Or that of a very bored individual.

So, you should expect nothing less than the lengthy entry before this, cos yeap, it’s the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year, and I am yet at home, again.

And oh, thanks for taking the time to read my 700th entry.

I will tell of how I nearly lost 1600(yes yes, it would look like singapore dollars one thousand and six hundred only on a cheque) over the mahjong session late last night.

With our smallest ever bet, somemore. 10 cents, 20 cents.

The horrors! The gore! The utter madness!

***

Happy birthday, Qiwei.

I didn’t forget… and it is certainly not because that I have cool, new friends, and I forget the old.

*Hug*

***

It was a quarter past 4 when I finally got up, and a call came in.

From someone I adore much, and is the mum of my once-good friend.

Once, only because time changes things, and we have moved on to different phases, and different priorities in life.

Or perhaps the inferiority complex within me acted up, and shied away from his busy schedule.

Has been 9 years. Wow.

And Auntie is still thinking fondly of me, constantly asking about me.

Her favourite question would be why I had never hooked up with her son, but I know full well that I am never good enough for an overachiever, and to be closer to the fact, I was too much of a guy to him!

She spoke fondly of the past, and how the elitism in my mum limited my social circle to that of people from The Chinese High School, cos she thought it would be good enough an influence to spur me on to study.

I laughed at that piece of memory and how it had ended up making me more of a tomboy.

Chinese New Year. Wow. Perfect shield to re-establish lots of broken bonds over the years, ideal coverup for me to pluck the courage to check on people who are on my mind, but never had the guts to find out how they are doing.

***

I finally rested enough last night(this morning?).

Sleep was scarce for the past week, not because I didn’t have the chance to sleep(oh well, when you do not have any visiting to do, the only sensible thing to do is to sleep those eyebags away), but because I simply couldn’t.

Few days in a row, my sleep was disrupted by the multiple times, every hour. Reason? No idea. But it could be the cigarette stench that leeched stubbornly to my hair, that caused the irritating nausea enough to rouse me awake.

What an irony.

I love and hate the smell at the same time.

Results? I had less than 7 hours of sleep everyday, and I had Nick telling me that I ought to sleep my eyebags away. Darn. Are they that visible?!

But finally. Thank God.

Almost 9 hours since 7.30 this morning, I slept well without waking up much in the midst of my sleep….

What bliss.

***

It is day 3 of Chinese New Year.

I have the record of receiving one ang pow per day.

I saw a lone ang pow sitting on the ironing board as I dragged myself out of bed for some sunshine in the hall.

Dad is presumably back in Singapore, and had left it there for me.

I am not sure why, but it sure looked like a mockery of the reality for me.

My 3rd ang pow, yet it wasn’t given to me personally, and it seemed to lose all its significance.

And perhaps you have thought about the consolation of highly-sugared goodies.

Strangely, I have no appetite and all those have no particular appeal to me. Bleah.

3 days and I have gone without proper food cos no darn place was opened and I am too picky to go for fast food.

Did I mention how I simply resent Chinese New Year these days?

The greater the buzz is, the higher the contrast it is.

Just like how white seems to possess utter brilliance in the midst of loud, intimidating black.

What is Chinese New Year to me now?

***

And no. The year of the woof woof has not made me a lesser doofus than in the year of the chick. Or the year of the gorilla… or the sheep… or rather, any other year. Bleah.

But it has made me a bigger gambler than any other year, probably because er… I never quite gamble during Chinese New Year with my friends in the past.

But this year, there are mahjong, and the constant Blackjack sessions with VampTreSS and the gang.

Alas, the dormant self in me is unleashed once I hit the table, and oh dear oh dear, what a monster they have created.

***

Nick gave a rough gauge that the guys would be meeting up at Charles’ place on Day 1 of Chinese New Year, yet it wouldn’t be anytime before 10pm.

