A Tribute to the Carpenters

The May holidays are quite a big event here, everyone takes the week off and the flags are, quite literally, out. There is generally a carnival atmosphere, and to celebrate, the 7 Days introduced their Barbecue Menu. Yompee showed us this in great excitement when we walked in for lunch on Monday. But unfortunately someone had forgotten to translate it into English. This is obviously not good in a restaurant that prides itself on serving the Western community. Yompee promised to take it home with her that night to work it out, and we promised to return the next day,

So, in anticipation, we went back on Tuesday evening. Yompee led us to the roof, where there were 3 chefs and an electric barbecue. Nobody else was there. We sat down at a table next to the ornamental pond, and waited for the menus. Yompee had worked hard – there were a number of options, and after some discussion and consulting of her book (English Translations for the Hotel Industry), we chose beef, sheep, sausages, and tomatoes. The tomatoes turned out to be potatoes, boiled, skewered and then barbecued, and the sausages were hot dog sausages, carved into a flower shape, and then skewered and barbecued, but the beef and sheep (lamb!) were pleasant enough. We had just about finished, and as it was dark (it goes dark at 7.00pm), the evening was turning a bit chilly. We were getting ready to leave, when a waiter came staggering up the stairs with a large speaker. He was closely followed by a man in a dinner jacket with a saxophone, and another man with a guitar. The entertainment had arrived.

Obviously, as we were the only ones there, it would look have looked a bit rude to get up and walk out just as they walked in, so we settled back down and ordered more drinks. There was much plugging of things in, and then they were off. They launched initially into a rousing rendition of ‘Goodbye to Love’, followed swiftly by ‘Yesterday Once More’. This was apparently all they had rehearsed, as everything that came after it involved considerable discussion and humming of the tune before they started. I’m not sure why, as the man on the guitar played the same three notes in exactly the same order during every song, so I don’t know what difference it made to him what tune they were actually playing. I can only assume they were deciding what speed to play it at. They galloped through ‘Close to You’ at a fair old pace, and we were practically dancing to ‘Solitaire’. We applauded politely at the end of each tune, and sang along wherever possible. It was only when the waitresses had all gone downstairs and shut the door that we finally felt able to leave. I can just imagine them complaining to each other as we left. “These damn Westerners….thought we were going to be up here all night….”