We kick started the entire thing with the BBQ on Friday night. I was BBQ-ing and din't eat much. Then there was a game of Big 2, which I gladly joined. The loser of the game had to eat 3 Otahs, and 6 if he had more than 10 cards. I'm a decent player, with a clean sheet for 70% of the games. After that, things came crashing. I think it's karma, because I'd become too lucky at the beginning. I ended up losing the next 5 games and amounted to a crazy debt of 19 otahs! Needless to say, I've sworn off otahs for the next couple of months, or years, and became the butt of all otah jokes. After that there was a lot of chatting and phototaking before we packed up to the room.
There were 12 of us there and we watched this movie called The Last Castle, which ended at about 2-3AM. I couldn't keep track of the time very well. Then out came the alcohol and Beng came up with the idea of splitting up into 4 groups of threes and playing Big 2. The first drink was peach tea and tequila. My team, surprisingly, was Irvin and Beng, whom I didn't talk much to even in BMT or that day itself.
When you undergo lots of shit together, like fieldcamp, you immediately form bonds because of the hardship. Well, it seems that it's true also, that when you lose the most rounds and drink the most alcohol, the bonding's pretty strong too. We lost the first round, and had more than 10 cards. So we downed 2. The drink was amazingly strong. And we went on to lose another 6-7 rounds. We lost half the games we played, and at the end of it all, Irvin and I were quite high, despite each drinking half of what Beng drank! The distribution was not proportionate. The alcohol really got me high, and there were a couple of times when I just wanted to puke out the entire thing.
I think there was a conspiracy.
After that we were too high to play any more and Irvin and I led the way by promptly plonking ourselves on the floor with the bags for pillows and trying to sleep. Ahh, the reasons I like hanging out with an equally crazy group of guys. Card-playing, boozing, good food... Vices?
It was too damn cold and I got out of the room after a mere 2 hours of sleep (we slept at at 5AM) and found a bench, which was too uncomfortable to sleep on! I ended up laying on the deck chair and it was fantastic sleeping there till the sun rose.
There was a dunking session of YY into the pool followed by a very decent attempt of trying to get Wei Liang into the pool also, but that didn't happen because of his squirming! We made our way down to Sentosa's beach (yes, we were at Costa Sands at Sentosa).
After an hour or so, we were hit by exhaustion from the previous night's activities. The lack of sleep combined with the alcohol got me really tired. I wasn't even thinking straight at times. And the sand kept flying into my eyes when we played volleyball. This was the last photo we took at the beach just before half of them left to return to the chalet to rest.
The ones left were YY, Terence, Mu Qin and me. We played a couple of matches against other people and won (hooray!). After that Desmond and Mu Qin's girlfriend came down and we had a 6 on 6 with this other group of people. It was amazing that we managed to win the game when we were losing 23-11! It was painful to have to catch up by so many points, and even more nerve-wrecking when we managed a deuce and ecstatic, when we finally won. We played till about 3pm, with nothing in our stomachs except water. It was really the best volleyball match(es) I've been part of. It's that inexplicable high from winning and playing. I enjoyed myself tremendously.
We went back to the chalet and left our stuff there before going for lunch at Palawan Beach's foodcourt. After buying some supplies for the BBQ, we went back to the chalet. I went to sleep because I was seriously exhausted from the day's activities. I didn't realise how tired I was from the volleyball matches until my legs ached while I was walking up the stairs to the chalet!
The BBQ was a quieter affair compared to the previous day. However, the food was orgasmic. The stingray and chicken wings dripping with honey were amazing. I stayed clear of the otah though! *insert embarrassing story of consecutive Big 2 losses here* There were some small talk about girls, army and jobs.
Terence and I wanted to go back home, but as it turned out, everyone left on that day itself despite us having rented another night at the chalet. There was some money issue caused by people not turning up. We left the place at 1030 after packing up. I didn't get the chance to tell them how much I appreciated them organising the gathering and how much enjoyed myself as YiLiang, Sidney, Jasper and I took Song's car to CCK before taking the train home.
This chalet taught me to open up to people. I think I've said more stuff to my platoonmates than I ever did in 3 months of BMT. They're a bunch of fantastic people and I'm thankful for the chance to catch up with them. As Terence told me, "Just talk to people, and they'll talk to you.". I used to take a long time observing people and seeing how they're like before talking to them, but taking a more active approach in getting to know people is better because you get better understanding of them than forming opinions based on just what you see.
It was a great learning experience for me, be it towards improving my personality or skills in volleyball. Certainly a gift of an unforgettable memory the year has brought me.
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