Obviously, there wasn’t anywhere I went after blogging the previous entry, and was home bound throughout the day, and evening.

Out of absolute boredom, and feeling the need to be somewhere just for the sake of doing so, I messaged Denise and Alvin and asked if there would be any mahjong-ing, and I would drop by to make it a chinese new year visit to his family.

It was 8.30pm when they picked me up from the lobby, and there was still no concrete time set for the Blackjack session over at Charles. Nick asked me to call Brian, Brian wasn’t sure, VampTreSS was still stuck at some gathering, so on and so forth.

And yippee, it was mahjong time for the next couple of hours, and I had my first ang pow collection from Alvin’s family.

It wasn’t too dramatic a game, just the way I like it.

Everyone’s chips were pretty much levelled at the end of the 2 hours, and though I was the sole winner, the grand total of my winning was 6 bucks.

***

The directions to Charles’ place were vague and confusing.

No one could give me quite a definite, clear-cut instruction.

Since it was near Holland, I had decided to take a bus from Alvin’s place.

I would have taken my usual 502, but I took 105 instead.

And that, being my first ever time taking the darn bus route.

So, I happily thought I would alight at one of the stops and walk into the housing area(or so I thought..).

But………. *curse curse swear swear* I didn’t know the bus route wasn’t what I thought it was.

Still, it went past Buona Vista, and I safely thought I would be okay, you see.

But….. *curse curse swear swear* it didn’t turn into where I thought it would and I ended up missing the stop and alighted at Commonwealth MRT station instead.

*BEEP* *TOOT* *CENSORED CURSES*

The very kind Mr Nick told me to stay put and he would fetch me from wherever I was.

At first, it was the supposed bus stop Roy had told me to turn into the residential area, so he could just pick me up from the main road. But since the bus didn’t go there, I told him to wait for me at Holland Village instead.

BUT!!! I alighted at the wrong stop and changed the venue to Commonwealth MRT instead.

Well done.

He didn’t know where Commonwealth was, and I told him it was a stop after Buona Vista.

Indeed, he did end up a stop after Buona Vista.

BUT! It was Dover he ended up at, 2 stops away from where I was.

Bleah.

If I took the right bus, I could have reach by 11, but it was 11.40pm when we finally got into the depths of Holland Close(gosh, thank God I didn’t attempt to walk in. It was almost impossible!), and got to where Charles’ place is.

I would like to clarify that I am normally really fantastic with directions and such… it was purely the guys’ fault for the blunders I made.

Ahem.

***

The guys were already there, and there were plenty of new faces I had yet to meet prior to that day.

There was Kenneth, whom I met briefly just before Christmas, a few faces I didn’t put names to, and Tiffany(who was with Bikai) with the charming smile really drew my attention.

A pity she left early. Gee, how suspiciously scandalous with the way I put it.

I guess my luck wasn’t too bad that night.

I had quite a roll with 5 cards that night. 5 times, actually, under the most bizarre scenerio. With 4 cards at 13, 14, or 15, I had to draw yet another to risk losing double, or take a chance at the double payout.

And strangely, I managed to clear with the last card, merely. When I do draw 2 cards at 13, 14 or 15, most likely I would end up not having such luck at all.

Other than that, I had quite a bit of double payouts(can’t recall how much, but say, more than 6, under 10) with Blackjacks by the time the night ended at 5am.

Most of the others had left early. Max and Bibi left around 1 plus. VampTreSS and Roy around 4.

I kept my bets low throughout the night, and supersitiously kept it at 6 after winning the 6 bucks over mahjong.

It was almost starting from nothing.

When Charles and Kenneth were dealing when I first sat down to join in, my luck was fairly good.

It became oddly brilliant when Brian took over to deal, and I don’t recall losing any round, nor going bust from that.

I didn’t even have to take out any cash from my wallet to start playing, and the stash of reds starting coming in, and I was 30 bucks up.

