alalala

What the hell was in the air last night.

I hit the sack at about 6am and literally had to hold my hands up just to text my friend.

I woke up at 4.30 pm the next day feeling extremely sleepy. Not the I-want-to-sleep-but-I-know-it-will-make-me-sore sleepy, twas more like the I-really-want-to-go-to-sleep kind of feeling.

So I messaged a buddy about the possibility of bailing from tonight's thing and got a screenfull of labels on my phone. lol.

Needless to say, tonight I WILL be going out. haha

Partay

I like it when you dance close to me.
I like it when you look me in the eyes real close.
I like it when you rest your head on my shoulder.
I like it when you put your arms around me and mine around yours.
I like it when you hold me when you need steadying.
I like it when you look at me for direction.

I don't like it when you start randomly grabbing at guys who you know will only lead to trouble.
I don't like it when you give out numbers to people before even saying hi.
I don't like it when you ask me for an answer but won't hear it.
I don't like it when you toy with me.
I don't like it when you assume I will always be there for you.
I don't like it when you use me and my friends as stepping stones. It hurts to be walked over.


As a friend, I want you to be happy K?

Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself.

Goodbye to my first fishing friend.

Ken (Wannabe on FishingKaki) was one of my first real fishing kakis. I got to know the kid through the forums when i was but still a humble Blur Sotong.

I thought I could write some nice memories about the guy but the truth is, it was a long time ago.


What I do remember though was that he was a good kid. Cheeky but good. Knowing where the boundaries were and sensitive to people's moods, he would often beam us a smile and let me tell you, he probably coined the phrase 'grinning from ear to ear'.


When he laughed, it often brought me back to the days when I was his age when the only thing we had to worry about was whether I had enough money to buy seaweed. His laughter was more like a healthy and boisterous chuckle. Loud and strong.

He was the one who really got me into fishing. He was the one who started me thinking about the quality of the fishing tackle I bought. He was one of the first few who would sometimes jio me out for 11th hour fishing stints. I didn't always go though. I wish I had.

Ken was one of those guys who could get you to do something for him even if you didn't want to, and you'd still mostly likely end up feeling like you're suddenly doing the right thing. And I don't think I'm the only one. He had that amount of energy and bubbly-ness to pass around.

I once brought him along with some classmates (or you could say he brought me along) to Bedok Jetty for an overnighter-of-fishing. I can't really remember much that day but I do remember him being really wacky. My friends though can still remember him. That's how much of an impression he could leave.

Sadly, we grew apart, mainly due to my school commitments. But I think we still considered ourselves close. He started a short lived blog because of a fishing related entry I wrote in my blog. I had some fun teasing him about his blog's lifespan. He even called me, or rather 'MSNed' me for a boat trip after a really long time of little contact. The power of the youngsters and the internet aye? :-) These are the pictures you see now.

Ken's enthusiasm for fishing at the time was so immense that he even created 2 fishing clubs, both of which I joined. His ability to attract people with similar passions was great. Sometimes, he would attract the wrong kind of person but he would always overcome many problems and was not afraid to ditch people if they were asses. Trust me, he ditched some mutual acquaintances even quicker than me.

I don't really know if he was still in to fishing. Perhaps he started new hobbies. I don't really know. But I know that he definitely had an impact on me.

I've only ever had 1 other defining peer in my life move on to the next world. Ken now joins him as the second.

Tight lines old friend. If I had to leave early I'm pretty sure I would want to have lived like you.


Ken Yeo
13 Aug 1992 - 1 Sept 2008

New Year's Countdown 2006

Went out with the guys to catch the fireworks and participate in the countdown. Didnt go to Vivocity because the tickets were sold out by the time we wanted to get them and also because we had to pay which sorta turned us off.

Your Truly

Simon, a person Roy had met while playing Dota online and who also turned out to be jinghao's friend, was with us too.

Roy and Simon

Weili

Weili said while walking down the escalator someone suddenly came and stood in front of him and stared at him and then proceeded to ask his friend if he was Cuteworm. lol.

Hao

Ended up going to eat at MOS at Plaza Singapura and then walked over to Cineleisure to check out what free gifts we could get from the countdown happening there.

One too many Party Poppers

Saw that the gifts were nothing so we took a bus down to the National Museum to go for that countdown instead.

We were early and after looking around, we decided to go play pool at Paradiz but the tables there were full. So we decided to go play at nearby LAN shop.

The Lan Shop with No Aircon

At about 11.45pm we hurriedly pulled ourselves away from the LAN shop to try and head back to the Museum for the countdown. We reached about 5 minutes early and stood by the side of the stage while some people began to dance.

