Trilogy

It's Saturday again!!! Not the usual Saturday though...


Part 1 - Mr Ting & his icy lair

I hate attending lesson on Saturday - this is supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation! Anyway, it's back to school for Econs again. I slept quite a bit on Friday afternoon, so for once, I wasn't fighting the Zzz monster in Econs class. BUT, it just have to happen. I've managed to avoid it for quite some time, but today, it was back with a vengeance. Behold - the return of the freezing air!!!

Actually the overall temperature was okay for me, but somehow, it was giving my doze nots of rouble...ops...let me clear my doze. What I meant to say was that the draught from the air vent above me was causing my nose to run. My nose hasn't been that fast for quite some time (okay this is rather corny...lol...runny nose, get it?) Apart from having an uncomfortable time, I also had to contend with quite a few irritated stares. Hiaz...Thankfully, the ordeal ended just when I had fully-utilised the two sheets of tissue paper left in the pack that Mars gave to me. Thanks girl!And then the mad rush to Suntec...


Part 2 - The unexpected

Frankly, it was quite crazy. My lesson ends at 12:30pm and I was supposed to reach the NUSS Guild House at Suntec by 1pm for a volunteer appreciation tea. That's almost impossible. Even so, there's no way I was going to go by taxi.I was quite lucky though. My waiting time during transfers were pretty short, and with rapid leg movements, I was able to reach Suntec at around 1:10pm. Pretty incredible, I thought. Then I got held up for about 5mins because I was approached by this female surveyor who asked a few additional questions apart from those in the survey. Then I spotted Shanny sitting at a table not far away. So it's a Prudential roadshow again. Hmmm...somehow I keep running into their roadshows - seven since May - an average of once per month. It's almost like a menstrual cycle. I wonder if other people have similar experience...

I reached the Guild House with a few minutes to 1:30pm. Turns out all the others from my Hougang SCS-RWM group, who are supposed to turn up, have arrived, with the exception of Sebas. Yilin had SMS-ed me earlier saying that he had a competition today and would not be able to turn up. That's okay. What's not alright was that he wrongly accused me of telling him that the event was scheduled for Sunday! What nonsense! Anyway, he received the invitation letter too, so he ought to know the date. Don't try to push the blame to me you moron! LOL!The event was totally different from what I'd expected. Instead of a speech from a guest-of-honour in a hall, followed by interaction and reception, I was greeted by the sound of percussion instruments when I stepped into the Guild House. A group of people sat on chairs in a circle in the middle of a function room (not the hall I'd expected), cocooned in an atmosphere of raccous...erm...sounds. It's not exactly noise, but I would not call it music because the medley of sounds emanating from the drums, sticks, tambourines, and what-not in everyone's hands was not always coherent. I sat down beside Hui Min and soon enough, was joining in the fun with my two wooden sticks(there were instruments placed on every seat). Halfway through, there was a short introduction of names, before the place roared into life again. In the end, though we did not manage to achieve synchrony throughout, almost everyone appeared to have much fun (a few appeared bored) despite the slight pain in the hands from the repeated striking. It was already around 2:15pm by then, and we proceded to have lunch.

The lunch was followed by a lucky draw. A funny one. Apparently, the emcee had too much belief in her ability to deduce a person's gender from the spelling of the name - which is not always easy when dealing with Chinese names. She proceded to have fun calling out the names of those who won prizes in a round-about way. For instance, she called Yilin "a girl with the number 10 in her name", and Jane was "the girlfriend of Tarzan". As for me? Well, apparently my name appears feminine to her. So she described me as "a beautiful girl, yao2 tiao2 shu1 nu3" and proceded to call me "yao2 hui4". Everyone was laughing their heads off when I went up to receive the prize. LOL. Then I realised my prize was some sort of foldable bag that resembles an accordion. It is made of clear plastic with light pink and green prints. :-(

In the end, it turns out that there were only four people who did not receive any prize - PH, Hui Min, Jia Hui, and this guy from another group called Wen3 De2. We thus had our second laugh fest of the day when Wen De, who is 19, was asked to make three different mock wedding proposals to the three ladies, all of whom were at least 2 years older than him. He perform credibly though - that boy has got some great ideas. They were each rewarded with one bottle of the sparkling grape juice that was left.After the event, I decided to shop around in Suntec with Jia Hui, Jane and Xin Hui since it was still early. I even took a photo of a penguin from a standee of Happy Feet in Toy R 'Us and used it as my wallpaper. Irresitibly cute!


Part 3 - Yong Sheng's birthday party!

Finally, for the finale! Fabian had arranged to meet Ming Liang at Pasir Ris Interchange at 5pm but the latter only reached at 6. I could have joined them, but Fabian SMS-ed me at 6:05pm saying that he was tired of waiting for me, and that they were going to leave first. No harm. I decided to walk there. Imagine my surprised when I stepped out of Downtown East to find them alighting from the bus, together with Snoopy. They actually took longer than me! LOL! Turns out the bus had faulty doors. Haha! We walked to Yong Sheng's chalet through this short-cut that I never knew existed. Damn!

We reached to find ourselves one of the earliest from the platoon - only Ken, Kok Wee and Wei Xuan were earlier. I did not like the place. It was small and poorly-lit. And Yong Sheng did not stock up on cards or mahjong! As such, we could only talk and watch TV shows... The rest of the platoon arrived at various intervals. The total turnout was pretty small, but at least it was bigger than what Wei Xuan managed to get. LOL! Of the 15(compared to 10 for Wei Xuan), there were some unexpected faces(at least I didn't expect them) - Lian Chang, Teck Hong, Ivan(from Candace), Chong Ming and Ming Qiang.The main fun of a birthday party, especially when army friends are involved, is to give the birthday boy some 'special treatment'. With the gamely approval of his mum, Yong Sheng was dunked into the swimming pool. As a mere spectator though, I was spared from his revenge. But frankly, I thought his 'treatment' was pretty mild. The cake never even reach his face!

Before leaving, I helped Ken to clean up the chocolate fountain. Okay, actually I didn't help much. I merely gave some advice on removing the chocolate and helped to hold the base of the fountain while he remove the removable pieces. For my meagre efforts, I got some chocolate on my WHITE shirt and my right ear. Oh well...no big deal. Overall, the event was quite boring because of the small crowd and the lack of entertainment. Hope the next birthday gathering will be better!


Some last words...

I went home to find that the wine glass that was part of the door gift from the appreciation tea was broken at the stem. Not that I need it, but I think it's a pity that the glass did not get to serve it's function.

The day of the cold, the unexpected, the boring and the unfulfilled potential - A series of unfortunate (and other) events...