Edmund's Birthday
The candle just opened up like a tulip spreading its leaves, and walah, seven petals spread their wings with a candle on the tip of each. Incredible! I had never seen anything like it. From a torch ready to set off the sprinklers, it became this beautiful flower of little lights. Okay, so it wasn’t as many candles as Edmund really should have had for his birthday (I can say that, since I’m a couple of weeks older than him), but it was spectacular.My associates had encouraged me to stay in Dongguan an extra day to attend Edmund’s birthday celebration at Decca. It didn’t take much arm twisting. Although it did mean I had to delay my return to Hong Kong to remove the stitches from my leg. But it was a Decca party, and they have been sooooooo good! This one was no different.
We started at the new Grand Oriental Hotel nearby the factory. That’s the place with the live crocodiles in the fish restaurant. Or alligators. Whichever… they’re big. On this night we had a special dining area on the second floor. Twenty-five of the staff assembled around one of the biggest dining tables I’ve ever seen. The glass lazy-Susan was certainly bigger than I had ever seen. It had to be 15 feet across, and at least ¾ “ thick. (The Japanese restaurant nearby my apartment has one as big or bigger in wood, with electric motors and touch switches at every setting. But on the night I was dining there, they never turned it on. I really don’t think it worked. Pretty imposing though.)
We ate on this night, as usual, like we were in the court of a king. Food kept coming. Every time you had enough another tray came out. We had goose. We had chicken. We had noodles. We had soup. We had shrimp. We had fish heads. Okay, they had fish heads. Cooks prepared right in our room. And there was plenty of wine, beer, and hot tea. It was great.
As we departed the building, we lingered in the massive lobby to take in the Christmas decorations. Of course, some of us had to dance with the mechanical Welcome Santa. And Edmund tried to ride one of the mini-motorcycles. I think he wanted one for his birthday.
Piling into a Decca bus and van, we made our way up to the row of bars in Dongguan City, near my apartment. We had a private karaoke room at the Languifang Bar. Rows of girls in white fury jackets met us at the entry near the bright Christmas tree. Up to our room on the second floor, we bypassed the crowd in the loud disco lounge, common for these type of bars. I first went back to my apartment to pack some things to stay at the Decca “hotel” later that night for an early departure to Hong Kong. The party was already in full swing. A bar shuffleboard table had a big crowd sliding pucks back and forth – no organization – just everyone having fun. Edmund and Tony were soon crowing like they were Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin – only they were singing in Chinese.
I played dice and other games. They love to play drinking games here like this. Anything to make you drink more. And the toasts continued.
They made me sing an Elvis Presley classic: Only You! It may have been the only one they had in English. Edmund soon joined in with me to help me not sound so bad. The tempo was far too fast, and the pitch was too high for my voice. Musta been a Chinese version. They seemed to enjoy my attempts nonetheless.
At about eleven, the cake came out with the wonderful birthday candle I illustrated at the start of this story. It was truly amazing. You have to check the pictures to get an idea of how it really worked. (See link on right or below.)
Champagne toasts followed (like we hadn’t already done enough toasting over the last three hours). The two waitresses hustled cake to everyone and swept the champagne glasses away before you could get another glass. I guess you were supposed to swig the whole glass during the toast. No seconds on the champagne. You got me?
Edmund even brought a bottle of Belvedere vodka that he had been keeping on ice. We killed the bottle in a matter of minutes through another series of toasts. The shots would have crippled most folks.
I went on back to the Decca hotel for the night. Somehow I had to be on a van to Hong Kong early the next morning. I made it. I wonder how many of my associates were late for work?
A link to the pictures from the party can be found on the right, and can be reached by pasting and going to (please email me with any problems): http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=abrysoninchina&p=1A55&AID=3113002
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 8:19 AM
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