Might actually try out the dancing at these things one of these days. For now, I just like the drinks. haha

Fireworks

Fireworks

Sound: Baloons popping


After the fireworks were done we headed out of the Museum to see if we could catch the fireworks at the Esplanade.

The fireworks at the Esplanade started just as we exited the museum so we watched it from there.

Fireworks over Esplanade

Fireworks over Esplanade

The guys are pretty docile... No shouting the countdown.. No handshakes.. quite sian acherly.. lol

I think we need some girls in our group to make it more lively and what not.

After catching the fireworks, we headed down to City Hall MRT to decide where to go. The guys wanted to go to KBOX but Simon wanted to go home so he left and we headed to Marina Square.

Exodus

Masses

It was fucking crowded along the streets as everybody was trying to get home on the MRT which was about to close in 45 minutes. I swear, if Singapore ever had to perform a mass evacuation, we'd be seriously screwed.

In fact, I saw volunteers "ushers" quarelling with the pedestrians.

Meet China

Hordes of people

We Walk Alone

There is only one day in the year where you can walk against the flow of traffic on the main road.

Evacuation

KBox was also crowded so we located a 7-11 in the building that was "bounced" by 2 bangla temp employees and bot some drinks and sat at the foyer, waiting for the jam to subside so we could take a bus to Weili's house.

Litter was strewn everywhere including the secluded areas which were notw devoid of people which eerily reminded me of "28 Days Later".


The bus service that night was seriously fucked up. Before the jam subsided, the entire bus lane was filled with buses - with duplicate services - but once the jam started to subside, the buses were few and far in between.

The best part was, while there was still a jam and even after it had subsided, WL's bus still had not come. About 1.5hrs had past before we saw roy's bus coming and we decided to go to his house instead.

Once we had boarded the bus, I saw my own service coming up behind. Faced with the prospect of a long train ride home the next morning (Roy lived much further away from me than WL), I alighted at the next bus stop and boarded my service home.

Things change...

This is a post that has been in draft mode since 7/6/05.

Sometimes i wonder what has been going on with my old friends. You know? The guys and gals from primary school, the exchange students, the foreign students, etc...

Teo Jia Yun
She was my first real crush. She was "relatively (primary school)" mature and quite cute. Her smile would brighten up anyone's day. Even after she had braces put on, her smile was still beautiful. Never got the guts to ask her out (Probably would've been to the playground or something. We both live(d) in Simei. haha). Guys, if your parents ever tell you to not get a girlfriend and focus on your studies first, screw that. It's easier to try and then make mistakes when you're younger.

Farhan Ibrahim
Farhan was a good friend in kindergarten but we kinda didn't talk much once we were in primary 3 because we were in different classes. When we did talk it was like we were old friends. He always used to get me birthday presents and I always forgot to get any for him.

Tupaz Shaun Antonio
A good friend back in the day up till we graduated primary school and he stopped going to catechism class (Sunday School). Used to belanja me erasers, fishballs and other small trinkets that kids like. Mixed up kid who was coping relatively well with his family issues. He eventually started hanging out with the wrong crowd and dropped to EM3 and started 'bad habits'. Sent him an sms once while I was in Secondary 2 and got back the reply that he was in a "different church". Haven't heard from him since. He was/is a good kid.

Shafeeq
Shafeeq was a dude whose voice never fully broke and who walked funny but was brilliant and somewhat cheeky. I remember the conversation that we had about how "Primary 5 is the time when the girls start to grow". lol. Good times. He also created his first simple C program in primary 5. I never really appreciated it's creation till I started C programming 2 years later.

Fazli
Fazli was a good friend in the early years but we grew apart because we were in different classes. A good kid with leadership potential. There was once where he over stood his boundaries though and I had to put him in line. He learnt from that and I had great respect for him for that.

He was also a good player at the childish game (not childhood game.. muahahaha) of "Police and Thief, Guns Style". Well there was actually no name for the game so I just came up with one. It's where we separate into two teams, police or thief - didn't really matter, and we would then fold paper bullets and propel them to our opposing team with ordinary rubber bands. It's sort of like a catapult but in a catapult, you put the bullet in the "holder" and fire whereas in this game, you "hang" the "bullet" on the rubber band, pull back, and fire.

Good techniques for this game include using good quality paper or 'drawing block' to make the bullets and using two (red) rubber bands or a short industrial (yellow) rubber band.

Good times. FYI, getting hit in the nipple is not a good feeling.

He also lives(/d) in Simei.

Sulaiman
Was the first guy I met in primary school where we had a test on day one. I remember asking him what is air(pronounced ehr) in my Malay test and then he told me it was not air as in atmosphere but air(pronounced aeeyier) as in the Malay word for water.

Was also the first guy to be kicked out of the Gymnastics ECA(Extra Curricular Activity) due to "size".

