BMR Over Dinner

August 18

(left, clockwise) stuffed mushrooms, Margherita pizza, chicken milanese, and Sicilian chicken salad

Reservation for six was made for dinner at 7.30pm. One by one, they trickled into the restaurant from various workplaces, from Port Klang to HP Tower in Damansara Heights. A finance manager, an analyst, a financial controller, a corporate communications manager, a financial planner, and a financial & tax consultant.

There were Senny, Li Lian, Bee Kwan, Wei Hong, Wei Chon and myself. We met in 1994 as coursemates in Tunku Abdul Rahman College, better known as TAR College (TARC). Remained in touch over the years, but last met three years ago, we decided it was time to catch up. Some others, unfortunately, were unable to join us.

While the five of them pursued their qualifications and remained in financial sector, I had long given up on that line of work. I was simply not cut out to do finance or accounting. I was in TARC for only one-and-a-half years, and i re-applied for a place in one of the local universities. I wanted to get into a university, and I also knew I would not had made it had I stayed on. Into University of Malaya I went and never looked back since, except for the good times shared with them whilst i was there.

Stories of work, spouses, kids, and food were exchanged across the tables and it took us quite a while to actualy look through the menu and ordered our food. So caught up we were in conversations that none of us wanted to think too much of our drinks. We ordered the same thing - ice lemon tea, haha.

(above) Wei Chon (left) and Wei Hong

Senny (left) and Li Lian

All four ladies turned and gave Wei Chon a questioning look when he first declined to take a piece of the Margherita pizza that just came. Earlier he took a scoop of the Sicilian chicken salad. Claimed that he was cutting down on his food intake to reduce some weight. But he was not fat at all, so we figured that he must have had dinner date with his other half. Well, he did finish the pizza after much coaxing.

raisin bread pudding

Sad bunch we were when we thought the whole dinner was rather sinful by the time we hit the fourth dish. We had not even had our dessert of raisin bread pudding! The topic of BMR (basal metabolic rate) came into discussion. The higher the score, the better of course. That means we can eat more. http://www.internetfitness.com/calculators/bmr.htm

My last medical checkup was done in the early part of 2007. Three quarters of this year are almost over. My next check should be done come 2009. I am not too worried about my bad cholesterol as I have been abstaining from popular culprits - roti canai and nasi lemak - the former for eight years now and I last had the latter almost six months ago. No fan of fast food, my last visit to a fast-food chain was almost two years ago. The last deep-fried chicken i had was almost two weeks ago, which i prepared for the dinner with Connie, Fai & Mary Anne. That is just a small part. There are other stuffs to check. Protein, glucose, uric acid, creatinine, enzymes, minerals & electrolytes. There are also the various scans, and ECG, yada yada ....oh well... :)