Alleycats

This past few days have been really hectic. Work, house, etc...

I have so many deadlines to meet starting tomorrow. I'm taking it easy but I think I should be able to finish on time.

The plumber is at my house restoring the bathroom in the guest room (paip pecah!). It has been two weeks already and they are still not done yet. I'm getting quite pissed. This morning I told the guy to finish it all up today, by hook or by crook. I can't stand the mess anymore and I want to do up the guest room properly. I hope when I go home today, I'll have a brand new bathroom downstairs.

My mum had an eye operation on Monday at UH (I never knew UH ada Specialist Centre). It was quite a major operation as she had a retina detachment. Alhamdulillah.. it was successful. She's recovering now but as part of the post-operation, she has to keep her head down for 10 days. Head down, 10 days. In between, bolehlah break for 10 minutes, but that's all. This is to keep the retina in place. She finds it quite hard to do that at first, but I think now, she's managing it quite well.

Anyway, let's not talk about serious stuff. I don't want to worry too much for now.

Last Saturday, we attended a kenduri tahlil for MrNordin’s late uncle. It has been 100 days already… how time flies. I was so tired from the running around during the day that we decided to leave as quickly as possible. Plus the heat… oh my God, it was so hot that Saturday night!

But on the way back, we decided to stop by for coffee. I wanted some place cold, with full blast air-condition. Then I remember Royale Chulan, a new hotel in town, where I attended the company’s management meet recently. It’s a nice posh hotel, but what I remember mostly is the air-cond. It’s very cold! So I said to my husband, let’s go there!

The hotel lobby was quite empty when we arrived, maybe because it was still early (10pm) plus the fact it is a new hotel. We scouted for places to sit down when we saw, right at the end of the lobby, there was this notice saying, “Alleycats playing tonight.”

What? Alleycats? We could hear drums beating from inside the club and when we enquired, true indeed, Alleycats was performing that night. However, the gentleman at the door nicely informed us that, “Datuk David tak ada tonight. He’s performing at the PM’s house.”

Oh well… it doesn’t really matter, does it? We were looking for coffee. “Do you serve coffee here?”, I asked. “Sure we do”, he said. So ok, we’re in then.

I’m not really a big fan of Alleycats but I like their songs. And I know they are a good band, so I used to follow their gigs when they were playing at Uncle Chili’s PJ Hilton and Blue’s Café at Lot 10, di suatu masa dahulu.

That night, we sat at the bar listening to Alleycats while sipping our lattes. Even without David and Loga, they are still great. The new guy who sang that night was pretty awesome himself. Just like the Strollers, the band members are really cool dudes!

Their repertoire includes songs from the 70’s and 80’s, something which will not fail to make you smile when you hear the familiar tunes. Some people were dancing, I refrained myself from doing so because I was clad in a baju kurung (I was from a kenduri, remember?)

A "Datin" was celebrating her birthday that night. It was so nice to see her and her group of friends & family dancing on the dance floor without any cares for this world. That’s how it should be..

We stayed for two sets and was about to leave when I saw David Arumugam walking in! He just came back from the PM’s house where he entertained the "birthday boy” along with Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherji who were especially flown in from India (they did a dance routine, I was told).

How could I leave when David was there, right? So I we decided to order another round of drinks and stayed on for the last set.

It was worth the wait. He sang several of Alleycats’ greatest hits including “Sekuntum Mawar Merah”, “Senyumlah Kuala Lumpur” and “Andainya Aku Pergi Dulu”. His voice is still the same after all this years. Just like in the record!

Btw, he said “Hi” to me as I passed by. Hee.. hee… cheap thrill!

Anyway, I had a lovely evening. So impromptu like that, with my husband, and I like it.

So, if you were looking for a nice place to chill with good music and good coffee, head to the Heritage Club at The Royale Chulan. Alleycats play there every night from 10pm onwards, Mon-Sat. You won’t regret it!

Cheers!