Birthday Surprise part 1

I went out on a rare date Saturday night. It was rare because I usually have less than one date a month. Even more surprising was that it went well. I don't know what he might be thinking, but I'm definitely up for a second date.

We went out on Saturday night. My birthday is in the middle of the week, so this was the closest weekend. Once upon a time, in the deep, distant past, my boyfriend and I used to do something special on my birthday. Those days are over. But it was nice to go out and be treated like someone special on a day relatively close to my birthday. I don't exactly live the movie star lifestyle, but I like being pampered on my birthday. Everyone should take 1 day out of 365 and let the people around you treat you like a princess.

I met Mthandeni at our Moon Festival party at the big house back in September. He was attracted to me right away. And why not? I was still working on Harry at the time, so I turned a blind eye to other suitors. After Harry went down the drain, I called Mthandeni. He was pretty surprised. I think if someone has not called you in two months, it is safe to assume they never will. Then again, you never know. Men have rules about how long you are supposed to wait to call. Women don't. At least, not as far as I know. If there was a meeting, I was not invited.

Most people call Mthandeni “Danny”. Probably because it sounds similar and is easier to pronounce. They should call him “Denny” since that is how the end of his name sounds, with a French accent. I have decided to call him Mthandeni because his name is neither Danny nor Denny. There is nothing unique about the name Danny. Mthandeni is nothing but unique, at least to me.

Mthandeni is from South Africa, which is not all that exotic around here. As a former British colony, we get a lot of Australians, Indians, Canadians and South Africans. The British are the least exotic. I doubt they would take that as an insult. I have never met a single British person who thought he was exotic. As an American, most of the locals see me as a Brit with a funny accent. We are questionable, but not exotic.

Mthandeni took me to the Stoep, a South African restaurant with a surprisingly laid back atmosphere. Hong Kong is a city in a hurry, so it is always nice to find those places where you can stop and take a break. I don't know anything about South African food, and my date was from there, making this a good choice. I have sampled a pretty good slice of the world in Hong Kong, but South Africa is new to me. Mthandeni said the owner is from Namibia, but I was never going to notice the difference.

The Stoep had hummus, so I had to try it. I have been spending a lot of time in Israel lately, where every restaurant has their own hummus recipe, and every single place makes it better than I ever can at home. Hummus is such an easy thing to make, and very easy to make mediocre. The Stoep's hummus was far from the best in the world, but that is like comparing a pizza from New York to a pizza from China. Their bread, however, was quite good. It used to be hard to find good bread in Hong Kong, but a few bakeries have started opening up.