Hot Tub Day/Respect Your Cat Day
2005-03-28 @ 8:49 p.m.

Too angry and tired to blog about the kelong trip yesterday, so I'll devote several paragraphs to it right now. To begin with, I met Ben, Ka Tsai and Sophia for brunch at Tanah Merah MRT. I'm proud to say that I was one of the first on the scene! The other was Sophia, because we were on the same train apparently. We left the station at the wrong exit, because Ka Tsai thought we knew where we were going and kept quiet even though he thought something was wrong! So we eventually made our way to Changi Village, and the bus ride was just full of the usual madness. Queued for a very long time at the nasi lemak stall with Ben and Sophia, long enough for Ka Tsai to finish his meal anyway. Hunted around for fishing stuff, but didn't get anything in the end, except a drink for me. Bacardi mixed with lime and sparkling water, with an alcohol content so low you don't even notice the rum's there.

Then we met up with Chernise's extended family in the carpark, before embarking on a convoluted route to the jetty that involved us retracing our route a few times, before arriving back at where the three of us originally went looking for the rest of our classmates. While filling in the forms for immigration, Ka Tsai exclaimed, "My tick was too big, so now I'm bisexual." Ignoring the logical inaccuracy of that statement that I've noted on the class blog, it was just hilarious. It made it into my handphone's list of quotes at least. Got wet during the ferry ride, watched Ka Tsai's abortive attempt to get a tan (with tanning oil no less), and discovered the ferry's paint isn't fully waterproof because I found blue streaks on my boardshorts later. Note to self: Never travel to rural Malaysia if I can help it, because the immigration is bloody slow.

Despite all of Dan's attempts to enlighten me on the deprivations I would experience at the kelong, I wasn't particularly disturbed really. I mean, I went for OBS. My watch was mobile and I'm still alive. (In fact, Yi-Xun was my watchmate. Even at OBS, I was made to endure his presence. Oh, the cruel jokes that are played on us by life. Haha!) Anyway, I was quite fascinated by our attempts at fishing, albeit wary of Chun Long's attempts to cast his line. Ka Tsai didn't help with his earlier descriptions on the bus of what happens when a hook gets embedded in your flesh. Will spare everyone the gruesome details. In the end, I think we caught two fish, and Chun Long was stung by the catfish that Ben caught. Chun Long, much to our disappointment, is still alive.

One of the highlights of the trip was teasing Mark Chen. Dinner was particularly memorable, because we discovered Mark's complete inability to eat prawns or crabs still in their shells. (Okay, I can't eat crabs in their shells either, but I don't really want to eat crabs in the first place.) The cordial they served during dinner was really addictive. Either that, or we were so desperate for something to drink that even plain water would have tasted like ambrosia. Funny parts of dinner included the beginning, when we all thought they were serving us soup so we lifted the cover, without realising it was actually the soup base for steamboat, and any part when we were teasing Mark mercilessly. Can't help it, sometimes that guy's just so easy to poke fun at! After several abortive attempts at cards and mahjong during the afternoon, we finally got started in earnest after dinner. Finally played mahjong again after a long time, just like how I finally shot pool the other day with the YE people. Am now inspired to work towards becoming a more skilled mahjong player!

Then we took a break to get some supper, which was seafood BBQ. Wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat much. It was amusing playing the Chinese word game! Still amazed by how much of my Chinese I've retained after one year of virtually no contact with it. Then we went back to mahjong for a while, before we had to take a break because Mark was too tired. Everyone eventually sort of scattered to different parts of the kelong. The couples wound up asleep on our bunk, while us singles were at the end of the kelong, shooting the breeze as always. There's something very sweet about watching two people fall asleep beside each other. It speaks to the part of me diametrically opposed to the part that responds to Thomas Hardy. We are all bundles of contradictions. I chanced upon the singles' gathering as I was wandering around the kelong, and I happened to come upon them while they were discussing the seven deadly sins. Attempting to discuss them anyway, because we kept getting sidetracked. Most of us agreed though that anger doesn't qualify as a deadly sin, at least not to the extent that the others do, like lust. We all agree that avarice has a certain ring to it as a word.

We wound up moving to a spot with proper blocks of wood to sit on, and started singing all the songs we could remember. In spite of that, Mark still managed to fall asleep. Then I felt like writing a poem, so I got my pen and paper, and settled down to think. Some of the songs really hit a sore spot emotionally, hence the impetus to create something to exorcise that feeling. (Damn, so I must have been feeling really lousy and screwed up a few weeks ago, because that was when I produced seven poems in as many days.) Didn't succeed though, because I got dragged back for another mahjong session, which I didn't mind because it took my mind off things and it was fun watching Ben and myself win six games consecutively with lots of flowers, much to Dan's mock consternation. We didn't get through all four winds, because now it was Ka Tsai who was too stoned, so they stopped after breaking my winning streak.

Everyone fell asleep eventually, although Dan seems to have more or less stayed awake. Was quite awake initially, but as usual, I collapsed towards late morning. I don't like porridge, so breakfast was quite a trying experience. Funny though, because my mum says I used to like porridge when I was younger. The trip back to Singapore was fun! They sent all of my classmates back on one boat, so Chernise, Kin Yip, Mark and Yumun were playing spades, while Chun Long, Jia Yuan, Ka Tsai, Li Jun and me were playing daidee. The rest were outside enjoying the sun and the sea. Came back home, quarrelled with my parents (but things are fine now), blogged, and decided it was too late to get my wristbands from 77th Street at Causeway Point. I bought them today from Junction 8 instead, before the semi-productive French Club meeting.

Got back a few papers today, and it's been good so far, all things considered. Ming Yong spotted an error in the marking for my paper, so I ended up missing an A for Mathematics by one mark. Ah well, at least I improved, and I beat Jose (and Yi-Xun)! Haha, it'll be more amusing if Jose actually reads this. Couldn't stop laughing at him, starting from the first paper we got back. Got a B for European History, so now I'm praying my International paper isn't too screwed up. Mr Kwok's not marking this time, so there's hope yet! Economics is a B too, so far, and I just need a pass to get a B. To be exact, I can fail by half a mark. With the exception of Mathematics, everything's turned out better than expected, for the moment at least. Now I just need a nice mark for GP and English to sweeten the package. Incidentally, I find touch rugby more fun than soccer, even if it does require me to run more.