[Friday, 03 November, 2006]
In the first afternoon, there were only Xiangxin and my mum to accompany me. I started setting up power extension bars and multi-plug, and then boiled up the water. My mum and Xiangxin began with filling up the plastic water bags with water, tied up and put into the fridge. Since the quality of the plastic and attached strings were not good, there were leakage in some.
When everything had settled down, Xiangxin went for a swim but I was too lazy to join him. Lying down on the bed besides my snoring mum, I dozed off only for a few seconds in front of the television set.
Xiangxin was back later to join me in watching the shows. It was until seven plus, we waited for Vivi to come over to bring our food. We ordered three fillet-o-fish meals but she only bought the burgers; at least I was glad that she was able to find her way till Downtown East’s bus-stop.
The first comer was Sem Chi who came empty stomach. I started to reflect and worry over if it was my lack of instruction; I only stated there was barbecue on the second day and I did not instruct everyone to eat first before dropping by on the first night. Anyway, he left for Downtown East for his dinner.
Next came Wenhao, who had wasted a dollar when he mistook my chalet was at Downtown East. Anyway, suddenly I was quite shocked that I had neglected this point that most of my NS friends of his batch were not coming on the first night anymore; he would not be so familiar with the rest of the people.
However, it was a rare chance that we got to meet. He was one of the best guys (inclusive of Sam and James) in camp who were not from my department. I had tried to call him out for outings but he was never free. I accompanied him to Downtown East to meet up with Sem Chi to have his dinner at around eight.
I got more updates from Wenhao and Sem Chi about their current working lives; it was a good catch up. Finally, Edgar came after a long time as the bus 354 played him; his hair was in a mess. I was worried about Vivi at the same time since she had to leave at around ten.
She messaged me to question why the dinner was so long and I felt guilty at the same time, but could not hurry them since Edgar had just arrived to his dinner.
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Xiangxin playing with my mum |
After we got back to catch the last episode of the “An Enchanted Life”, I was glad to know that Vivi could stay till midnight before her dad came over to fetch her. Xiangxin was keeping my mum accompanied all the while, playing cards with her.
Wenhao left at around ten. Sem Chi started a long chat over phone for hours and I believed he was chatting with a girl. Vivi’s dad called later at ten plus, which spoilt the fun; she was supposed to stay throughout the three days but her parents changed idea just a day before the chalet and this time, her dad failed to keep the promise of letting her stay till midnight.
As my younger brother arrived at the MRT station, I set off to fetch him with Edgar. Both the shuttle bus and bus 354 services had ended and he had to walk all the way to the chalet. Edgar and I strolled towards the MRT station to meet up with my brother.
After we caught up with each other, Vivi called and only then I realised it was midnight already. She was the first to wish me happy birthday, followed by Eunice and Ruoci’s SMSes. It was also the second year which Ruoci and I did not celebrate our birthdays together.
Upon reaching the resort, I was surprised to see Ivan and Fredrick together. This was a big surprise since Ivan had told me earlier that he was not coming that night and would be coming earlier the next day. Since there was this commander evening event in camp, which ended so late, I was taken in by him.
Anqi dropped by as she was having a camp in the same resort, working as an instructor. The guys thought she was pretty. She left soon though. Then, Kailin finally arrived with chicken wings and she waited long enough for Anqi to return and chill up. She left again after some time. Kailin had to return the car since her brother needed it and thus she did not stay as well.
The night was quite boring. Fredrick complained about his hunger to Ivan but he did not want to eat the chicken wing. He wanted to go to MacDonald’s but the rest were lazy to walk over. We did not stay up too late since Vivi had promised to come early at seven in the morning, which was around four hours later.