Overdrive

Yesterday (30th Nov) was Jasmine's birthday.

The plan was to celebrate by slacking at Marc's house, playing mahjong/cards/etc. Plan was almost aborted as Jasmine somehow managed to pull a tendon in her left ankle. Everyone wondered how she 'achieved' that feat when she hardly exercises; me thinks it's precisely the lack of exercise that resulted in poor coordination, agility, reflexes, etc and hence led to the injury. Haha... Anyway, she ended up skipping IBM to visit a doctor. Skipping lectures is nothing new to her, but it's never a good idea to miss Nageb's lesson. Unlike the other subjects, plenty of new stuff are covered in each IBM lecture. Well, I supposed she would not have skipped this lesson if she could help it.

So while she was away tending to her foot, we gave to Wei Ren his belated birthday present - a Renoma wallet. Actually, he claims he does not need one since he already possessed a cards holder. I thought so too, because for me, functionality is more important. Apparently the rest (esp. the girls) thought otherwise. Still, I think it's a better present then what they originally thought of giving to him - a Power Ranger toy from the early series, which is not only hard to find, but also, in my opinion, quite useless. Well, it could become a collector's item...maybe... Jasmine's present was more apt. Considering her fondness for Meiji snacks, I thought the present was superb, thought it will not help in her wish to lose weight. But that's her problem. LOL!

Well, for all my comments about the presents, my only contribution is financial... Haha... But it's not my fault since they never ask me out. :-)

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Anyway, we arranged to meet at Vivocity since Jasmine was supposed to go there(but I can't remember for what reason). I was there first with Wei Ren, Desmond and Marc, having gone in Marc's car while Mars and Vincent took bus (and enjoyed their little time together). We were supposed to meet Jasmine at 1:30pm, but as I've guessed correctly, the earliest Jasmine would reach there is 2pm (she subsequently joined us just after 2pm). So, while waiting, we went around buying some snacks. Marc decided to get some nuts from Candy Empire. They were supposed to cost $3.80 per 100g, but when he got what he wanted, we could not find any weighing scale around. Turns out the only weighing scales in the shop are at the counter, which means one can only weigh them when paying. I thought that was a cheap ploy to get people to spend more because of their inability to judge the amount they have taken. In Marc's case, his bill came to $5 plus, which means that what he thought was around 100g of nuts was actually around 150g.

We took quite some time before deciding to lunch at Food Republic. By then, everyone has arrived. The atmosphere was pretty good. The stalls and surrounding looked like they were from the early 1900s, and was complemented with mandarin oldies from those times. Unfortunately, the food was expensive and not all delicious. My ban mian was OK, but it costs $3.80. :-( Hiaz... Inflated prices at a high-rent shopping mall...

Post-lunch entertainment was hard to find. We thought of catching a movie, but couldn't watch those that we wanted. Desmond could not watch Happy Feet because it would prevent him from going back to SIM by 6pm for his rehearsal; Jasmine and Mars could not watch Saw III as they were underaged... Somehow, we ended up slacking at Spinelli at Harbourfront Centre, but not before getting a scare on an overheard bridge. Somehow, while we were halfway across the bridge to Spinelli, two guys ran across and the bridge started shaking at that time. Everyone got quite a shock because the bridge was made of some kind of metal and looked pretty sturdy. Desmond and I thought the shake was due to the two guys running across; the rest were not so convinced. They thought it was ridiculous that the pounding of their steps was sufficient to rock the bridge. In any case, I hoped the shocking experience is not an indication of structural weakness of the bridge. I do not want to see news of the bridge collapsing in the future. Perhaps I will report the incident to the building management.

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At Spinelli, Jasmine suggested a game called, "I have never ...", where we will take turns to make a sentence starting with those three words, and anybody among the rest who is opposite to that statement must drink a sip of water/tea/whatever the person was drinking. The aim was actually to find out the actual progress between Mars and Vincent ( anyway, Mars sms-ed Jasmine later that they have been going steady since last Friday). It got boring after a short while, so she suggested Zhong(1) Ji(2) Mi(4) Ma(3), where one person sets a number between 0-100 and the rest will take turns saying a number. The range shortens with each number called out, until one person is force to say the number and hence forfeit by drinking some concoction of water added with pepper/salt/sugar/tabasco/etc... I was the first 'lucky' person, and I got a sweet and salty solution. Too much sugar. I ended up downing a couple of plain water in an attempt to clear the sticky feeling at the back of my throat, and I ended up making multiple trips to the toilet. Thankfully, that was also my last time; the rest had to drink at least twice each.

