Tung's Return

It has almost been 2 weeks since Tung was back in Christchurch for his short visit - leaving everything he left for to return to everything he left behind. What a great 5 days it was indeed! For those few days, it felt like last year again. It was as if nothing had changed but everything had. The most significant being that most of us have since entered the work force. Yet, it was nice to have everyone come together again...

Wednesday 1st October

On the first night of his return, a few of us, namely Jin, Tung, Tzin Wei, Liz, Kim Loong & I went to Le Cafe for coffee. It was the usual - talking crap and hassling each other. It was just like old times. That's what we do best. And I could see that there would be a lot more coffee-ing to be done over the next few days.

Thursday 2nd October

We celebrated Tzin Wei's 26th birthday with dinner at Cookai Japanese Restaurant. We each ordered individual dishes, mine being the spicy prawns dish, and shared a bottle of riesling wine.

On top of that, we ordered what would become the dish of the night - "Virgin Voyage".

Which is made up of...

*YuM*! I'm personally not fond of "sashimi" but on this occasion, I gave it a go seeing as my philosophy is to always try something once. To be honest, it doesn't taste as bad as it sounds - "raw fish". Guess it's all in the mind. And if you're ever having a blocked nose, have some wasabi with that! Definitely does the trick! *fAiNt*!

... with the food!!



Just for Tzin Wei... :)


From left to right: Me, Jin, Kim Loong, Tzin Chung, Liz, Tzin Wei, Tung & Seng

After our big feed, we reconvened with coffee at Starbucks:

From left to right: Seng, Hock, Cin, Tzin Chung, Kim Loong, Jin, Me, Tung, Liz, Tzin Wei & Ronald

As usual, we made a stop at Timezone and played until they closed which was just after midnight. While the rest carried on karaoke-ing into the wee hours of the morning, I, unlike someone, wasn't on annual leave and had to work the following day.

Friday 3rd October

Went out for a late lunch with Jin, Tung, Tzin Wei & Kim Loong for chicken rice - my weekly ritual! *YuM*! After that, went to Tap Room for coffee. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I could actually feel the heat on my back! I couldn't stay there long though seeing as I had to return to work. :( Good thing that it was a Friday! TGIF!

That night, Jin and I finally went to watch "House Bunny" - yes, it was my choice! Bleh! Just in case some of you are planning on watching the movie, I won't spoil the storyline for you. All i'll say is that it's not filled with mind-boggling twists and it's definitely not an action-packed movie. In fact, it's quite a blonde movie but it's funny in it's own way. Hehe... And i'll admit that it's a really girlie movie. Haha!

After the movie, we went down to town to meet up with the rest at Boys & Girls for karaoke! It's been a long time since there were so many of us in the one room. For a moment, I just sat there and enjoyed the noisy buzz of everyone's chatter. I've really missed that. It was a great feeling to hear it again.

So what brought us all together that night? I suppose it was to celebrate Tzin Wei's birthday, together with welcoming Tung back to Christchurch, along with Freddie and Linda. I didn't take too many photos. Not sure why. Perhaps it's cuz I wasn't intoxicated enough to go around being absolutely crazy! Also, a few of us left at 1:30am because of the wedding the following day. So it ended up not being a huge night!

Tzin Wei with the birthday cake...




Everyone together again...


Back row: Chin Yang, Tuan, Jin, Freddie, Tzin Wei, Ben, Kim Loong, Cheong & Tung

Front row: Eileen, Ai Ling, Me, Linda, Seng, Cin & Hock

Saturday 4th October

So the main purpose for Tung's return was to attend his sister's wedding and this was the day! It was a lovely church wedding ceremony. Only thing was that I couldn't understand most of it unless I was concentrating extremely hard as the service was conducted in Mandarin. It was a beautiful ceremony, nonetheless - what I could make of it anyway.

Ring bearer & flower girls



Here comes the bride...



The bride & groom...




The newly weds!



Group photo!


From left to right: Linda, Kim Loong, Tzin Wei, Me, Freddie & Tung

Throwing of the bouquet



... and the winner is... AI LING!



Me & Jin... before he resumed his driver duties. Poor thing...



The wedding cake~



Altogether now...


From left to right: Tzin Wei, Kim Loong, Linda, Tung, Freddie, Tuan, Ai Ling, Chin Yang, