end of the great prohibition
holidays have been good so far, have yet to kenna any major reprimanding from parents so far which i suspect has more to do with 1) the fact that my results are not out yet and 2) they've yet to ask for me to submit my budget for the next semester's allowance which will probably be an eventuality when i continue to procrastinate till i ask them to buy a bank draft only a day before i leave like the previous few times.
friday was supposed to be wala's nite with the uwa guys, until the queue was so prohibitively long that me and daniel eventually for drinking at tango with joel and his 1/2 dozen frens who seemed to have an unspoken objection for our intrusion into what was supposed to be a farewell gathering for one of their buddies who will be migrating to melbourne the next day. u know u are out of touch with singapore happenings when 1) u are surprised at the fact that u now have to pre-order a drink and queue up for a chop before u can enter wala wala and 2) when ur instinctive response to being served a pint by a waiter is 'cheers mate', which was exactly what joel and daniel did. now since i'm on the topic of instinctive lingo, my housemate tom had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of some racial slurring on our day of departure from perth. he was doing some last minute shopping in the city carrying lots of shopping bags in his two hands when 5 drunk ang mohs went to behind his back to give him a scare. that of course gave tom a shock, which probably made the drunken horde laugh at him in bemusement. one of them then pointed at tom and called him a 'stupid chink'. and according to tom, in his anger, the first instinctive reaction was to deliver an tirade of 'KANNINA NABEH CHAO CHEE BYE' albeit in an antagonistic tone. it only hit upon him after saying that, that the rednecks had no fucking idea of what he meant which only served further fueling their bemusement and made them laugh even louder. it was only then that he put down his shopping bag and delivered a more diplomatic challenge of 'FUCK YOU, U RACIST ASSHOLE, U WANNA FIGHT, COME!' complete with the unequivocal finger pointing. fortunately for tom, the other four rednecks who were probably less drunk apologised to him and held back the one who shouted 'stupid chink' who even in his stupor was still rather zealous in picking up tom's gaunlet while deliver a continuation of the usual hanson-esque slurring telling tom to go back to his own country yada yada yada, until the security guards at the old commonwealth bank building came to settle things. when recounting the events, tom was actually rather shocked at his foolish courage to challenge five angmohs who he claimed were 1/2 a head taller than him on the day when he was supposed to fly home into the sweet embrace of his darling eunice. it was the thought of eunice that made him thankful for the avoidance of a asymmetical physical showdown, and his foolhardiness. now who says love is irrational? but as for the overarching moral of the story? you can take a singaporean outta singapore, but u can't the singaporean outta him.
now back to friday nite. it was as though the reaffirmation of eternal brotherhood in tango was not enuf for joel's frens and they promptly sought to further entrench their migrant buddy (and perhaps the pseudo aussie joel) in the singaporean ways by getting more drinks at the coffeeshop in holland v. make no mistake, it was only Tiger this time round, neither the lychee martinis nor erdingers from just now are acceptable in this alternative attempt at national education. and fortunately for me and daniel, adrian and his gf who were inside wala earlier came to join us at a seperate table as we proceeded with our own way of reaffirming our nationality by tucking into the nicest and indeed cheapest seafood horfun we've had in perhaps months while indulging in the cheap thrill of the schadenfreude hearing adrian complain how the Unexpected Band in wala's was somehow unexpectedly bad that night and me and daniel didn't miss out much. well it couldn't have been much of a cheap thrill it was a heartfelt pity since the lead singer for the Unexpected Band was so cute, and hearing her doing a female rendition of About a Girl and Desperado the last time i was there was more than enough to made me feel genuine regret for not going there earlier. but singaporean food and singaporean beer is never enuf for the prodigal sons, and we eventually managed to convince joel and rachael to hasten their goodbyes to their migrant buddy and head down with us for our pilgramage to the mecca of singapore bengdom - boat quay.
