My Birthday.Leicester Grammar. Memories. Maiyango
Saturday was really, really good. Following a slump in self esteem and a week of meIancholy I wasn't overly excited about the Saturday ahead. So as I had secretly hoped and desperately needed the evening was perfect. Fantastic fun with fantastic company: Ali, Reena, Khadija and brother Summo. Friends from the past insync with my life today.Ironically Maiyango was the last resort as EVERY possible restaurant that Ali called turned out to be fully booked! So I decided to give this new place I had read about in the local magazine a try. Thanks to destiny a table was availble for seven pm.
We hoped this guineau pig would be OK and it was fantastic! It's called MAIYANGO and is uber cool. Stuffed with cushions and draped with all sorts of beautiful silks and chiffon echoing music of ethnic/Latin/ funk genre, the service at Maiyango was overly good. The staff are very down to earth and and dressed in Nehru suit style black linen frocks and trousers. Two members especially polite were Floor Manager[perhaps] who kindly saved me one of the limited booth tables that looked like mini-huts, and the girl with the pierced lip who confessed that she was nervous, as the place was new and the night promised to be very busy.
Served dishes from the limited listings on the menu, the food was not breath taking but was fancily presented. The Vietnamese stirfry noodles tasted almost as good as my Japanese Yaki Soba. Food was accompanied by lavish smoothies and cocktails. The bar oozed in chique 'mixology' I must say. A minor mishap that the staff shared with us [they ran out of mint] just emphasised their down to earth and friendly approach. Stylish in manner leaving snobbery to London's designer eateries. I am proud Leicester is producing some classy venues.
After the meal we moved to the sofas exploding with velvet cushions that had been reserved for us after the meal so the staff could feed other 'boothers'.
The night followed with hilarious renditions of 'Surina'. Yes Reena, Ali and Summo doing impressions of me. Apparently I speak like a descendant of the Maharajah stroke Queen, act like a presenter off TV, leave answer phone messages confusingly like an XXX line and have an obsession with butter. They also re-enacted various moments from their stay in my 'hut with one sink', Japan where I like to drink 'hoto choco no cureemu'. Bow and Arrigatou.
The night continued with a drive back to ours for coffee and cake and Reena exasperating in fits of laughter calling up half her phone book.
The first place I took them was my simplified yet sufficiently furnished bedroom. Free of unnecessary items, the one thing I have adopted in my explosively pink room is my futon. Ali and Reena just looked confused. "Where do you sleep? You're no longer living in a village! You're not a student!" and "A futon is just a blanket on the floor!!!?"
As expected, I had to unfurl it to display just how cosy and appealing this system actually is. And again as I expected -they both jumped on it. Actually so did I. We had a discussion about stuffed toys and how they scare Reena whilst Summo captured it all on video.
Cake calling, we ran downstairs. I located the "1" candle [as used for my brother's 18th] and stabbed it in to the scrumptious chocolate slab that ALi was waiting to inhale. We sung "Happy Birthday" to me and I blew out the candle when I didn't even mean to and we did the whole traditional feed each other with mouthfuls of cake thing with Mum and Dad.
Finally we went to the lounge on the ever-so-comfy sofas and sipped tea to unwind. We discussed house prices, universities, medicine and Ai's new Golf.
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