A 3 am reveille, 5 am reporting, a little cry-out (both, Baby bear, because we were cranky for lack of sleep, and Mamma bear because Baby bear looked like a tiny little thing in a sea of adults all pushing and shoving to get ahead), a lecture from Baba bear (‘You signed up to run and we are here, so you have only two choices: run grumpily, or run happily,’ something Baba bear likes telling us every time), a sub 28-minutes-5km (which included a small break because we felt like throwing up around 1km), a proud Baba and Mamma bear (because we were trailing at 300m and a little tired, but when Baba bear shouted ‘Break, Kym, make a break now’, we ran for our life, overtaking at least six others to the finish line), topped by a celebratory breakfast (sponsored by Mamma bear) at Hyatt (with waffles and bacon) and looking forward to a nice afternoon nap when we get home.
That’s how you do a Sunday morning! How’s yours going?
Happiness is…Baby bear asking for a selfie and putting the medal around your neck because, ‘I couldn’t have won it without you, Mr Baba’.
By the way, here’s what happened at breakfast:
- We came in as the first guests, before anyone else had arrived.
- We started loading up our plates with so much food, the staff would have been forgiven for thinking we were going to waste it (hint: we didn’t, not one single morsel).
- We kept going back and trying everything, like literally everything, including Chocos, honey puffs, poha, sausages, eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes, dosa, dhokla, stir-fried vegetables, Berliners, doughnuts, cakes, fruits, juices, wedges, tea, coffee, milk, and this isn’t even an exhaustive list.
- We refused to allow the waiting staff to clear the table and replace the cutlery because we weren’t finished eating. Even when they came around again and again with the hope we were done.
- We told jokes and laughed loudly. We narrated incidents that had farting sounds (imitated loudly by the narrator), we gossiped about everyone, and we showed each other videos on our phones and played them at too loud a volume. Of course, there seemed to be no one in the entire restaurant at that time. Just us. And the dozen or so staff. We had the whole place for ourselves. What fun!
- At one point, we were laughing so hard, we were all crying, and one of us even splurted out food & drink.
- We used the serviettes to wipe our noses. We also used all the wrong cutlery (and sometimes, none at all) to eat our food.
- And when we were leaving and had to pay, we pulled out a discount voucher where we got a rather vulgar amount off, and the kid ate for free.
You’d think the staff couldn’t wait to see our backs. Seems they were all enjoying it as much as us. And that doesn’t have anything to do with the generous tip Tashuji left for them. Because I think at my age, I can see genuine happiness and differentiate between that and fake smiles.
So, all in all, an outing worth remembering. I wish I was this uninhibited when I was younger. Would probably still have been married to my first wife. Sigh. Well, we live and we learn. At any rate, we live.
P.S.: Feel free to judge us, you sophisticated, classy folks who, I am sure, always use the right fork for the right course, and are so horrified at our wanton behaviour that you almost raised your eyebrows in mild disdain. Sorry. Not sorry.
