Welcome 2008

The new year has come. Happy new year! this time i spent the last few moments of the year in church, and it went by so discreetly. i didnt have the emo mood like i did on 31dec 2006. when the year passed, we were still having holy communion. couldnt exclaim in the moment. And somehow, it didnt feel like as if the new year was coming. i think its my bio clock... cos i been sleeping much later on the average than the previous year. all thanks to poly. so 11.50 din seem late, and i thought the nights still early. i do hope to revert back to my past sleeping habit this year.

I waited for the new year to come before posting on last year's incident, so as not to spoil the nice number i mentioned b4.

On the 30th dec last year I had 2 rather important gatherings. One being the year end cell outing, also the last meeting for the year, but hopefully not the last topaz outing. The other being the first primary 6 class reunion I was invited to. Held at my classmate’s house. Previously It was more like school events. If not for fortunately meeting an ex classmate during serve, I would probably continue to be totally cut off from 6F like I was for the past 4 years.

Topaz won 2nd prize! Didn’t really expect that but looking back its rather possible cos we did do well in games a good number of times. But we didn’t seem to spend any of the money on the outing. The place was free - at pine grove. Food was also free – left over Christmas goodies at Claudia house…or was it new year goodies whatever. And self-supplied mushroom pizzas too. We just spent the time playing with mice and card game that never got started while waiting for the rain to stop, then went down to swim. After that we had gifts exchange – the gifts also bought with our own $$. After the exchange it was already 6+ and half of us had to go, including me.

We left without much of a proper topaz closure.. Guess it will be done on the 1st week. I was terribly late for my overlapping meeting all the way northeast at Seletar. And no way would I want to miss the class reunion. As much as possible, also not to miss any part of it. So it was scheduled at 4.30 and I was still in pine grove at 6.30. fortunately I got a lift to bishan station. I saw its only 2 mrt stops away from yio chu kang, so there must be some buses going there straight. Indeed there was, but due to unfamiliarity I got down the bus way too early. I had to wait for the next bus and then I got down at YCK rd this time. But I didn’t realize yio chu kang road is so long that my stop was 10 stops away from the stop im supposed to alight.. also at YCK rd. im guessing the bus trip made me go in rounds or travel much extra distances so it would have been much better to take the mrt then bus to the house. Such is the risk of trying to take shortcuts in unfamiliar territory.

During the trip I was quite frantic cos I thought I missed a lot of activity and they also told me theres ‘a good number of people here already’. I finally managed to alight at the right bus stop at 8, and then find my way down the lane, pass descending house numbers to find the place. A few of them were outside to welcome me, and when I stepped into the house… all I saw was about 10 ppl. Wow.. during the whole time between 4.30 and 8 only 10 ppl came. And they actually waited for me before starting to eat the KFC that was delivered over quite some time ago.. judging from the food temperature when we ate.

It took me a few seconds of staring before I recognized each of them, and another few seconds to recollect their name. some changed so much that I was left totally clueless. 5 years can really do an extreme makeover to some during this peak growth period. There was this girl who was 1 of the ugliest in the class in primary 6. she was fat, bespectacled, nerdy-looking with flowerpot hairstyle in the graduation photo. But now shes gorgeous. Both in face and figure. There was only a trace of similarity from before. Puberty period growth mostly makes us look better. But there are some who do decline la.

We spent most of the time watching TV and chitchatting among ourselves. About 5 more ppl came in later than me. The last one coming as late as 10.30. I passed around the class photo for them to sign autographs... something that should have been done 5 years ago. I found out my class is a really smart bunch. Out of the 15 present, there is one each now in Anderson, raffles, st Andrews, pioneer, AC, ACSI, jurong, and nanyang JC. And 2 having break from studies in aus, the remaining 5 in poly. Hardly anyone went to NA or NT in sec sch. And im probably 1 of the worst students among them judging from the sec schs they went to. Not surprising, after I heard from 1 of my good friends then that he remembers me sleeping during the PSLE paper. Even I didn’t remember that. I have hardly any memories of the PSLE period or the postings. Which shows how not bothered I was, even about such a major exam as that. By God’s grace was I able to qualify for express. Almost a third of the whole class had gone overseas to further studies. And im sure 70% would after JC or poly. Such is the attractiveness of local education.

At 11+ it was time to celebrate the birthday of my classmate whose bd is actually on 31st, but she had to go soon so couldn’t wait till midnight. The cake surprise was spoiled by a bugger who opened the door just at a nice timing. Then it was too late to take bus or MRT home. The only choice left was cab. So we decided we might as well stay on longer since theres no more hurry or time limit. We played forfeit card games, the forfeit being a dose of Absolut vodka. Some left halfway. We played on until 1+, and by the end of it we finished more than 500ml of vodka, and 2 ppl were drunk and really flushed. The one who drank most remained very sober, though.

I didn’t know it could be that fun. fun to drink, fun to play the game, fun to see others lose, get forfeit and most of all get drunk. Drunkards can behave really weird. But I wouldn’t wanna do it so often. Once or twice a year is good frequency. Staying late also cost us a bomb, with cab fare of $28+. Look forward to this year’s reunion.