Or perhaps, like what everyone was fervently talking about after he left, that his luck just wasn’t all that good, and he had lost pretty heavily within that half an hour when he took over.

During one of the meet-ups, he had declared how he had won big the years before and I joked who knows I might end up being his jinx. He said I could try in his usual cocky manner.

I swear I was just joking and didn’t mean what I said. And come on, such an innocent sweetie like me could never be a jinx, no? Ahem.

Then again, it is the new year, perhaps what he lost would reap greater returns in other aspects of his life in the year of the pup.

He decided to call it a day early.

My luck was declining at the start when Charles and Kenneth took over again, and whatever I had won from Brian were gone. Zilch.

Slowly, but surely, I was on a roll and I was perhaps, 12 bucks up.

Since most weren’t compulsive gambler, the only familiar person around the table was Nick.

As I took a break and joined the guys at the yard for a brief while, VampTreSS asked if I was wearing red underwear under my mini that very night.

I was puzzled for a while before I got what she meant.

‘Huh? No ah, why leh? I am not wearing any…‘

That drew the ‘no wonder’s from the rest, possibly that provided the conclusion why I had managed to con win Brian’s moolah.

Nick went, ‘No wonder I found a wet patch on my pillion seat.‘

Which on hindsight, hello??? Why would there be a wet patch if it was Nick who pillioned me? Hurhurhur.

No promises if it was any other guy in the group *cough cough cough*.

***

Vamp: We have a new nickname for you!

Mindy: Yeap.

Me: Huh?

Vamp: *sniggers* Mamasan… machiam ah. You just need a ciggie.. the pattern ah.. wah. The posture, the expression.. professional sial.

Mindy: Yah man. All you need is a glass of whiskey.

Me: Huh?! That bad meh?

I looked up to Mindy and managed my most innocent doe-eyed look: Where got like mamasan?

Mindy: You should put a glass of whiskey in front of you as you play.

Me: Maria, get me a glass of whiskey.

Mindy: Yes, Mum.

Darn. I should stop looking so solemn as I play.

Yes, I am now recruiting girls under my wings, anyone?

***

I think the most redundant move of the night was when I had an Ace and a 7, which would make up 18. I decided to go for it and drew a 4, which the ace would then become a denomination of 10.

21.

Yay.

Madness.

***

I increased the bet as VampTreSS and Roy decided to chip in on my luck.

We increased the bet to 25(Roy would always go for 10, Vamp would be 6, and I would pool in the rest), and won that few rounds with the increased bet.

We were on a roll, almost, with that few rounds of unformidable victory.

By then, I was seeing the first 50 dollar note on the table, courtesy of KCB, Kenneth-Charles Bank.

At the end of the night, the peak of my winnings was 120.

I went down to 90 when the night concluded as Charles’ luck picked up at the last few rounds.

I won 2 rounds of blackjacks, and decided to cut my bet to 2 bucks for the fun of it to pass time though I had thought of ending it for good.

Good move.

When I placed the 2 bucks on the table, they had 2 Aces immediately, and I lost only 6 bucks, instead of what could have potentially happened.

Phew.

***

By 5, Nick was kind enough to offer me a ride back home, like he did the night before(then again, Toa Payoh isn’t that -cough- far from Jurong, isn’t it? Muahaha).

So on both nights, I had saved abundant on cab fares.

Yay.

Thanks, ol’ chap.

***

Sidenote: Just received a call from Alvin and they had played another round of mahjong without me today whilst I was still snoozing away.

Thank God for the sleepy bug in me.

One friend lost 140 bucks.

*Shudders*

***

I woke up on the 2nd day of new year feeling the same dread I had the day before.

Feeling the same… why-the-hell-am-I-at-home?

I thought of Eileen who once had said that she would come over for a visit, and thought of visiting her instead since it would be more convenient for her that way.

And, I was eager to see my god-daughter!

It was 3pm when I finally went out of home to do my first proper chinese new year visit! So excited and so happy.

