Thursday, November 10, 2005

Bravo Chalet

There was a point of time at the chalet when I pictured the words "sorely disappointed, below expectations, waste of my freaking time, anti-social asshole" to be appearing on this blog entry. Thankfully, things changed along the way and a few special people made everything alright again.

Well, the bunch of us who arrived early sat at the chalet, waiting for it to be opened. Now, if truth be told, waiting is pretty boring business. But I felt pretty relaxed listening to my mp3 player with Terence, who was reading, and looking out at the sea. When we finally got in, we couldn't wait to get started on playing games and all that kind of stuff.

Most of the guys were at the TV playing Winning 11 on PS2. Then there was a group of us who stayed up in our room and played poker cards instead. The usual stuff - tai ti and bridge. I brought my comp's (which died) speakers and attached it to my mp3 player. The sound quality was so fab, even I was surprised. The thumping base and crystal clear melodies that floated out from them made it worth carrying all the way from Woodlands to Tenah Merah. Music appreciation and a few good rounds of card games made the time rather well spent.

After that some of the guys went shopping for tidbits and bought back a whole lot of stuff. I was pretty thankful for the amount of potato chips I stuffed down my throat *cough, cough* and what seemed like endless supply of can drinks for the night. We had a buffet for dinner and the food was just dismal. It tasted good for two bites but subsequently, I couldn't even bear to put a forkful of noodles into my mouth.

Terence, Daniel and I went up to the rooms to take a couple of photos.



Right. After that there was a whole lot of stoning around, and a 10 minute game of mahjong without money. Most of the platoon decided to go play soccer or visit the surroundings (ie bio char bo). I ended up staying in the chalet and played a couple of thrilling games of bridge with platoon sgt! Terence, Jeevaraj, Sern Hong, my buddy and I were the ones who played the most. It was kind of crazy because it was PS' first time playing the game but he caught on very quickly and there were a couple of times when I was his partner and the bids were high, but we won! Haha... it was stressful and hair-pulling, but certainly one of the most memorable Bridge I've ever played. Ooh.

There was a bit of queue for the toilet and more card games before the majority of us decided to go to bed. Then there's this drunk incident. It was one of the times I ever felt really frustrated because I couldn't do anything about it, yet it reached a point where if I did, it would've been drastic. The guys involved are really fun people, there's no doubt about that, but their behavior really made the whole platoon pretty grouchy the next morning due to the utter lack of sleep.

Well, the room was freaking cold because the air-con was working - too well. And with the 5 of us squeezed on this wooden platform (which was left after the beds were taken to be placed on the floor to create more sleeping space) and barely enough blankets, it was an insane night of being squished, noise-ed and north-poled.

I was pretty much dreading the run we had in the morning but it turned out to be just the thing I needed. Those pent-up feelings provided the drive for me to run. I'm a pretty average runner by my company's standards, only a bit better when it comes to endurance runs. We ran approximately 7km and I came in like 2nd or 3rd. In a way it wasn't that surprising because most of them weren't in the mood to run, and most of them were walking. But I felt great after the entire thing. The thrill that comes with running and the sense of satisfaction of completion was fab. As usual I was playing Britney songs in my head... it's the only thing that prevents me from walking.

I went back to the bungalow to get breakfast (which was western food delivered from our camp. SFI.) I couldn't be bothered to put on my shirt back again so I sat by myself at the bench outside the bungalow for a pretty long time, listening to my mp3 player, feeling the wind blow, and just staring out to the sea and the golf course. (Insert synonyms for anti-social bastard here.) The feeling was just fantastic. I wasn't really thinking about anything deep, just living for the moment... Appreciating my surroundings... My mind just felt crystal clear at the time.

I was kind of waiting for the others to finish their shower before going in to bath but at the same time, I was hoping for a game of volleyball or something but it didn't happen. That was a major disappointment.

YC, Sern Hong and I wanted to go to swim in the sea. However, just when we almost had our way, PS called us back and didn't let us go.

Later when I went back to the room to play a few rounds of card games with the guys (note that PS2 was still on Winning 11) Terence noticed that there was a slight stink of sweat in the room and he exclaimed his guts out that I was the one who emitted the smell. But still, it was only after we received our lunch that I went to shower.

Sad sad sad that we didn't play volleybabll in the end. After becoming clean myself, I shared the same sentiments as the rest - we weren't going to break a sweat no matter the circumstances. It was such a waste bringing the vball. SIGH. (I refused to bath not because I was unhygenic or lazy, but because I was still in disbelief that we weren't going to be playing vball. Hmph.)

After lunch, which was a great McSpicy Double meal which I hadn't had in years, Daniel and I decided to play mahjong. *cheers!* However the Specs were using the one in our bungalow. Daniel brought along another set but he lent it to Platoon 2. Luckily enough, they went for a cycling trip together so we called Terence (who was having headache from sleeping so much) and Shawn to play.

Time passes quickly when you're having fun and I had such a hell of a time playing that, it was over too fast! I lost 3.80 in the end because a certain tall person decided not to feed me the cards that I needed and his headache gradually got better as he won money from me. I cannot believe that I won just 2 out of 18 games. Miserable. On the other hand, it just looked like Daniel and Terence (sitting together, feeding each other cards, arhm, arhm)were the one winning and Shawn and I didn't. I think I got the winning combi of one myself and the other was from Shawn. Daniel and Terence = unhelpful. TUH.

After that we spent a lot of time rehearsing and dressing Daniel and Daniel up for the Twins performance of Xing Guang You Le Yuan. The costume was outrageous school girl uniforms (think Britney in BOMT). We spent a lot of time getting them to be bimbotic, acting cute, remembering the lyrics and bascially getting their act together. Also, we admired them for having the balls to have done it.

When it finally was time to start the performance, the entire platoon cheered like mad for them. Seeing them in costume really made a difference. The make-up, electric blue hair and short skirt looked... shocking. Also, there was a part in the song where all of us lalala-ed along with them. Top platoon spirit on show.

Terence had to leave because he had formation basketball training the following day (the lucky guy). Was quite a pity that he and I didn't have the chance to take photos with Daniel in costume. Oh well. We shared his marshamallows but he took off before we even finished it. Just like that. *snaps fingers*

I was stoning in the room for a short while before Jeevaraj came in and asked if I wanted to play cards. There was pretty much an overdose of that from the day before but I had nothing much to do anyway so we asked a few more guys along and the six of us played asshole tai ti.



Raj was nice enough to lend me batteries for my camera (even if I had bought new batteries, there wasn't anything interesting for me to take because no one was in the mood for cam-whoring and it doesn't really make a lot of sense to take photos while in the midst of mahjong and the likes) and for every round of tai ti that I didn't come in bottom, we took photos like mad while the bottom guy had to give out the cards. Thus the only ever worthy set of photos to have come from my camera in the whole of these three days.

We all slept at 12midnight and though there was a slight bit of drunk disturbance again (because I was sleeping beside my buddy and they wanted to beat him up or something), we had a good night's rest. We changed our sleeping postitions and it became pretty comfortable.

Woke up the next day and booked out from there. Sern Hong, Daniel, Guo Rui and I went to KBox to sing. Coolness. Had a pretty good time singing.

I'll be booking in tonight because I have to go to IMT tomorrow because I failed my ATP so I'll be in camp this weekend. Oh well, had my fair share of relaxation this week, so I ain't really feeling that bad about going back anyway.

Wish me luck to pass ATP this time round guys!

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