After thinking of some lengthy and yawn inducing preamble to this entry, I decided to just trim the excess and cut straight to the point.
It was last week when I received a sudden message from Yanhan, the male quarter of the PDG leaders' consortium. The message was an invitation to a class gathering organized by Elaine herself. This was excellent considering her expired appointment as the welfare PDG leader. Furthermore, what piqued interest in me was the fact that it was a class outing, unlike prior excursions which consisted exclusively of members from the gang.
Yesterday, Benjamin contacted me regarding the outing details, and I had a brief chat with him about the expected turnout and schedule of events. Disappointingly, Chris was retained in camp for a route march, while Yanhan was on a holiday. Qinghao and Kelvin were presumably stuck in camp as well. It's understandable. The army is a brutal organization. Not everyone would have the enviable fortune of simply leaving their responsibilities for leisure. Ben did mention casually and quite frighteningly that the majority of the girls would be attending. In any case, I must say that I was curious as to the alterations that the girls have attained through the 1.5 years of separation.
And so today as I apprehensively approached the familiar figures of GY and Benjamin, my mind was clouded with questions. For one, the purported "rest of the class" did not appear to be quite as impressive as I had imagined it. Secondly, I was hoping that Jason would have been there as well, but he was rather absent. A quick check with Benjamin revealed that Jason had suddenly been activated for duty, a predicament with which I am most familiar with. As for the exaggerated numbers, it turned out to be a slight miscommunication between Ben and ... I am not too sure about that. Who knows, maybe Ben was a little woozy from exhaustion.
In any case, the sight of a significantly heightened GY was impressive. Furthermore, what's even more amazing was that he hasn't changed abit. As I conversed with him, I could feel myself being magically delivered through time 2 years back when he was a hit with everyone. It was a taste of nostalgia which I appreciated greatly, even if it's nostalgia stemming from his antics. Other interesting points of note appeared to be the physical changes in just about everyone.
Benjamin is quite the slim jim now, but again he was never really what you will call pudgy. He was also dressed in his best to solicit some form of sponsorship from some ah sia kias. I had no idea what was the intention for the pilfered funds but knowing him it was most likely for some charitable organization and I respect that greatly.
GY has grown taller. Ah. You will still recognize him from a mile off though. Maybe a little further now.
Liwen and Qiuhan appeared to all have slimmed down in the past years. Must have really taken a lot of effort and determination. Perhaps most astonishing of all (to I think just about everyone present) was Huiyi's metamorphosis. I recommend that it be seen to be believed. It is quite inspiring I must say. Further elaboration unnecessary.
We proceeded to this Minds Cafe after that, led by Angel and SzeMun. A most relaxing atmosphere. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of the cafe, it revolves around playing board games in a comfortable environment while sipping on mildly overpriced drinks and dining on mildly expensive food. Please note the word mildly as I personally feel it's quite reasonable compared to some other joints whom I have inquired prices with.
It's a little awkward at the start, to be frank. The slight(?) sense of unfamiliarity lingers as the time passes. I must say that GY is a fantastic contribution to the whole event though. His expressions and actions are still as comical as they were back then. Now that I've been through some nonsense in NS, somehow I still reminisce about the days when we had GY and the events which transpired in the past. In any case, those present will vouch that he was quite the unabashed individual, and a great aid in loosening up the atmosphere. Food was ordered (in case you take delight in knowing what is ordered in a class dinner...I believe 3 plates of Fish&Chips, 4-5 bowls of spaghetti and pasta. I was somehow convinced into ordering 4 slices of toast for dinner). Oh, Ladies Night btw...girls played for free.
The games.
I really wished I tipped the counter staff just now. I wanted to do it before we left, but it would have been awkward. Truly, the customer service is sensational. They were patient and friendly, taking time and effort to explain the game instructions the best they could. They also tried their best to cater to a group of 10, and made some worthy recommendations regarding the games. Stellar crew I must admit. In any case, back to the games. I believed our games proceeded in the manner below:
a) Battle of the sexes - This was stupid, even discounting the handicap for the guys. Basically, there were cards which had questions for the opposite sex which supposedly only members of the original gender would be able to answer. It would have been more exciting had the questions been a little more localized. The game appears to have been catered for the more savvy American population, with the first question being something like "What is the Zone?", and "Who are the members of the Simpsons Family?". The situation was so absurd that the guys had trouble answering their own questions, and the girls had trouble answering theirs. This was quickly abandoned in favor of...
b) Saboteur - I liked the concept of this game. The rules and instructions are a little complex to lay out here, but it's basically about getting some gold nuggets while digging paths with your cards. There are all sorts of "special effects" cards like peeping at the overturned nugget cards to determine which one contained the actual gold nugget, or stalling your opponent. Around this time Elaine joined us I believe. The finest moment was when Benjamin out of desperation to play his remaining cards, used an effect card to peek at the last remaining concealed card...quite obviously the one containing the gold nugget. While the concept of this game was well thought out, the sophistry meant that it was hard to pick up. In a situation when you only have 2 hours, you can't afford to really study the game. So at about this time it was suggested that we turn to some easier, more familiar games. Liwen requested for Jenga. Well we did find Jenga, but it was in the form of:
c) Truth or Dare Jenga - It speaks for itself. Move the black blocks - Truth. Red blocks - Dare. It's impossible to proceed beyond a certain point without utilizing the colored blocks, so we got some nonsense like people getting up to do chicken squacks, and GY playing hopscotch. Squeals and laughter aplenty. A fun game, but the limited number of blocks meant that certain truths and dares were repeated. Furthermore, everyone had some reservations, and truth/dare is in my opinion a game you play with those whom you are absolutely comfortable with. Thus, in our final desperation to find a game for 10 of us, we found this gem which the counter guy had laid down behind us all along...
