A Good Friday Evening

Everyone is happy and relaxed on Fridays. People go to the office in casuals; the Muslims go for their prayers during lunchtime; the non-Muslims, a long lunch break; everyone beams at the thought of a weekend ahead, with plans for clubbing, outings or simply catching up on lost sleep.

I'm not much of a clubber these days but occassionally I'd join my friends for a drink or two at the pub opposite the office called Matabar. It is quite a pleasant place if you go there early - before the singer starts crooning the latest MTV hits and ruin the relaxed ambience.

Once in a while, if there are visitors from Malaysia or Singapore, I'd take them to the nightspots in the Chinatown area, known locally as Kota. I am extremely aversed to noisy places, hence I avoid places with live bands. I cannot understand why people would want to have their eardrums abused by over-enthusiastic bands who mangle the latest hits and harass the poor audience to sing or clap along, adding to the already unbearable cacophony.

Gone are my days of clubbing at the Betelnut, DV8, Uno, Pyramid and Picadilly and other popular nightspots in KL and PJ. Except for DV8 (which surprising is still around), all these places are already gone. Even in Singapore, I do not patronise popular nightspots such as Zouk or Brix, preferring quieter places such as Harry's Bar at Boat Quay or hotel lounges. A relaxed glass of beer or wine with close friends is all I look forward to these days. Here in Jakarta, sometimes I'll go for a couple of Bintangs (the local beer) with my colleague at one of the cafes along Jalan Jaksa, the backpacker's alley.

Because I'm still single, people sometimes forget that I do not belong to their age group anymore. The twenty-somethings in the office are always trying to drag me to the latest hotspot in town: places such as Blowfish or Burgundy. These are the places to see and be seen. It seems rather pointless to me - I have already done enough clubbing for the past ten years. I'd rather go back early to my hotel room, have a warm shower, watch Crime Night on the Discovery Channel and slowly sip a glass of Merlot. That's a good Friday evening for me.