it was backrow bengland boat quay this time, whose vibrance kinda surprised a homeward bound mountain tortoise like me with the revival of the backrow bengland. we then head down to a bar called Colors which i realised was in fact just a couple of units down the highly publicised Hideout which - being the mountain tortoise that i am - never realised was in boat quay. kudos to adrian who had excellent foresight to carry an adidas sports water bottle filled with vodka in his bag, we enjoyed much more than what the 2 jars of vodka redbull offered which were also generously blanja-ed by adrian. later on we were joined by 2 foreign frens of adrian's gf, elaine and jeff who were born in hongkong and taiwan respectively. apparantly jeff was due to fly back to taipei the following day to serve his military conscription and once again i found myself stuck in the middle of what was essentially yet another farewell occasion. jeff and elaine were much friendlier and we soon found ourselves discussing about 1. the credibility or the lack thereof of chen shui bian, 2. how military conscription is more meaningful in the context of taiwan, 3. how on earth did a cigarette end up in our bowl of peanuts, 4. how it is apparantly true that the platoon commander of the taiwanese bmt platoon will hold the hand of the soldier while he throws the grenade cos' before that an entire platoon was killed when a certain soldier threw the grenade backwards to his horrified buddies who where all sitting cross-legged behind the throwing bay, and 5. about how elaine and jeff who both studied in the new york before working in singapore agrees that having spent their formative years in their respective place of birth, they can never truly call somewhere other than hongkong or taiwan their home - all while dowing a tequila shot each and 3 other jars of gin and tonic, and other nameless brownish, orangey stuff, courtesy of recruit-to-be jeff. and it wasn't long before we had to scull everything on the table cos' jeff ordered the drinks barely 30 minutes before the bar closes at 3 and me finding myself recite some random chinese poetry to jeff while proposing a toast to his imminent enlistment that went like '..醉卧沙场君莫笑, 古来征战几人回' just becos' that was the only pseudo poetic thing among all other more disgraceful stuff that i know which links drinking to the army. and in hindsight, asking a recruit-to-be a rhetoric question that 'how many of those who brave the warfront live to return' wasn't exactly the most appropriate to do. so eventually the night ended with each of us sincerly declaring how much we enjoyed one another's company, exchanging msn contacts with our new frens and promising to host each other whenever we pop by each other's city even when we both know that it'll be at least 1 1/2 yrs before he finishes his conscription and at least 2 till i return to singapore permanently.
i spent the earlier part of saturday meeting up xander and the 2005 gong jiao dictators to enjoy what left of their june holidays over an xbox gaming session in douby ghaut. it's an awesome feeling seeing these kids blossoming from blur sec 2s, to the ultra-obnoxious sec 3s during their first debating season and finally to the mad/retarded/hardworking/closely-knit sec 4 team of 2005, and having known that both fengyao and kenneth have made it through the direct schools admissions interview into vjc, i actually find it hard to believe that our little dictators are actually soon-to-be jc students. at the risk of sounding like a pervert -michael jackson style- i must say, for me and xander, coaching the dictators was perhaps our the closest experience we have to fatherhood thus far. and like every well meaning, nagging father, i can't resist but to offer some age old adages telling them to study hard for Os and they shldn't just relak jack just cos' they're assured a place in vjc. to which kenneth kang while tucking single-handledly into the 5 x swensens lime sherbet simply replied 'conz-phirmz'.kids will always be kids...