Qwelf - My my. This was what concluded our night, and it almost the perfect game for our purposes. It's like Truth Or Dare Jenga and maybe the Battles of the Sexes game combined together. You move your pieces to an ending point as usual, but along the way you draw cards with challenges ranging from questions to dares to stupid rules which are elaborated below. Some highlights:
a) I got this horrible card which made us all have to tap the table hard with the dice thrice, shout "booya!" before our roll. I still think this was an utmost inconvenience because it's near irrecoverable. It's a rule which cannot be waived until some special card came along. As a result, "booyas" could be heard every few minutes or so.
b) GY absolutely shone in this game. He has very few reservations about doing certain things in the name of fun, and with the variety of challenges and stunts required, we got to see him in various compromising situations. Like getting me to be his demonstration flight attendant. Or being a stand up comedian. Or some other nonsense. Trust me, if you can you must play this game with him. He's the MVP.
c) Yodelling. Ahahahahaahahhaa. Yu Xiang was the one who first drew this I believe, but Angel suffered the worst. She has to yodel while rolling for three 2s. Which somehow...took plenty of time. If you are not sure what yodelling is about, still remember the Ricola advertisements with the "yar-ho-yay-hee-hoo" crap? It must have been tortuous rolling for the 2s. Oh by the way it was supposed to be with a finger up a nostril...but everyone agreed to to let that pass. After all, it will be an affront to our impeccable sense of hygiene. Plus, I guess we were either or had just finished our meals.
d) Ah, poor Qiuhan had a forfeit when she was forced not to bend her limbs until her turn arrived. This led to her standing for the remainder of the game. A good sport I must say, though we would all probably have waived the challenge. It's no fun causing someone to not enjoy the game comfortably...though looking at some of the challenges, how many were comfortable at the end? Maybe Benjamin... armless eh. Glad you didn't get to enjoy that for long.
e) Yu Xiang had this wonderful waving her hands in the air and abracadabraing thing which...should be witnessed for a better idea. Hard to do justice with words sometimes. Particularly when it has to be performed before every dice roll in the game.
f) Elaine was shocking. After she scrutinized the contents of her card, she suddenly started to shout "OH EVERYONE RUN A LOT OF SHIT IS COMING. AAAAAAARGH" for a whole minute. Turns out that she was to mime someone faced with an unsavory situation: being approached by a tornado of manure. Your guess is as good as mine, but at least commend the geniuses who came up with these forfeits. They must be one of the most imaginative and pranking bunches in the world.
g) Captivating piano performance there. Maybe the next roll will be a 1.
h) I vaguely remember Liwen being among the first to be drawn into giving an embarrassing performance. She calmly told Huiyi how there was no need to guess what she was doing, and started to behave like some schizophrenic. As if she was being harassed by thousands of mosquitoes or something. Pity no videos were available of that award deserving performance. Also, she must have had the time of her life fending off the repeated jibes from Benjamin regarding . I think if was present, things would have been very interesting. Perhaps he will be there next time though. We shall see.
i) Wow we are at i). I can't really remember anything else given that I was after all, also in a state of subconsciousness. Most of my forfeits were really mild, thankfully =).
I think time really zipped by. What felt like half an hour was in actual fact 2 hours of precious time. Given that it was after all a weekday, things came to an abrupt end about halfway through Qwelf. After that, the three of us went to seek out a cab home. I can finally say that the newspapers are true. Cabs actually circling around the area waiting for phone bookings like vultures awaiting the demise of their feast. I can just imagine drunk struggling angmohs being dragged unceremoniously to these vehicles, and the barely concealed look of glee on the drivers' faces. Ultimately, we had resort to booking one ourselves. It's really fun to have at least 30 empty cabs drive pass you in the name of "on call".
Why did I even bother writing something here which I am quite sure few would even bother reading given its defunct state. Maybe old habits came back to haunt me. Or perhaps I just wish to immortalize a particular moment I find intriguing in a blog entry. It's my awkward manner of self expression, so sorry. Also, it might encourage the participation of other class members to further spice up future trips, if there are any. The above outing had a comparatively minimal turnout, and to me it was really quite fun. I can only imagine what it would have been had Chris been present.
Yet perhaps, the smaller number generated a closer feel which would be nigh impossible with a larger group. Still...
In any case, thanks for the great night. Have one on the house.