Took a bus down and had a nice chat with Meiling over the phone on my journey there.

And finally, I get to see the little bundle of joy, and boy, how much has she grown!

I squealed with excitement when I saw her…. sarong!

I didn’t think there would be still people using one these days, and I reminisced my childhood when I was a sarong-baby too.

Does that make me a Sarong-Party Girl(SPG)?

I even played a little with the princess as she had her bath, and I don’t think it’s safe enough to post her gorgeous nudes here.

Before shower when she was a little grumpy.

Awww… coochy coochy coo.

Baby Rene, godmum Ting and Mummy Eileen.

And yes, I even got an ang pow from the mummy. Gee.

Suddenly, the privilege of being single overwhelmed me. Haha.

She’s a happy baby post-bath!

And she has the making of a model, doesn’t she?

***

I had wanted to make the visit a quick one, perhaps visit Denise at her home too, before going home to change to head out.

Thus, I gathered my stuff and headed out with Eileen and Dave who had wanted to bring Rene out for a walk at Bukit Panjang plaza.

I volunteered to carry the 6-kg(yes, my arms are hurting today) cutie pie in my bosom throughout, and she fell asleep in my arms…

Awww…. it was the 2nd time she did so.

Hey wait. I think it’s the 3rd time.

She did it everytime she was in my arms.

Gee.

How cool.

This time, she conveniently ‘cushioned’ her head on my chest.

By then, I didn’t want to wake her up, so I ended up at their place again.

It was a short catch up with Eileen as she finally have some quiet time to herself.

I did the usual clumsy things I do over at their place, and spilled a cupful of water onto the floor.

Well done.

***

By 6 plus, I bade goodbye to them and cuddled the little sweets in the sarong as she napped.

Visiting, could be nice, and not a chore.

***

I messaged Vivienne, whom I was thinking of, and she told me her 2nd one, a girl, is on the way. Perhaps in 2 weeks.

I was pleasantly surprised and made a mental note that I would visit her then, and I would have another baby to play with.

Then again, when you show that maternal side of you, people tend to have the same question in mind.

When’s your turn? This year?

Oi! Choy!

I am not even settled down with a boyfriend yet, and I guess that have to wait.

For a long, long while.

Or most probably, never.

Yet, this is the most bizarre thing I had gotten this new year, courtesy of Eileen and Dave:

Uhm, yeap, for me.

Why?

Cos the silly Liverpool fans in them forbade Rene to don anything that is of my Manchester United.

So this was from a friend, and they decided to give it to me, for my baby(?!?!?!?!?!) cos Dave had cruelly refused Rene the rights to support a better team.

I hope this overall is still in trend 10 years down the road or something.

Talk about early investment, or something.

***

I spoke about this funny coincidences between Eileen and Viv.

Some years ago when I was still a teacher, Vivienne was my colleague in school.

One day, she suggested that over the holidays, we should go Zouk together someday.

She got pregnant and we never had the chance to party together again.

Some couple of years ago, I went clubbing with Eileen.

After that, she suggested, hey, we should go Zouk together someday again.

She got pregnant and we never had the chance to party again.

So, Zouk someday, anyone?

***

Alvin and Denise picked me up from Bukit Panjang Plaza around 6 plus and we picked up TheProfessional from her place.

Please don’t mind the dishevelled auntie beside her.

We went to Alvin’s place for some sizzling action of 3 on 1.

Mahjong, obviously.

***

Untypical message came in from SBB, and he queried on my haul.

It was a short call, which ended with the typical……. M-U-A-C-K.

Which I ended up with a low, bassy, ‘Um. Okay.’

What uhm? You uhm what?

Uhm.. yeah, uhm… Purposely one, right, you!

Of course, what do you think?

The rest endured a moment of winter and goosebumps as I..

Okay. Fine. Alright. MUACK!

The rest shot me a glance as they held the constipated looks.

