In Continuum.

OK, it isn't really her birthday just yet, but we had a celebration at Aranda Country Club this weekend anyway. I think we all love birthday parties, and I like attending birthday parties. It just feels like a more legitimate reason to celebrate anyway, though that is not to say that you are going to find me organizing one anytime soon. Perhaps a major party by the time I am pushing thirty or something like that, because that'd seem like a significant enough number to celebrate, no? For now, I detest the trouble and the hassles involved in the organization, which is also why I'd rather leave it to a small dinner party, or just hanging out in a bar with a bunch of friends. Either way, everybody loves birthday parties, and I was excited about going just as much as my friends were, I'm sure. Problem with normal birthday parties is that you don't really get to do much there most of the time. You get the normal poker cards, and mahjong if the people attending your party are enthusiastic enough about it. But more often than not, you are going to find people sitting around and trying to socialize, and everything becomes somewhat awkward for the most part. I remember a birthday party I attended when I ended up listening to my iPod and reading newspaper. Yeah, I was that bored out of my mind at that party. 

Anyway, the day started with me traveling down to Pasir Ris area to meet the significant other. That place used to be a hellhole for the boys, you know, the way it swallowed up your life and pride all at the same time. The buses would bear the boys away, tear their hands away from their family and friends, then send them to an island of horror where you suffer and suffer some more for a full week before it spits you back out like cooked fish with too many bones. But the trips there have become rather enjoyable lately, with my time spent reading on the bus and the music, the physical distance has somehow shortened significantly over the years. It has become a great thing to visit Pasir Ris, really because of the things that happen there with the significant other. You know, the walking around in the neighborhood, the times spent playing with stray cats, or just sitting around in playgrounds for hours on end, just talking about the world and beyond. I think her mother likes me, and her father still has his reservation about things. Yet, things have been turning out well for me over at Pasir Ris, as if the little town is making up for all the horrible things it did to me in the past as a young army boy. You know, the bald head and the dirty boots, the stripping of my pride and my childish looks. Those were trying times, but I'm just glad that those times have been replaced by happier times with a warm hand to hold and a presence that is going to remain for a long time to come for sure. 

We spent the entire afternoon at Downtown East, or E-Hub as it'd like to be called right now. I think Downtown East isn't the most innovative name ever, but E-Hub is just a new low at naming malls. I mean, E-Hub? You seriously couldn't come up with something better? I am starting to despise any place with the word "hub" in it, like Ang Mo Kio Hub. That place is a maze of mess, as if a maze by itself isn't already a mess. One mall started calling itself a "hub", and everything else followed suit and started calling themselves the exact same thing. It's kinda like the "@" phenomenon, where everything became "(Something) @ (Somewhere)". Anyway, the afternoon there was spent discovering cheap chicken rice, a sad looking restaurant, an indoor ferris wheel, hitting drums, red green and blue buttons, and throwing balls at ghosts in a giant television screen. We earned nearly a hundred tickets there, and we managed to exchange those with two bottles of Yakult at the counter. They were probably the most expensive Yakults that I have ever bought, but they were worth every single penny. Our arms did ache for how many times we played at the machine though, we did try to score an "S" for all the games, and we did. Even without the birthday party to finish the day off, everything would have been perfect right there and then. Oh, and I still have the bottle on my shelf, all washed and dried up.

So, after that little trip to the manicure place, we headed down to Aranda Country Club and found the unit where the party was held without much difficulty. The last time I was at the place, half of my friends were high while the other half were just piss drunk. We started to have drinking competitions, and you know what happens when you put army boys and alcohol together. It was the perfect marriage that ended off with a couple of us being carried home while others just slept at the chalet itself. I'm just glad that we were in a different unit to the one I was at, because that last one had vomit on the floor because my friends drank a tad bit too much that night. So, Paul greeted me at the front door, and the catered food were already warming up in a neat row. We found Felicia and her mother inside, with a whole house full of people I didn't recognize. OK, there was her dad in the corner talking to some other people I did not recognize, and I was introduced to a few of her friends in the bedroom. I've met Sze in school before, and then there was Selena and her boyfriend Colin. It was fun playing cards with them for a while, until Joyce and Shi Ting called and found it difficult to find a parking lot.