Muzafar (possibly wrong spelling)
Good guy who was friendly and always slung a shoe bag filled with his books and stuff over his shoulder. I still do the same now and again following his style. Also lives(/d) in Simei.

Rudy Hendra Saleh
Short and smart kid with bug teeth. Good kid and was not socially stupid despite his looks. Was the first guy to write in my "diary", which is stowed away and not in use btw, where he wrote a poem which I didn't understand due to the advanced use of English where conjunctions had been left out. He called me "a pig left behind". Bastard.. haha

Pei Zhen
A distant friend since Kindergarten, she was a nice person.

I wasn't excellent at gymnastics (because I didn't really enjoy doing it as a performance - although doing those tricks was cool) but I had good PR so to speak and I could get by so I usually ended up doing the annual performances (Prize Giving Day and etc). Teachers usually liked me. I don't know why. Well, anyway, one day, while training for an event, I cut my foot on a rusty lid covering a microphone point on the stage. I told my teacher about it and he just told me to go sit it out.

Pei Zhen on the other hand came over to have a look and asked me if I was alright. It's silly and if you look at the previous paragraph, long winded as well, but I felt really happy at that point that someone actually cared.

Alex and Joe
Joe was a loud mouthed Chinese idiot who was a jerk not because he was a jerk but because he was wild. I remember one time I was playing soccer with him and he kept on pushing me to get the ball(was a tennis ball) till finally I just shouted "CEBAI!". It felt good. haha

Then there was Alex. Alex was a foreign kid from God knows where, possibly Germany or Sweden due to his accent who, when in primary 1, was an extremely shy kid. I knew him through gymnastics. But when I got into the same class as him in Primary 5, he had transformed into another Joe. A clone with the same loud-mouth brash attitude.

They were still kids though so attitudes like this were kinda cool even though they were simultaneously annoying.

Ridwan
Ridwan was a good friend with quite a fair bit of wit and creativity. He however was not a follower but a leader and sometimes we clashed. Last I saw of him, he was out with the wrong crowd and smoking. I saw his brother once and mistook him for him(rephrase that in your own mind) and spent about 5 minutes lecturing the poor boy about the good ole times. Ridwan was short you see.

Was also great at manipulating people but didn't use it on his friends... much. Whether he uses it now i have no idea.

He also cracked up whenever I said the self-made word of Shittish.

Sufree (possibly wrong spelling)
Sufree was a short kid who was very easy going and consequently prone to teasing. Good kid. Saw him once out of the bus I was in while I was in Secondary School. We recognised each other and waved hellos. Haven't seen him since.

Nasir (possibly wrong spelling)
Good kid who was always trying to look cool and lives in the same block as me. Extremely short and funny and had a good throw/hook. I saw him a few times and his voice had broke tremendously. These days, if we see each other, we just smile and continue walking on because I guess we have nothing to talk about.

Khidir
Good kid who also short but less tolerable to teasing that Sufree. Extremely pliable to external influences. Even walks like his sister with toes pointed inwards.

Shobana
I remember her because I used to rhyme her name with banana. Good kid who, like me, was fond of making fun of our music teacher's name, Mrs Thong. Not making fun of the meaning of the word(we didn't know what it meant), but rather with the pronunciation. Mrs Thong insisted we pronounce her name with the correct intonation. Had some good times with that stuff.

Also was in my first play with me where I had to wear a skirt-like item of clothing like a tube top and pretend to be the "fox" in the play. Fuck shit. I hated plays ever since. I was actually the narrator and was quite happy with it till the "fox" guy came late one day and I had to read his lines. Fuck shitty day. I still hate plays till this fucking day. It's too bad really. Had I not been humiliated like that I might have liked that shit. I remember asking my mother to take me out but she refused. I still hate her for that. After that play she wanted to enrol me in another one but I gave her a firm no and nearly threw a fit so she changed her mind. Smart woman.

This is also why I hate wearing costumes. Bad memories. Fuck.

Megana (possibly wrong spelling)
Barring her odd sounding name which didn't seem so odd when younger, this kid was an intellectual. Was also one of those who introduced me to a few Animorph books. Her home phone number is also nearly identical to mine with only one number being different.



The following names I wrote in this article at the start but I have since forgotten who they are. I remember their names.. just not their faces.
-Sufiyan
-Sufli (I think is my brother's friend)

I still have many of their neoprints. Most of the guys here also used to be Tamiya(mini-4wd cars that run on a track) buddies. They have since stopped this hobby I believe. Too bad that I have since advanced way beyond them although I can't really compete in competitions because my cars are built for speed and not for stability. They are really fast.

Cherish your youth. Being an adult is fun. But so is being a kid.

Cheers and Happy New Year.