The Last Bang

"Guy Fawkes Day" signified the last bang for the group and indeed it was. Despite the persistent rain which ended up being a heavy down pour, it did not deter us from carrying on with our plans that Ronald had kindly organised for us all. At 10:00pm last Monday, it was ON! We all gathered at Ray Blank Park ready for our own fireworks display.

No doubt our "Earthshaker" box costing almost $200 from The Warehouse was of no competition for the fireworks display at the New Brighton Pier but that wasn't the underlying motive. I won't contest that spending that amount of money on fireworks is a waste of money. However, at the end of the day... it's not about the money but rather the company. I think we can all agree on that, no matter how old we are. *EviL EyEs*!

On reflection, it was nice to see almost everyone there, with a few exceptions. I must admit that I had a higher expection of everyone's willingness to get out there and be a kid again but with the crappy weather that we faced, I think everyone was very sporting. Overall, it was fun and will definitely be a memorable occasion. That night brought back a lot of memories - the many times we've enjoyed such moments, all the extremely dangerous instances where the fireworks have toppled over in the past, but more so, the joy, laughter and even screams of close friends.

The quote of the night: "Shit, the fuse so short la... Where's Seng?" said by Hock. Haha!

Fireworks shopping on the Saturday before...




Fireworks galore!

More photos to come. Hang tight! :)

Scar Face

Just as entitled, this is me relating the story behind my scarred face...

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. There was a slight warm breeze to accompany the strong rays of sunshine. It was probably the best weather we've had all year! The spectacular weather sparked Tzin Wei to organise a group "picnic" to Spencer Park where there's a beach volleyball sand pit. I say "picnic" because when we got there, no food was in sight except for a bottle of coke sitting on the picnic table and the fruits and juice that what we brought. Uh huh... "picnic" eh?

The weather didn't look too good on our ride out there - dark clouds had gathered, blocking the sun and the breeze had become slightly chilly. We turned up later than expected because somehow we managed to miss the turning into the park (although the signs were very clear... thank you Christchurch City Council - haha!) and drove straight down the road heading somewhere towards the beach which ended up taking us in circles. It also didn't help that there was no network coverage so we couldn't contact the rest and they couldn't contact us. Actually, Ronald's phone (Sony Ericsson) had coverage but everyone else has a Nokia so that proved to be of no help either. Bleh! Says something about Nokia eh? :þ~

Anyhow, we had a lovely Saturday afternoon playing beach volleyball, eating and just fooling around. Pictures can say a thousand words so I shall zip-it for now and let you all enjoy the photos... More will be placed on the photo section at a later date.

So why "scar face"? See those monkey-ring-things that Tzin Wei and Seng are playing on? Can't really remember what was going through my mind at the time but I thought i'd give it a go. So I climbed the side pillar and grabbed onto the first ring with my right hand. After pausing for a while to talk myself into doing it, I pushed off the pillar with my feet and reached out for the second ring with my left hand. I couldn't reach it as somehow it was swinging away from me. Meanwhile, my right hand was slipping from the first ring. Next thing I know, I was falling through the air, managed to touch the ground initially with my right foot but turned and fell sideways into the bark on the ground. *KaPLeUk*!

My intial thought was... "Oh shit! What have I done?!". With my eyes tightly squeezed, I tried moving both my ankles, then my wrists. *pHeW*! Nothing broken. Next thing, I tried to calm myself down - mainly to stop myself from crying I think, which from past experiences is my automatic reaction when i'm in shock. Which reminds me of what Mark told me the other day... I'm like my favourite fruit... Hard and sharp on the outside but soft and creamy on the inside! Hehe! Can you guess the fruit? Hmmm... So anyway, I may have embarrassed myself with the fall but thank goodness there were no tears!

After I opened my eyes, I saw people looking down at me. My main concern was... "Is there any blood?" I think I must have asked the same question at least 5 times. There's one thing about me that most of my friends know, i'm seriously scared of blood. If someone were to injure themselves, i'd look to see if they were alright but if there was any blood, i'd immediately turn away. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I get all squirmish when I see blood. If i'm bleeding myself... OMG! Total panic! Hehe! Good thing there was no blood then, just scratches on the left side of my forehead and around my eye. No biggie! The fall was really scary though. I still managed to put on a smile after I got cleaned up although it was stinging like hell! :þ~

We left the park soon after to have dinner at Great Wall. It's under new management. The food seems to be just as nice though. A few of you realised that I fell unusually quiet over dinner. Perhaps I was still in shock? Maybe? But more so, it made me think of what would have happened had I died? I don't mean to be morbid, but so what if I had? I guess, a lot of things would have been left unsaid which may or may not be a good thing.

