We entered the restaurant at 11:53 in the morning. And I know this because of the time stamp on the video I took of my dad being wheeled into the restaurant by his nurses. It had been five years since my niece’s last visit to the country so I wanted to capture the memories of this visit.

It was not our first time at this restaurant. In fact, it was our third. To be quite frank, the food is so-so but we like the place. It’s huge, never crowded and so it’s a good place to bring my 98-year-old father who is wheelchair-bound.

On previous occasions, the staff at this restaurant has always been nice and kind to us. We had no reason to believe that this day would be different.

When I called to reserve, I was told that Sundays would now be priced higher. I couldn’t quite hear why as the reception was bad when I called but I simply assumed there would be a wider array of food and for that reason, I didn’t mind paying more.

We were met with loud, blaring music from a live band when we entered the restaurant. As I was expecting a nice, quiet lunch without too many people, I was a little disappointed. There were also more diners this time.

However, a nice gentleman appeared at the reception and when I told him that we did not want to sit near the band, he immediately ushered us into a quiet section of the restaurant and this suited us perfectly.

While the selection of food didn’t seem to be much different than in the previous times we had been there, we found that this time, there were lobsters along with other seafood which could be cooked at our request.

A lady was taking orders for the seafood and as a couple was taking forever to “think” about what they wanted, I told my sister to simply order for the entire table instead of us individually queuing up to give our individual orders to the lady.

My sister told me later that when she gave her order of nine lobsters for nine people, the lady taking orders simply told her, “Sir already ordered.” My sister was confused. Who was the “Sir” she was referring to? Our “Sir” was wheelchair-bound and never left our table.

At any rate, why this lady assumed that my sister was the appendage of some random man who had already ordered lobsters, we cannot possibly know. My sister was given a number (no. 18) and told that the lobsters would be promptly delivered to our table.

I don’t know why but I had a premonition of things going wrong.

After only 10 minutes of waiting, I decided to follow up on our order. Somehow, I feared it might not have been received or understood correctly. After all, the lady taking the orders seemed a bit confused when she mistakenly thought my sister was with someone else and therefore was not entitled to order more or to order again.

But the same lady seemed to have clarity now. She said, “Oh yes, no. 18, the nine lobsters. It’s coming.” (Part II next Sunday.)