was a timely reunion for the Marlboro Gang when i went down to ECP to attend Bodyguard's birthday BBQ. it's awesome to catch up with old friends, not having to feel awkward at gatecrashing other people's gatherings and simply not giving two hoot to any social decorum. (which is something that i'm kinda embarrassed to say cos' i not only puked in two separate grasspatches in ECP at the area around the lighthouse, and i also peed into the bush beside the cycling track in my lethargy to walk to the nearest toilet...)Bodyguard, who has just gotten overthe a nasty breakup with his long time poly sweetheart, Sister Bear who decided instead to forsake the warm embrace of the Bodyguard for a fat and married chef, has lost quite alot of weight and is more yandao now. i'm really glad that Bodyguard is finally gotten over her and is ready to rejuvenate his lovelife. CQ made the interesting observation that the entire Marlboro Gang seems pretty hopeless in love since David Gan (nickname of one of our dudes, not that sissified hairdresser) has also recently broke up with his uni gf in the hope of patching up with his JC sweetheart, only to be horrified at the knowledge that his JC sweetheart is already attached to someone else and that he was in fact being led on by her renewed frenship with him, and the only hope of the Marlboro Gang getting a wedding invitation anytime soon seem to rest on Teeko Shen who's still very stable with his longtime gf. and David Gan then started a debate as to whether CQ's ex, DB was responsible for playing the two-headed snake instigating Sister Bear to breakup with Bodyguard. Sigh, with matters of the heart too complicated to marr a perfect brotherhood reunion, we opted to venture into the happier side of our collective nostalgia and opened the bottle of Chivas we bought as a 'gift' for Bodyguard even though he spent the better part of the evening at the pit preparing food for everyone and shuffling between us and his pri sch frens. it has always been a Marlboro Gang tradition to give an ang pow to the birthday boy from the other frens. and from past birthdays, in the absence of any red packets, we've improvised using items that varied from normal envelopes to putting cash inside some dodgy unmentionable vcd sleeves - and of course the vcd is part of the birthday gift too. this time round, mutu came up with the original idea of putting the cash inside an empty cigarette box and then offering Bodyguard a smoke even when Bodyguard is a non-smoker. we had to remind Bodyguard NOT to throw away the box lest he really thought it was garbage. as the chivas grew lesser and lesser, and the empty cans of Chang Beer piled up, the louder our laughter grew and soon we found ourselves singing in the middle of ECP. it wasn't too long before we finished the bottle of Chivas which we so jealously guarded from his pri sch frens among 6 of us who were not driving. the concoction of Chang Beer and Chivas proved too much for me and hence the reason of my embarrassment as mentioned above. It was one of the best gatherings we had in quite a well, and we rounded it all up by singing Ai Dao Chai Zhi Tong, Shao Nian Ying Xiong and other random hokkien songs en route to the carpark and promised to all fall-in in our endorsed prata shop soon before Tiko Shen and I leave.
friday was supposed to be wala's nite with the uwa guys, until the queue was so prohibitively long that me and daniel eventually for drinking at tango with joel and his 1/2 dozen frens who seemed to have an unspoken objection for our intrusion into what was supposed to be a farewell gathering for one of their buddies who will be migrating to melbourne the next day. u know u are out of touch with singapore happenings when 1) u are surprised at the fact that u now have to pre-order a drink and queue up for a chop before u can enter wala wala and 2) when ur instinctive response to being served a pint by a waiter is 'cheers mate', which was exactly what joel and daniel did. now since i'm on the topic of instinctive lingo, my housemate tom had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of some racial slurring on our day of departure from perth. he was doing some last minute shopping in the city carrying lots of shopping bags in his two hands when 5 drunk ang mohs went to behind his back to give him a scare. that of course gave tom a shock, which probably made the drunken horde laugh at him in bemusement. one of them then pointed at tom and called him a 'stupid chink'. and according to tom, in his anger, the first instinctive reaction was to deliver an tirade of 'KANNINA NABEH CHAO CHEE BYE' albeit in an antagonistic tone. it only hit upon him after saying that, that the rednecks had no fucking idea of what he meant which only served further fueling their bemusement and made them laugh even louder. it was only then that he put down his shopping bag and delivered a more diplomatic challenge of 'FUCK YOU, U RACIST ASSHOLE, U WANNA FIGHT, COME!' complete with the unequivocal finger pointing. fortunately for tom, the other four rednecks who were probably less drunk apologised to him and held back the one who shouted 'stupid chink' who even in his stupor was still rather zealous in picking up tom's gaunlet while deliver a continuation of the usual hanson-esque slurring telling tom to go back to his own country yada yada yada, until the security guards at the old commonwealth bank building came to settle things. when recounting the events, tom was actually rather shocked at his foolish courage to challenge five angmohs who he claimed were 1/2 a head taller than him on the day when he was supposed to fly home into the sweet embrace of his darling eunice. it was the thought of eunice that made him thankful for the avoidance of a asymmetical physical showdown, and his foolhardiness. now who says love is irrational? but as for the overarching moral of the story? you can take a singaporean outta singapore, but u can't the singaporean outta him.