We separated after that. Turned out Mars and Vincent was not going to join us - Mars was not able to get permission to stay overnight at Marc's house, while Vincent had to work the next day. Desmond, meanwhile, made his way back to SIM. Marc, Wei Ren, Jasmine and I went to Chinatown to get mahjong set and table.

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The three shops selling mahjong accessories that we found demonstrated the perfect competition / efficient market that we learnt in Econs and PBF respectively. After some relatively weak haggling, we got a set and table for $90 in all - actually Marc was the buyer - although we were targeting $80. We were assured that the prices offered were among the best around Singapore. Perhaps.

So now we got the what we were looking for, the problem was that the table took up too much space and there was only one passenger seat left in Marc's car. So Jasmine went to meet her parents for dinner while Wei Ren and I took bus to Wei Ren's house, stopping at Toa Payoh Central to buy dinner. We watched Project Superstar while having dinner. M3 was very good and managed to progress to the next round, some of the other contestants with relatively high scores were eliminated. Well, that's the problem when you leave 70% of the result to audience votes. Considering he's a foreigner, I hope he will not be negatively affected by a lack of friends in Singapore. Surely there are plenty of neutrals who vote for the best?

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While in the Toa Payoh MRT station on the way to Bishan to meet Marc, I received a call from home. Apparently the rascal was up to no good again. This time, he cut up one of the back support that my parents bought for him for $20 each - violently. And he somehow managed to disconnect the telephone line such that none of the phones work... My brother is a monster. God help him!!! For that moment, I was really glad not to be at home. I have no wish to be embroiled in the mayhem at home again. And it seemed that there was more. I was to find out when I got home, that the foldable table in the study room has been stamped with pikachu prints. There seemed to be no end to his destructive streak.

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Marc's house was smaller than I thought. It's a small three-storey semi-detached house which has this cosy English feel about it. (Haha, 'small semi-d house' is quite an oxymoron...) Desmond arrived shortly after we reached, and we began our mahjong session while Jasmine watched a Channel U drama. I was a little surprised that Marc and Desmond were more unclear about the rules of the game than I. In any case, lack of touch and knowledge can be easily overcome with tonnes of good luck. What transpired cannot be more apt an illustration. Playing VERY slowly, seemingly with uncertainty, Desmond managed to come up with numerous wins that left us shell-shocked. Even the resident pro - Wei Ren- was at times left dumbfounded by Desmond's eerily good luck. We realised the luck has got nothing to do with the seats when Jasmine took over and the games became more normal. When Desmond took over Marc for his second round, he was to demonstrate even more morale-deflating winning hands. The highlight was when he wrongly thought he won one game and showed his hands. Wei Ren pointed out his mistake and asked him to cover his tiles, but he did not as he thought he would not be able to win anymore since everyone will be guarding against him. Well, surprise, surprise! On his next turn, he drew the only tile which can give him a win(incidentally a '发', which means prosper) !

Maybe we should have asked him for some lucky numbers there and then.

I was relieved when he decided to stop as Marc replaced him. I was the biggest loser, with Desmond the biggest reason for that. Thankfully we played in very small amounts and I only lost $4. :-)

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We stopped at 6am Friday morning. Wei Ren decided to go home early to rest in view of his upcoming mahjong marathon. He's really a mahjong fanatic...no lunatic. His schedule for the weekend reads: Thurs night - mahjong. Fri morning - sleep, afternoon - study for econs test, night - mahjong. Sat morning - econs test, afternoon - sleep, night - mahjong. Sun morning - soccer. I have never heard of a crazier schedule. Maybe I just ignorant.

Meanwhile, the rest of us went to a prata shop near Marc's house for breakfast. The two prata kosong I ordered were the crispiest I've ever eaten. Nice curry too. But I ate a green chili in the curry by mistake. Thought it was a ladyfinger. Yucks!

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Finally reached home at 8am. After washing up and reading the newspapers - Damn! Arsenal lost to Fulham! - I went to bed at 10am, by which time, He was already up and clicking away at the computer.

Woke up at around 2:15pm to go for lunch, and have been slacking till now. Econs lesson is 8hrs away. Time to try to cramp something in for the test tomorrow!

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I love the silence of midnight.

Birthday gifts in November - close to $50.
Mahjong losses - $4.
Peace - Priceless. There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's my ATM card.