Saturday, June 09, 2007

Let Me Eat Cake II

This orange ginger cake cordially eaten by Lyrical Lemongrass, Kenny, Spiffy and me.

Let me tell you why eating cake is like meeting bloggers in KL.

You see a cake and you want it. You debate on its creamy contours. You speculate on its inner integrity. You imagine its aromatic entree. You can see other's choices of cake and it says something about them. Cake is a luxury of experience. You don't have it normally after every meal. Cakes are intense concoctions of myriad ingredients alchemically transformed into a whole. They are manifestations of someone's vision. Maybe we all have tired, cynical parts of ourselves which whisper, "Cake cannot be as good as it looks." Pleads with us not to get tummyache or be someplace where someone will hurt you, or laugh, or stare.

So what is it like to fall out of the sky with perfect clarity? To hurtle past the towering cumulus canyons and set foot on the earth of your past?

Maybe you could see my hands shaking as I read to you.

Afterwards, the rush, the acceptance, the friendliness and generosity of spirit. Thank you for hearing me read. Thank you for saying a few things to me afterwards. It really meant a lot.

Tucked in my chair at Marmalade - light and open to the sun - Kenny and Spiffy before me and Lyrical Lemongrass at my side, where she had been all day; well, we ate cake. I finally and truly felt at home. Eating cake that evening was the perfect experience. A coming together. An alchemy. We picked up the threads of our blogs and we smoothly turned them into real and very truthful people. We laughed and told each other lots of truthful things and all it made was a good difference. Kenny was burning bright with adrenalin, tired from his move and working so much, he still made some time to come out. Spiffy had a sore throat and felt ill with flu and I said have honey, have honey and we all worried about her getting home to rest. Lyrical Lemongrass had ferried me everywhere, gone to blogger's breakfasts and lunches with openminded aplomb, for she is a formidable writer and reader too. Here I was among them, drunk on cake and companionship.

You know what? There was more.

7 comments:

Kenny Mah said...

There was? More, I mean? ;)

Can't wait to read about it then. And I love this post: it encapsulates all that I love about your writing --- lyrical, wistful, a little magic thrown in for good measure.

And was I "bright with adrenaline"? I think it was all the poems that turned me on so like an Energiser Bunny on verse and iambic meter... :P

msiagirl said...

waah see, blog tag again! zzzzz

Anonymous said...

Hey Malaysia Girl :) Thx for dropping by my blog !:) Look at that tower of love, speaking of not cooking the usual suspects hehehe, Jack Bauer would have to bribe you for this :P
Cheers !:)

msiagirl said...

Meltingwokmaybe he would swap one of your pandan muffins for it! Jack, I'll reveal anything if you gave me a pandan muffin LOL!

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

You've certainly given a different perspective to food blogging. It's refreshing. That evening at Marmalade where we could all just be ourselves and r-e-l-a-x was good...in a way, we all needed it.

what do you mean by "more"?

Signed, Lonely Lyrical Lemongrass in Spore.

msiagirl said...

Dear Lonely, I was blogging so late I had to stop and thot I better do justice to our reading by doing a post another day! Where are your makan friends?! Surely there must be some Singapore food bloggers out there?

gRaCe said...

Aww...i'm melting as i read this post from you. I'm glad u had fun hanging out with us..i definitely did. Thanks for being worried bout me..i'm touched, truly i am..

*hugs*