now back to friday nite. it was as though the reaffirmation of eternal brotherhood in tango was not enuf for joel's frens and they promptly sought to further entrench their migrant buddy (and perhaps the pseudo aussie joel) in the singaporean ways by getting more drinks at the coffeeshop in holland v. make no mistake, it was only Tiger this time round, neither the lychee martinis nor erdingers from just now are acceptable in this alternative attempt at national education. and fortunately for me and daniel, adrian and his gf who were inside wala earlier came to join us at a seperate table as we proceeded with our own way of reaffirming our nationality by tucking into the nicest and indeed cheapest seafood horfun we've had in perhaps months while indulging in the cheap thrill of the schadenfreude hearing adrian complain how the Unexpected Band in wala's was somehow unexpectedly bad that night and me and daniel didn't miss out much. well it couldn't have been much of a cheap thrill it was a heartfelt pity since the lead singer for the Unexpected Band was so cute, and hearing her doing a female rendition of About a Girl and Desperado the last time i was there was more than enough to made me feel genuine regret for not going there earlier. but singaporean food and singaporean beer is never enuf for the prodigal sons, and we eventually managed to convince joel and rachael to hasten their goodbyes to their migrant buddy and head down with us for our pilgramage to the mecca of singapore bengdom - boat quay.
it was backrow bengland boat quay this time, whose vibrance kinda surprised a homeward bound mountain tortoise like me with the revival of the backrow bengland. we then head down to a bar called Colors which i realised was in fact just a couple of units down the highly publicised Hideout which - being the mountain tortoise that i am - never realised was in boat quay. kudos to adrian who had excellent foresight to carry an adidas sports water bottle filled with vodka in his bag, we enjoyed much more than what the 2 jars of vodka redbull offered which were also generously blanja-ed by adrian. later on we were joined by 2 foreign frens of adrian's gf, elaine and jeff who were born in hongkong and taiwan respectively. apparantly jeff was due to fly back to taipei the following day to serve his military conscription and once again i found myself stuck in the middle of what was essentially yet another farewell occasion. jeff and elaine were much friendlier and we soon found ourselves discussing about 1. the credibility or the lack thereof of chen shui bian, 2. how military conscription is more meaningful in the context of taiwan, 3. how on earth did a cigarette end up in our bowl of peanuts, 4. how it is apparantly true that the platoon commander of the taiwanese bmt platoon will hold the hand of the soldier while he throws the grenade cos' before that an entire platoon was killed when a certain soldier threw the grenade backwards to his horrified buddies who where all sitting cross-legged behind the throwing bay, and 5. about how elaine and jeff who both studied in the new york before working in singapore agrees that having spent their formative years in their respective place of birth, they can never truly call somewhere other than hongkong or taiwan their home - all while dowing a tequila shot each and 3 other jars of gin and tonic, and other nameless brownish, orangey stuff, courtesy of recruit-to-be jeff. and it wasn't long before we had to scull everything on the table cos' jeff ordered the drinks barely 30 minutes before the bar closes at 3 and me finding myself recite some random chinese poetry to jeff while proposing a toast to his imminent enlistment that went like '..醉卧沙场君莫笑, 古来征战几人回' just becos' that was the only pseudo poetic thing among all other more disgraceful stuff that i know which links drinking to the army. and in hindsight, asking a recruit-to-be a rhetoric question that 'how many of those who brave the warfront live to return' wasn't exactly the most appropriate to do. so eventually the night ended with each of us sincerly declaring how much we enjoyed one another's company, exchanging msn contacts with our new frens and promising to host each other whenever we pop by each other's city even when we both know that it'll be at least 1 1/2 yrs before he finishes his conscription and at least 2 till i return to singapore permanently.
