Another one bites the dust

Last night was my dear friend Charissa's 21st birthday! I welcome her to the echelon's of the above-21 club (if indeed one does exist)! It was a brilliant party, exactly the way I would have wanted to celebrate mine. A quiet dinner in a restaurant with family and a few close friends. In fact, it gave me a very good opportunity to catch up with all these friends I haven't seen for ages! There was our little JC 'quartet' of myself, Huien, Zhiliang and Charissa, as well as Joel (and girlfriend, Evelyn), Peter Lee and Shumin.

Just getting the pictures out of the way first. So anyway, for those of you wondering who the ang moh guy is, his name is Simon, and he's on a year-long backpacking trip! He's Shumin's friend, and apparently this is a) his first time in Singapore, and b) the first time he's met up with her before! Apparently, Shumin is part of this International Hospitality Network where people from all over the world offer their homes and friendships to visitors. That's Shumin's secret to travelling so cheaply! And its also really nice of her.

The dinner, as anyone would expect from anything cooked by Charissa's mum, was simply top class. This little Prawn Salad, Carrot Soup and then Roast Chicken. Liberal servings of Red & White wine, beer and champagne helped ease initial awkwardness caused from simply not having seen each other for so long! (not that I drank, of course)

Anyhow, I don't really expect this prolific blogging to keep up. In fact, those of you who know me are probably taking inside bets on how long this blog'll last.

Living in the Present

After thinking about it, I realise that it would be somewhat weird to blog about my backpacking trip seeing how it already went by, so I'll probably put the pictures into some album and post the link another day.

Meanwhile, I shall post the events of the past 48 hours. In that time, I've achieved about 5 hours of sleep, largely attributed to the fact that my dear friend Albert is leaving for the Philipines, then the US, and there is the possibility that I might not see him for a good 5 years.

Let me first cut back to the night of 26th July, the day I came back from Europe. Bert decided that he had a craving for chilli crabs, so we headed down to East Coast to get some good seafood. This plan was in concordance with my craving for all food asian so I was, as you can imagine, well satisfied. The company made the food even better.

Just some pictures from that wonderful night of joyous friendship.

Then the 28th was the Alumni BBQ. Successful to a 'T', with a huge variety (and quantity) of food, and again wonderful company. It was brilliant seeing all these people that I hadn't seen for ages: Chalat, Eleena, Tiffany, Shumz, Aloy and Victor. The discussion of the year ahead was equally exciting, and somewhat saddening seeing how I'm going to miss all of it. Oh well...on to the pictures!

After the BBQ, since I already decided to go and send Bert off the next morning anyway, David and I followed Bert back to his place for some final packing, before heading off to David's place to catch some sleep. Woke up 7am after 3 hours of sleep, and herded ourselves into a cab, airport-bound.

Just a few pictures of us at the airport sending Bert off, with the batchmates who came down as well. Seeing Bert go was...surprisingly saddening, to say the least. Also a poignant reminder that my own time is coming.

Oh well. So here I lie on my bed, blogging. Jetlagged, sleep-deprived, and somewhat emotional all over again. Can't think of a smart way to end off, so.

First Post...and Tour!

Skipping the regular I-don't-believe-I'm-doing-this comments endemic to every blog (especially since this is my 4th time trying to start one), I'll just jump straight into the post!

The most momentous thing in my life that just went past would have to be the Choral Tour to Wales, followed by my first-ever backpacking trip across Southern and Central Europe. I took a ton of pictures, so it'll be broken into a few entries.

Here goes nothing!

The Choral Tour was, for me, a welcome break from the mundanity of my post-NS life. Over the course of the trip, I had many reflections and small epiphanies, none of which will be revealed here because they're MY thoughts, nosey buggers. Nevertheless, I will endeavour now to recreate, with a the few pictures that I took, the sheer delight that was the tour.

This is a collection of photo's I took on the way up to the Piggotts Music Barn. The stupendous scenery was rivalled only by the hospitality.

Photo's of my unfortunate roommate, not all taken with his consent or knowledge. Some photo's withheld for objectionable content. Poor fella got the short end of the stick. Great guy.

Collection of random photo's because its getting very late, and I lack the necessary concentration to post them out one by one. Special mention:

Top left, a picture of the President when I suggested that the Vice-President (featured behind) should become the First Lady.

Centre, a picture of myself with the four idiots (aptly named...heh).

Bottom right, the only picture I have of my group, sans myself and Yanling.

Thats about all the pictures I had. As you can see, not a very prolific photographer, but the memories are all there. Thanks to all who made this trip a truly brilliant one.