I just got home from 2 chalets in a row. It was only 2 days long, but I'm pretty exhausted.

Friday was well spent at Aloha Loyang with my Sec 4 gang (and some of Dirong's army friends), a pity Haoyong could not join us. I spent the night learning the finer art of mahjong, ever amazed by the zillions of rule that govern the game (and I thought I knew much!), tied with the many phrases of hokkien and singlish.

Never did not displaying my ignorance, but for the few times in life, I did not mind kena-ing the "buttering" by everyone, as my container of chips diminished in strength. As the "tai"s and "fan"s and "hu"s and "pong!"s continue to appear, I was even more amazed when Jeff volunteered to drink for the loser's behalf. ANY loser. ok. you figured. He just wants to drink. *laughs*

Aloha Loyang is huge! with like 4 bedrooms and average 2 beds per room. Yet amazingly, when we came back from supper from Jalan Kayu, there was not a room for us, and we had to squeeze in with 4 silly idiots (including the organiser who lured us there by promising us a room that night. oh well.) who were still playing mahjong and went on till 7am.

You know, there's nothing like a good supper and lots of chatting time with your "bestest buddies" (as quoted from my buddy Eugene, who was the English rep for our Sec 4 class.. yeah, it's starting to make sense isn't it?).

Xiaotian speeding (driving in the US means 120km/hr is too slow for you) down the TPE/ SLE passing Punggol on route to Jalan Kayu. The vision of a drunk driver. tsk tsk. at least he did not murmur nonsense this time *laughs*

Supper lasted till about 4am, and what do guys talk about when they meet up? Well, they talk about things that guys like to talk about, on life, love, girls, cars and relationships, and much more. And we managed to conclude that guys can be such bastards. Yeah, you heard it right first time, us not excluded.

I felt so at home and so at ease, as if that I could talk about everything that I would never have shared with anyone else then. I didn't want the night to end.

Dirong's battalion of friends turned up on the second day of the chalet, for the $8-per-head-but-under-catered buffet dinner, which I wasn't around cos I was at Jolene's Birthday Chalet (more on that later). I heard there wasn't enough food as Dirong underestimated his popularity (and overestimated the size of the chalet) when 60 people showed up, each trying to get a share of the food meant for 40 people. Impressively, there was a DJ as well with turn-tables and music. Dirong spent ages planning for this. *laughs* I love this class monitor, for without him, I doubt anyone would organise gatherings on this scale anymore. The best thing abt this chap is that nothing gets him down, like he is not discouraged by things not turning out well, and he'll defiantly says "it's not bad what". (for the guys who know.. remember Blair Witch Project? ARGH!!!!) Thus he is not afraid to plan and organise. Some of us, fear the failure of the outcome even before we approach a project.

Had yet another good conversation with Jeff on Sat morning, one that we never managed to finish. Some day bro, we will *smile*

~~~~~

Jolene's 21!

(photos later, cos they are all in Jolene's camera, which is still with her at the chalet)

Suffering from lack of sleep, my family shifted all the food and what not from the car to the chalet in East Coast Costal Sands.

Fetched grandma, carried the BBQ pits, arranged the place, collected the cake, friends came, fire starts, the party began! And I've officially concluded that I do not like being the star of any party, nope, no big scenes for me! The jumping around from cliques to cliques and entertaining them at different wavelengths is something only someone of Jo's PR calibre can handle. I'm more cut out for refilling the syrup container, cooking the steamboat, camera man, amat, buying ice, you know, making things tick, or the best I can do to make my dear sister's celebration smooth. Though there wasn't much to worry, haha, all the friends can pretty much take care of themselves.

But yet, for the first time ever since Jo came back, I had the time and opportunity to view her SEP photos running on her laptop for her friends to see.

Europe is gorgeous.

And then all you have to do to spoil the lovely impression is to stand up, walk out, and see like half the Singapore gathered in a silly chalet resort enjoying what we have deemed as the perfect weekend entertainment. I was telling Kath that if someone was to bomb us there and then, we would have lost a lot of July babies.

And somehow, I'm starting to feel that my driving license is no more than my dad's license to drink! oh damnit. Once driving is a novelty and one of those show-off factor, but as you grow, it becomes more and more of a burden, when you learnt that driving tires you out.

At the end of the night, we packed up what was neccessary and left Jolene alone with her friends for the weekend. I'm sure she'll enjoy herself!

~~~~~

So many painful stories all round. So many. And yet I feel guilty, at not having enough strength to help my friends.

Sometimes it's the nights. Too empty, too quiet, too dark.
Too easy for the mind to wander.

Sometimes I wish that telling my friends to shout "F#*%! the world!" and then try to get some sleep would be good advice. And sometimes it helps, because we just feel so vindicated. Sometimes it doesn't, because the pain we suffer goes beyond our naive knowledge of this world and its worldly emotions.

There is much to learn from life experiences, from others even more than from self. Having someone to listen to you is a joy; but being given a chance to lend the listening ear is simply joy fourfold.

Take care all you guys. I'll be here.