HAPPY BIRTHDAY TETANUS!
Please *cough* redeem your striptease from FF and I when you return.
If I may, I would like to blog about the bloggercon(’I was conned by bloggers!‘, some said.) in an honest manner.

But, it has been a tedious 3 days, and I have yet to blog about a quaint Friday which I had, and ended up as another trip down memory lane.

Will follow up with the entry, finally, after this entry.

It didn’t go well with PMS, really.

Good thing is, I am finally bleeding and all the swings and emotional turmoils had ceased.

Hereby, I would like to thank those who had been extremely patient with me.

Ah 9, especially(Sorry mate, I promise next time I won’t be so rude!).

And the sweet D & G, who endured 2 days of crankiness of me, and fulfilled my insatiable urge for anything chocolatey. D for Darling, I say.

Yes, why not the long-awaited entry on blog conference, you ask?

Reached home at 7am on Saturday itself.

Out till 3 am last night, and a phone call from 3.40am to 12.10pm had broken my longest phone call record of 8 hours by half an hour.

*Applause*

(Freaking blardy hell, the 2 pimples on each side of my cheek are pissing me off. I HATE PMS!)

And to think I had just mentioned the record set 9 years ago in an entry just a couple of entries down.

Whoever he is, his stamina deserves a mention.

To sit through 8 ad half hours of my nonsense, alright!

So, everything had to wait till now.

And of course, lotsa brainstorming to do before I could pen something magnificent about Bloggers’ conference, yet diplomatic and tactful enough so no one would take it the wrong way.

Ah. The trickiness of things.

So, for the time being, I wanna talk about the Friday I had.

A strange one, indeed.

So strange.

Met up with Wenwei, who was a classmate of mine from Qihua Primary School.

I had not seen him since 7 years ago, when I made a trip to Shrewsbury to visit him and another ex-classmate of mine.

That trip, took up a couple of days, but it was all that was enough to pair him up with this lovable lass, Huina.

And, the meetup at Takashimaya Library was the first time I saw Wenwei since we bade goodbye in the cold 7 years ago, in a foreign land.

Together with him, was the same girl, who stole his heart, for good.

He then suggested I join them and their mates from University College of London for dinner, which I shamelessly accepted cos it was too much a pleasure meeting up with the duo that I would love to catch up with them a little more before they due to fly back on Sunday(yesterday).

Cos, I was darn late due to the sudden downpour that the meetup lasted less than 45 minutes.

I then had to cancel a dinner date with Jean and Erica.

How nostalgic.

A train ride to City Hall, a walk to Esplanade.

While on the way to Esplanade, a slim figure sashayed by, and I curved a warm smile to greet her.

Sharon, my MDIS advanced diploma classmate, with her friends on a weekend evening.

Less than 10 steps on, a goodlooking face brushed that familiarity again.

Lingshen, my MDIS advanced diploma classmate, too.

What a coincidence.

Stopped by for a brief catchup.

Mate, if you’re still reading me, you better move your arse and start blogging again!

And man, you’ve blossomed(?) to a fine looking man! *whistles*

***

Over dinner, though I did feel a tad out of place, I enjoyed watching the exchange, observing the people without the need to socialise.

They were nice people, and I somehow feel comfortable despite not engaged much in the conversations.

It was good, in my opinion, since I was feeling the quiet mood seeping in.

I thought I saw a familiar face, but couldn’t quite put the details to her face.

I asked if she was from River Valley. No.

Wrong person, I guessed.

Way into the dinner, a brief chat was struck up between me and the pregnant lady again.

She teaches music in NUS, she said. She studied music in London.

‘Were you at Hwachong night in 1999?’

Hwachong night is a dinner-and-dance thingy held in London for those affiliated to the junior college.

I remember her as a graceful young woman with long hair back then, and she was sitting at the same table as Evon(my housemate who was from Hwachong) and I did.

I actually remember her.

She got married to a guy, who wasn’t her boyfriend back then, but was also at the same table as us 6 years ago!

How bizarre is that?!

After a round-about, it is back to the starting point to draw a full circle.

Me, Huina and Jenny.

You think that’s all?

You think so?

Throughout the dinner, they mentioned one of their mates, Michael, who was late.

As the dinner ended, I didn’t realise Michael actually did sneak in somewhere along the way.

It was then when the group wanted to take a group picture, and the guy stood up, did I gasp at the face which I recognised.

I asked Wenwei where the guy was from, and exclaimed, ‘Oh my God, he’s from Cambridge Tutors’ College, and a year my senior!’.