i spent the earlier part of saturday meeting up xander and the 2005 gong jiao dictators to enjoy what left of their june holidays over an xbox gaming session in douby ghaut. it's an awesome feeling seeing these kids blossoming from blur sec 2s, to the ultra-obnoxious sec 3s during their first debating season and finally to the mad/retarded/hardworking/closely-knit sec 4 team of 2005, and having known that both fengyao and kenneth have made it through the direct schools admissions interview into vjc, i actually find it hard to believe that our little dictators are actually soon-to-be jc students. at the risk of sounding like a pervert -michael jackson style- i must say, for me and xander, coaching the dictators was perhaps our the closest experience we have to fatherhood thus far. and like every well meaning, nagging father, i can't resist but to offer some age old adages telling them to study hard for Os and they shldn't just relak jack just cos' they're assured a place in vjc. to which kenneth kang while tucking single-handledly into the 5 x swensens lime sherbet simply replied 'conz-phirmz'.kids will always be kids...
was a timely reunion for the Marlboro Gang when i went down to ECP to attend Bodyguard's birthday BBQ. it's awesome to catch up with old friends, not having to feel awkward at gatecrashing other people's gatherings and simply not giving two hoot to any social decorum. (which is something that i'm kinda embarrassed to say cos' i not only puked in two separate grasspatches in ECP at the area around the lighthouse, and i also peed into the bush beside the cycling track in my lethargy to walk to the nearest toilet...)Bodyguard, who has just gotten overthe a nasty breakup with his long time poly sweetheart, Sister Bear who decided instead to forsake the warm embrace of the Bodyguard for a fat and married chef, has lost quite alot of weight and is more yandao now. i'm really glad that Bodyguard is finally gotten over her and is ready to rejuvenate his lovelife. CQ made the interesting observation that the entire Marlboro Gang seems pretty hopeless in love since David Gan (nickname of one of our dudes, not that sissified hairdresser) has also recently broke up with his uni gf in the hope of patching up with his JC sweetheart, only to be horrified at the knowledge that his JC sweetheart is already attached to someone else and that he was in fact being led on by her renewed frenship with him, and the only hope of the Marlboro Gang getting a wedding invitation anytime soon seem to rest on Teeko Shen who's still very stable with his longtime gf. and David Gan then started a debate as to whether CQ's ex, DB was responsible for playing the two-headed snake instigating Sister Bear to breakup with Bodyguard. Sigh, with matters of the heart too complicated to marr a perfect brotherhood reunion, we opted to venture into the happier side of our collective nostalgia and opened the bottle of Chivas we bought as a 'gift' for Bodyguard even though he spent the better part of the evening at the pit preparing food for everyone and shuffling between us and his pri sch frens. it has always been a Marlboro Gang tradition to give an ang pow to the birthday boy from the other frens. and from past birthdays, in the absence of any red packets, we've improvised using items that varied from normal envelopes to putting cash inside some dodgy unmentionable vcd sleeves - and of course the vcd is part of the birthday gift too. this time round, mutu came up with the original idea of putting the cash inside an empty cigarette box and then offering Bodyguard a smoke even when Bodyguard is a non-smoker. we had to remind Bodyguard NOT to throw away the box lest he really thought it was garbage. as the chivas grew lesser and lesser, and the empty cans of Chang Beer piled up, the louder our laughter grew and soon we found ourselves singing in the middle of ECP. it wasn't too long before we finished the bottle of Chivas which we so jealously guarded from his pri sch frens among 6 of us who were not driving. the concoction of Chang Beer and Chivas proved too much for me and hence the reason of my embarrassment as mentioned above. It was one of the best gatherings we had in quite a well, and we rounded it all up by singing Ai Dao Chai Zhi Tong, Shao Nian Ying Xiong and other random hokkien songs en route to the carpark and promised to all fall-in in our endorsed prata shop soon before Tiko Shen and I leave.
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