Fantasy unmet

Knowing that my husband will never take me to a bar, my daughter suggested a night out with me when he was out of town. So she and her boy friend brought me bar hopping after a dinner.

I told her my idea of visiting a bar is to sit on a bar stool at the bar counter watching the bar tender shakes the cocktails. Like what they often show in the movie it's also about chatting with the bar tender.

So we did the Keong Siak-Duxton-Bukit Pasoh bar hop. Really it wasn't too much of a hop because I was literally knocked out after the second spot. To meet my "bar counter" specification, we peeped in a few places to see whether the bar counter is full. The overwhelming music, chatter and laughter punching out every time we pushed open the door made me apprehensive.

We finally settled for a bar listed in Time-Out as one of Asia's best cocktail place. It doesn't look like a bar but more like a living room with a T shape bar counter. The cocktail was good.  The youngsters told me in most bars, bar tenders seldom talk to customers. They were curious to know why I fantasize  chatting with the bar tender. They also observed that I don't look very excited.

To be honest the places she brought me are too civil and are more like lounges in a good hotel. The idea of drinking at the bar counter crept into my bucket list which my daughter came to know about. However what she doesn't know is that it is more of a dare than a wish. Hence the pre-requisite has to be a place which I step in with trepidation. I suppose then the bar has to be busy, loud, jam packed, smoke filled and a tart seedy, very much like those often portrayed in HK TV drama where the cops look for the kingpins.

What a crazy fantasy! Perhaps there is underlying boredom in my life and a dare to puncture it. Perhaps it symbolises coming out of my comfort zone.

I guess my bucket list can live with one crazy dare among the many standard norms. So I am still looking for a gangster to bring me to my type of a real bar.