I had trouble sleeping that night. I thought of everything that has happened these past few years. I looked back on old photos which I have isolated. I searched for new ones and was saddened by them. I thought I was doing fine, I thought I was getting there. But that day, I realised that although I had taken one step forward, I had also taken ten steps back. I need to keep them buried. I'm not ready to dig things up again.

This smile of mine that I wear, it's not one of happiness but rather, one of hope. Hope for better things to come. Hope that I will find true happiness again. Hope that i'll live on. Whoever said that hope can cause more pain, well maybe that's true but none of us can live without it because without hope, who knows? I may have landed differently and I may not have seen today.

Halloween special

Our halloween spirit started off when the four team members of "beautiful girls" decided to be colour coordinated - Hock & Cin wearing yellow, Mark & I wearing red puma t-shirts. It might have been a mistake that ended up almost causing us to lose because Mark confessed after the games that he found it rather distracting. How you doing?! (Joey style) Anyway, i've vowed never to wear that shirt again! Bad karma~ :P

In the car on the way to badminton, some bright spark had an idea to bring out the Halloween spirit in everyone and pay our friends a visit later that night armed with water guns. We had it all planned out. It was brilliant! So after eating supper, our preparation began... first to Mark's house to get the water guns and fill it up with water. We even had a decoy using a water sprayer thingee. Once all 5 of us gathered (Ronald, Mark, Hock, Cin & I), we were off!

First stop... Yang's house. The plan... Cin (holding the water sprayer) and I (holding the camera) would knock on his front door until he opened. *kNoCk* *kNoCk*! Took him sometime to open the door. I wonder what he was doing... HMMM!! Even heard him zip up his jacket. Maybe he was naked inside? Haha! OMG! I really don't want to imagine. Anyway, once he opened we asked him "trick or treat"... Obviously none of our friends would have candy to offer us so the clear choice would be "trick". He played right into our game! Trick huh? Cin brought out the water sprayer and sprayed a bit of water in his face. He thought that was all but no! While she sprayed, I manoeuvred myself to stand infront of his door, Hock and Mark came out from behind us spraying water at Yang until he ran to the back of his house to get his garden hose. Once we caught on, we all ran away out of reach of the hose. Mark was quite smart though, hiding infront of his door so that when Yang came out and tried to retreat into his house, he ran straight into Mark's firing range! Haha! Classic moment... He finally managed to make his way into the house and locked us out. We surrendered and knocked on his door to be asked "have you guys calmed down yet?"! Haha... funny stuff... Hence, "shock and awe"! :þ~

Victim #1 - Gerald Chang:

By the time we left Yang's house it was 11:30pm... Halloween was almost over! So we decided to squeeze in a second stop which would end up being our last. Who else but Tzin Wei! It was quite hard to get him cuz he was at another friend's house and thought there was something urgent. When he called me, I told him that there was a problem and that I needed to tell him face to face. We arranged to meet at his house. I felt so bad lying to him... I think he'll never trust me again! Haha! But... *DeNg* *DeNg*! Victim in place! Haha!!

On the way to his house, we discussed how to lure him out of the house. I wanted to act all pitiful and sit down on his porch until he came out and asked me what's wrong which would be the perfect time to shoot him, but our plans went down the drain because as we approached his house we realised that he was waiting outside! He could see all of us in Ronald's car! After that, he came to meet us all on the street but we didn't care, shoot nia!! Haha! I felt like a little kid again... playing out on the road in the middle of the night! Awesome time~ Until he too, went for his garden hose to which we all ran like hell (again)! Great minds think alike huh? :þ~

Victim #2 - Tzin Wei Lai:

Unknown to me, while I was inside Tzin Wei's house taking the above photo, the others were planning their attack on who would become victim #3. Yes, that would be me... "the mastermind became the victim"! Grr! Ronald, who pushed me outside, also held me while Mark and Hock water bombed me. I refused to go down alone so I backed him into the corner and bent down so that he too would be in the line of fire! MuaHaHaHaHa~!! Smart thinking eh? Only not smart enough... The surprise was when Tzin Wei finally opened the front door, stood there holding a bucket full of water with a huge grin on his face and threw it all over me. Good one guys!

Victim #3 - Mabel Tan:

Honestly, I haven't had this much fun in ages! Just simple fun, you know? Good memories... and i'd like to think that this is probably the start of more to come... I can see it... It's going to be like the old days but even better! :)

The Halloween Crew:

Me - before, during, after: