On Jumeirah Beach Road a drink at the bar is science. Liquids, all sorts, and spices are infused, combined with alcohol for innovative and titillating taste experiences. Mixology is an art form , a voyage, taste bud tourism. Through the effervescent, moody blues of the table lantern, you can make out the neat and classy frame of a fine scotch next to the more experimental Arabian Lemon Drop. This is where the story begins.
Our 25th anniversary arrived like a snowfall that creates a fine base on a particularly well visited and challenging ski slope. We, being skiers, decided to mark the occasion in our own style. I was on my way back to Canada from Chennai to visit with family and take care of business. Hubby was remaining in Chennai where he worked with the engineers of a tech company. The logistics of geography would not impede the landmark of 25 years of shared space, woes, celebrations, kids, challenges and x's and o's , both in intimacy and as a scratching of pencil on paper. We concluded that the event would involve a stopover in Dubai. I would then fly on to Canada and hubby would return to Chennai, India, perfect!
I began the research as we had a licorice string budget and it needed to be in the black not the red of colours. This is how it turned out.
I booked us for cocktails and snacks at the Burj Al Arab on the night of our anniversary. We filled up on Swarmas for a mere $2.99 (aprox.) at the mall as we could not afford the dinner at a 7 star hotel and swarma is truly delectable. I wondered if the elite hotel with world class status would look down on us as we were obviously not rock stars, celebrities, affluent oil sheiks or people who swam in a sea of money. We were going to the Burj Al Arab, on the cheap, in order to celebrate an achievement, yes, the accomplishment of living 25 years with the same person. We were living in the multilayer, as opposed to the mortality, sense of the word, of a 25 year commitment. I was curious to know if anyone from a middle income, could walk in experience the beauty, the opulence, pay their bill, obviously scrimping on a few luxuries, and be welcome. Treated with the same respect as any client. Not made to feel cheap or less for obvious cuts to spending in a place where "you can afford it all" philosophy was regularly put into practice.
I was pleasantly surprised. We started at a two person table in close proximity to the bar. I leaped up onto my long legged seat with my short legged physic. We were 20 long strides, of a 6 footer, from the wall of windows. We had not opted for the more decadent seating, a table next to paneled glass with panoramic views of the city. Lesson 1: Never say never in a life of shifting paradigms . As the evening sauntered forward, a table opened up closer to the windows, than closest. Our waiter guided us through the gradations of decreasing metric measurements until I could reach out and feel the smooth cool surface of a city behind glass. As far as comparative adjectives go, we reached the haute de jour of descriptive bliss, there, above the luminous architecture of the Las Vegas of the Emirates, Dubai.
I was presented with a fresh rose that was so rich and dark a red that it bordered on escaping the confines of chromatic scale. The fulsome flower was presented to me by 3 dark eyed , men who were a study in polite smiles, words and gestures that were meticulously classic and traced in grace. Hubby sipped and swirled his age old scotch in contentment. His intimacy with and appreciation for a well honed malt was sublime. He may well have imagined heaven inside that tumbler. :) We circumvented the $2000 drinks, naturally, but marveled at the fact that they existed and imagined who we would have to be to order these. We laughed and enjoyed the concept while challenging any fall into stereotyping. What an experience. In the end we had a lovely 25th made better by the staff of the Burj Al Arab.
At the conclusion of the evening, we asked for a Taxi and instead were escorted home in a black car with leather seats, at no extra charge. It restored my faith in the value of 25th anniversaries, swarma as a prequel and mixology, not the drinks, although the lemon drop was divine, but of people from different places coming together for a special evening without snobbery or preconceived notions of status or wealth. I, in turn, had donned my best dress, far from designer, but elegant and flowing and had waited patiently from a bar seat that had cost me less. I saw others, like me, gradually ushered forwards as empty spaces opened up at the windows in the absence of dinner diners.The dinner was way beyond reach for those of us that ended up, in time at the window. I say this without malice but as a realistic expectation for a 7 star, world famous hotel.
The 25 years of this and that, love and loss, monogamy and future couple hood had been raised to new heights that night on the top floor amidst the mixology of contemporary times, one aspect of Dubian culture, the haze of lights and the art chemistry of beverages with exotic or familiar names.
I left for Canada shortly after and hubby returned to Chennai. Skype became our next phase of connection and yes, we are both here for the 26th, check mark also for the 27th and... Stop, no one really writes their story or reflects on the classic relationship model that far ahead or in that much detail. :)
Our mature couple hood exists not in complete elasticity and is hopefully not wooden but works at being a silk ribbon tied in a bow, wrapped and entwined for aerial feats, slip knot, dancing on wind or woven. It may be loosened, retied, refreshed with new colours and textures but never knotted. The soft supple silkiness replaces chains, hemp, welding or other connects in this, my ideal, perfect relationship. :) Human, as I am, the Lemon Drop, infused with exotic flavors with a rim encrusted with crystals and spice, is one recipe for the mixology, the chemistry of life. Indulge yourself with a sip from the drink metaphors and feel free to imagine your own concoction, enhance your own mixology...through booze, LOL, no, in choices that mix it up without an excess of puddles or spills. :) Cheers.
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