. The steak itself was ok at one point I did choke on the cow but I live to tell the tale. The vegetables were utter disappointment; I had 3 dices of potatoes and carrots, 2 slices of onions in half, 3 wedges of baby corn, I didn’t count the fries but they were too less for my liking. The sauce was nothing extra ordinary I’m sure I do a better job at home. 

The eating experience wasn’t fun at all, I’d say from a 5 I’d score them a 1, and that’s not just me I remember one uncle fight with the manager and the chef for some burger he ordered, I’m sure he must have found something wrong with it too. I thought of creating some scene too but decided against it as I was hungry and I was ok with eating what I had, though the bill when it did arrive was quite a pain to look at, to me it seemed like I was the only one paying for all that food everyone ate there.

Yeah so keeping the environment, food quality, food quantity, comfort, money I’m marking Café Mist a ‘0’ the only 1 mark it gets is for its service, coz that waiter was the only thing I’d say was better in that place.

Thankfully we decided to head out to Gelato Affairs for our dessert. It was one of our better decisions of the evening. I had once of those cravings for a yum chocolaty brownie covered with ice cream topped with rich chocolate sauce and luckily that was on the menu (did I mention this was my first time at Gelato Affairs?), Rashid wanted to have some chocolate sauced chocolate cake, Basma decided on something called death by chocolate and Hunain who apparently had been to GA plenty of times, and was totally in-charge ordered something that we weren’t interested in finding  out coz we all had plenty of our own fantasies about our own chocolates.

When our dishes arrived I was happy to see my fantasy come true, and better still I had roasted almonds on top! Rashid’s was not to his expectation I believe as he liked mine better I think his was too chocolaty. And Basma’s was definitely a reason to ‘DIE’ for, it was so soaked in chocolate that there was a point when between one spoon of that I thought I’d choke on the chocolate.

In the end the dessert saved the whole evening, though the chocolate was too rich for our taste (we’re the Cadbury people and our rich extends to Galaxy) but chocolate lifts your mood always doesn’t it?

And with that chocolate treat our day came to an end. We’ve all collectively stricken off Arena and Café Mist off our lists to attend ever again, coz we experienced was nightmare. However the highlight of the evening was neither the food nor the dessert, it was eventually catching up on with friends. Rashid I met after months, he always visits and we plan but never get to accomplish it, then Hunain who is tied up with his work schedule so much its difficult for us to meet up. But that day we got together, made the effort and met. So guys, thanks a lot for being there to add one pearl to the memoirs!

Oh yeah and the other two I’m not mentioning them here or thanking them for being there, coz they are always with me !