Birthday Dinner @ Al Watan

After a horrible birth-day yesterday, I met up with friends today over dinner at Al Watan. I took the day off work actually, as I'd slept very little last night and was super tired. During the day I called my bank and verifierd accounts, cancelled cheques, changed PIN numbers, and all the other time-consuming stuff that goes along with minimizing risk after a break in.

But the highlight of the day was meeting up with my best friends over a fantastic dinner at Al Watan. Jennifer, Sanjit, Vero, Ervin, Juanjo, Patri, Connie, Alfonso, Benja, and Eric dropped by for dinner. As usual, Khalid cooked up a storm: mixed tandoori, dal, chicken biryani, lamb sag, chicken karahi, rice, naan, and of course my favourite, lamb curry. Most of us also had a mango lassi to go along with the spicy food, and for dessert, Khalid served us khir (rice pudding with cardamom, cinnamon, and nuts), and the best tea this side of heaven.





























Afterwards, we went to my place, where Amy and Sonia joined us for - of all things - more food: 2 cakes (one of which baked by Sonia), cookies, and some drinks.

Considering the previous 24 hours, I was quite happy to replace my sour and angry mood with some fun, friends, and smiles. The evening with friends reminded me that in the grand scheme of things, I'm a blessed man who has little reason to complain.

Break-In On A Birthday

I had bigger-than-usual expectations for today for no other reason than that it was my birthday.

In that light, it was a tad disappointing when no one at work gave me birthday wishes. I don't go around advertising my birthday, that seems cheesy to me, but given that my coworkers are quite intentional in honouring birthdays, it was hard not to feel a bit slighted as a result of this oversight.

Dinner made everything better though. I went out with Jennifer to the Afghan Horseman, a great Afghani restaurant near Granville Island. I was there about a month ago with Steven and quite liked it: the atmosphere is quiet, the food very tasty, and the tea is good .. not as good as Khalid's tea at Al Watan, but still, it's good.

Had the day ended there I'd have been satisfied. But it didn't. Upon my return home I immediately noticed something was awry. While still in my car, I noticed that all the lights in my apartment were on, and I knew that when I left, I'd only left 1 or 2 lights on. Once at the front door, I was able to walk right in, the door wasn't locked, another sign that something was wrong: I'm positive I'd locked it when I left my apartment earlier that night.

Once inside, all was revealed: my desk drawers taken out and turned upside down, its contents spread out on the floor; my bedroom window wide open, the cold air from outside having settled inside my apartment; my wardrobe doors were flung open, there were dirty footprints on my bedroom chair, and dirt tracked throughout my apartment. My heart sunk.

I immediately noticed that my laptop was missing. Damnit! Later on I noticed that my cellphone was also missing (thank God .. I'm finally rid of it!), as was my ipod. My laptop bag and my backpack were also missing, as well as some cheques and cash. But the worst was by far my laptop: it's amazing how much we depend on technology nowadays! It had all the important information that I use to live: addresses, phone numbers, schedules, information (banking, passwords, usernames), and of course, my music, my pictures, my book library, and most importantly, all my schoolwork from Regent. So, much of that is lost now...

In a significant way, it's appropriate to say that I feel violated: my sacred space was trespassed, and nothing can undo the trust bond that was violated.

The policeman came over at around 2:15am, and basically told me that my stuff would not be recovered (they're too busy solving "urgent" crimes). And actually I'm ok with that, there are certainly more urgent matters than my laptop. Perhaps there are a few lessons in this event: more reliance upon God, and less on myself and technology; wisdom (damnit, why didn't I back up my stuff more often?), and savvy (how can make my place safer, less attractive to break into?).

I'm not planning to go to work tomorrow. So much for a Happy Birthday...