Apparently, that Saturday was a busy day for Aranda Country Club, because all the rooms looked like they were booked, and there sure were a lot of people celebrating birthdays along with Felicia on the very same day. Neptina and I waited for Joyce and Shi Ting as they found a parking space at the multi-story car park on the other side of the estate, and we joined in a bunch of people at the void deck of a community club of some kind and line danced away. People really started to gather then, and the atmosphere started to heat up. It was rather frustrating when the room was taken up by people other than us, and we were forced into the front porch where it must have been fifty degrees or so. I think only myself, the significant other, and Alvin really drank anything alcoholic at that time, but everybody had flushed faces at that point in time. That was also when we decided to take over the bedroom somehow after the birthday cake cutting. So when the crowd gathered to sing the birthday song, we hung out towards the back of the crowd and made sure that we'd be the first to take a group photograph together. The moment everything was done, we quietly snuck back into the room, and that was how we conquered the only other properly air-conditioned room other than the one reserved for gambling. 

I thought it was fun to have all of us pile onto the bed, and the pictures we took looked like the DVD cover of some sitcom like Friends or something. Anyway, you'd get to see the pretty pictures at the end of this entry, but let's just say that Shi Ting does have a thing or two with her camera, I must say. Anyway, so we were thoroughly entertained by Felicia's twin cousins, though their entertainment value really lasted only for the first fifteen minutes or so. Then they became a little annoying, but they were kids after all - you cannot not forgive a kid, you just can't. So the card games turned into the number guessing game, something which I should have been really good at. The last time I played with the same group of people, I was the only person left unbeaten by the end of the day, while everybody had to chow down leftover KFC chicken wings and coleslaws. Anyway, the forfeit this time was to drink cups of water and not being able to go to the bathroom for a full hour or so. They kept raising the stakes throughout the game, and my luck was surely against me for the night. Once thought to be unbeatable, I was gulping down cups after cups of water, with some of my significant others' cups as well. It was a cruel night for my bladder, but I suppose I held on through until the very end. 

There are times when you can't help but smile at how similar you and your partner are thinking, while some other times it could really work against you. Like, Jeremy was "kind" enough to suggest the forfeit of drinking three full cups of water if you are the first person in a single round and you get the number out of one hundred numbers. I was unlucky (or lucky) enough to guess the number my significant other set, with me being the first place. Damn you, number 95, I shall remember you for all times! So I had to drink three full cups of water, and that equated to whatever that was left in the entire bottle anyway - and I drank everything. That wasn't nearly the end of the punishment though, because I had to help her drink a cup of two after that, and it sure wasn't fun anymore by the time I couldn't sit down properly. Still, it was for the fun of it all, and I think everybody enjoyed themselves somewhat. It was great to just hang out for a day in the weekend, even though I was bloated with water for the most part. Felicia really should have just enjoyed herself, rather than to entertain everybody by rushing into the room and out of the room endlessly. She looked exhausted, but I suppose that is what happens when you throw a party - you don't get any rest despite it being your birthday. 

We didn't stay for long after I sent Neptina off a quarter to midnight. I think we left pretty much straight after that, and the bunch of us carpooled our way home in Jeremy's car. The bumps on the expressway was a torture to my bladder, and it wasn't helped that I had to walk all the way home from where he dropped me off, since it was too near to call for a cab. I could have, but it'd be really weird. It takes about two minutes to drive from where I was back home, and I think the driver wouldn't be too happy to have a customer like me. So I walked home on my own while being on the phone with her, and she accompanied me through the dark dark streets, with the high moon and the strong breeze. I hardly remember the last time I walked on the streets at that hour of the night, but it was sure a good walk by the time I reached home. Anyway, it was a fun party to hang out with the friends, and I certainly hope Felicia had a good time having us over as well. Anyway, less words and more pictures for the fun times, so here they are: 

Before we took over the bedroom.

Kevin had a severe case of chin itch.

To think that we almost used this as a forfeit for our game.

It was very tasty, though.

Courtesy of Alvin.

The Birthday Girl, Joyce, 

and the best catered food I've tasted in a while.

Cake!

Double trouble.

The Duo of Awesome.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Yeah, we just kinda stacked on top of one another.

It wasn't a very big bed.

Forfeits are no fun.

You can tell from the face here.

No, she tends to make everything looks incredibly tasty.

Don't believe this man either.

The perfect mineral water mascot.