I had a phone call last week from N, the elderly jazz singer - and Penang native - who’s come to the bar a few times.

She asked me how I was and so forth, and then after a pause said:

“Andrea…”

“Yes?”

“I was wondering… Would you like to go out with me sometime?”

Bless! It was like being asked out on a date.

So this lunchtime, she came and picked me up from the hotel, and drove us to a little restaurant for lunch. I’d asked if she’d mind it if we had ‘Western food’ (the generic term used over here for any non-Asian/Indian cuisine) because, after five days, my stomach is still Not Quite Right. I’m blaming this.

The restaurant was like a French cafe - all dark wood and red chequered tablecloths. There were clearly a couple of birthdays going on upstairs, because twice, a pre-recorded version of ‘Happy Birthday’ started playing over the sound system. I told N that “that doesn’t happen in Britain” (a phrase which I’m saying a lot over here, I’m finding).

The restaurant do a set lunch with varying main courses, which meant that for £2.50 each we had soup, fish with almonds and vegetables, a small creme caramel-style dessert made from coconut milk, and coffee. Or in my case, tea. This is almost, but not quite, as good as the vegetarian dinner for two that V and I enjoyed, for £1.50. Between us.

The food was a bit school dinner-ish, but it was fun to see the place and to spend some time with N, who I would guess is in her mid 70s now but still ridiculously glamorous, with her dyed black hair, painted eyebrows and funky glasses. She was wearing a lovely white blouse and linen trousers, accessorised with red shoes and a red bag (and red painted lips). In fact, as we stepped out of the car, I noticed that we were sporting exactly the same colour scheme, only in reverse:

For truly, we are jazz sisters.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 4.38pm and is filed under Penang, The people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.