Yes, he was from the same college as I was, back in the United Kingdom days.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the first day when I arrived at Croydon, he was the one who brought my parents and I around the college.

And, he was the one who nipped some of my home-cooked food when I brought lunch to school.

HOW SMALL IS THE WORLD?!

Not surprisingly, my excitement wasn’t well-received.

Cos, he didn’t recognise me AT ALL.

I then mentioned a few names, and I said I was Evon’s housemate.

He could actually remember!

But he still couldn’t put my face to it.

Just so coincidentally, I took a picture of my UK days’ picture with my digital camera cos I don’t have a scanner some time back.

The sole picture of my UK days in my camera, undeleted for whatsoever reasons unknown of.

I scrolled to the picture and he was jolted from his memory block, ‘OHHHHHHHHHHHH IT’S YOU! You changed so much!’

How quaint. This little thing called ‘timing’.

7 years on, in another land from the one we first met.

It was a night full of pleasant surprises, and loads of splashing memories thrown in my way.

As I bade the group of them goodbye, they left yet another trail of memories which I do not know where it would lead me to in years to come.

It was beautiful, thank you, strangers.

And, Dr Huina, Dr Wenwei, and Dr Ting.

Woops.

Yah, right. Dream on.

Take care pals, you guys are incredibly lovely. I will definitely miss you guys.

***

I had too much to digest from the night.

And I strolled down Esplanade, burrowed through the underpass, and got to the quiet park, where the crowd ceased.

I enjoyed the peace of the night and thought back about the people whom had grazed my life briefly in these years.

A message came in. From Jean, who asked me where Hideout is.

She had heard raves about it and was keen to check it out with Erica.

Coincident thing was, I was strolling towards Hideout to meet up with Finicky Feline for some coffee and drinks, with me bursting with private stuffs I had wanted to share with her.

They were already at Boat Quay and I was reaching the place.

They said they would wait for me.

There, at Boat Quay, I met up with Jean and Erica.

And?

Erica was my secondary school classmate, remember?

So.

In a nutshell.

Primary school classmate.
Secondary school classmate.
UK College mate.
2 x Diploma classmates.

I have met one each from the institutes I was from in one single day.

With only one preplanned.

Life. Doesn’t it play such amazing pranks on us from time to time?

The pleasant surprises did bring a smile to my face, cos I was glad to have seen them well.

At the same time, the inferiority complex was seeping in, again.

Ouchy ouchy ouch.

***

I declined the invitation from FF to head up to Hideout despite everyone whom I had met before was there.

I was in a pretty reclusive mood, and was reluctant to socialise.

Had expected only one babe to meet me at the foot of it.

The horror of horrors was when I saw there were more.

I felt an intrusion of my comfort zone and immediately shied away.

Albeit a tad rude.

I refused to join, simply because I did not feel like talking and it might come across as pretty hostile.

‘Why are you so cold to me?’ Kenny asked.

I knew it!! It would just give the wrong idea.

Precisely.

If I had went up, everyone would be asking me the same thing. That’s why I had not wanted to be part of the crowd at all, but to have a quiet chat instead, cos it wasn’t me being cold nor hostile, cos I was simply not up to it.

After some chocolate mousse cake and drinks at TCC, and some pleasant quiet but nice company with Erica, Finicky Feline and Jean, who didn’t question my crankiness, but endorsed my passport to sulk due to a big bout of PMS, I was calmed.

We adjourned to the coffee shop for more pratas after Erica and Jean left.

It was then when Ah 9 came over to say ‘hi’, while I was tired and exasperated, and responded in a pretty harsh way.

Bad Ting. Bad, bad, Ting.

My bad, really.

*SULK SULK SULK*

He survived my frosty, snappish mood!

And can you imagine the sweetie can totally empathise with the awkward feeling, and totally not fault me for that?!?!

Guys rock!

They do.

SOMETIMES.

Decided to say hi to Joel whom I promised I would say a quick hi to over MSN.

The not-so-big-in-size Joel with me.

The ever-fantabulous FF. And Little Cart Noodles, once again, this is for you.

Gavin offered a lift home, probably fearful of and that concluded a long night.

Of memories. Shaken and stirred.

The night, was long.

It was then, followed by a replay of the people that had came into my life, and the memories that followed.

The feeling was, one of, as cliche as it may sound, bittersweet.

Sour, and spicy, too.

If I were given the chance to choose to do something over again, what would I have chosen?

I asked myself, many times, for the night.

Can someone file my thoughts neatly into a folder, accordingly?

For now. It’s time, for a nap, finally.