I did win a little that evening, too.

It was an evening of mahjong before Alvin sent me back to my place, where I did a superfast change, and headed out of the house for town.

The guys were in town, and I took a train to meet up with them.

Wrong move.

When I got there, only the guys were there, and they were waiting for some others to head down.

In the midst of waiting, they still didn’t have any concrete plans to do anything and I ended up being bored stiff.

Alvin then called to say Lawrence and BK were up for mahjong but they lacked a leg.

The long wait with the guys were fruitless and since it was all coffeeshop uncle talks, I decided to take my leave and head back to Jurong at 1am, only an hour out.

I should not have headed out, since it cost more than a chain of firecrackers for midnight fare.

I was there in 15 minutes flat, cos the taxi driver was speeding down the expressway.

The uncle looked as if he was more than 70 years old!

The cab was the kind that resembles the old cars, and I thought you could only find this kind of cab in Malaysia.

But it was the smoothest ride I ever gotten in a long while, and the air-con was comfortably cold.

***

And yes. The stake was raised to 3-6.

I was almost 100 bucks down.

And I managed to lose only 20 odd, which was a huge relief.

BK decided he had enough and left for the night around 4 plus.

Left with the 3 of us, we decided to play 3 sided mahjong.

With the stakes of 10 cents, 20 cents, for the sake of playing.

When they asked if I would want to play unlimited, and the decision would lie with me.

I agreed, and then said that since it was new year, why not.

Bad move.

***

What I didn’t think of, is the potential of it.

Since it was 3-way mahjong, and only 10cents, 20cents.

Lawrence became restless and was only playing cos he thought it was like random child’s play.

Until….

There was this part when he nearly had the green ‘fatt’, red ‘tiong’, and white ‘ban’, that would make up da 3 yuan.

I won quick, and he nearly beaten me to it, and he would have won by getting the tile by himself.

When he opened the tiles up, we did a calculation, cos it would have been 13 ‘tai’s, and plus the double for drawing the tile himself…

In mahjong, how much you pay depends on how many ‘tai’s.

Never did we expect…. the unlimited would mean:

10 cents, 20 cents, 40 cents, 80 cents, $1.60, $3.20, $6.40, $12.80, $25.60, $51.20, $102.40, $204.80, $405.60, $811.20.

Blardy $811.20!!!!!

No one told me the potential of that.

Since that round, everyone of us sobered up from the shock and decided to put our hearts into it.

It was much laughters from the delirium and the surrealness of the close call.

And the last round, I won by 7 ‘tai’s, and I nearly fainted when I saw Alvin was doing the same thing Lawrence was doing, and Lawrence had all the major north, south, east, west cards, which would have been 13 tais as well.

Blardy hell… and they were so close to winning as well, ya know?!?!

That would be another $811.20!!!!!!

I would have fainted there and then.

And I could see that they were serious about paying if the other party did win…

And my tiles were all horribly messed up that I couldn’t do anything potentially that much.

So, gee, I should be glad.

Eventually, I always gamed with minor wins, and I won 12 bucks from there, instead of declaring bankruptcy at the end of it.

It was 6.30am when they finally called it a day and I walked out into the morning sighing a sigh of relief, and wondered what kind of madness I had gotten myself into.

Kill me. Just kill me.

***

Alright, that’s pretty much a conclusion to my past days of new year celebrations, if you would call that a celebration.

Now?

Hurhur.

Alvin had just called to say he would pick me up in a quarter of clock’s time for another game of mahjong.

***

He had stopped by for a smoke break at 10.15pm and recalled this noon’s session which I missed.

I have to mentally remind myself not to get myself into such deep shit later, though the new year’s vibes might do something real silly to me.

Wish me luck.

Hurhurhur.

I am not a compulsive gambler.

Really.

Am not.

I am just… bored.

So bored that I am blogging from his place whilst waiting for mahjong to start.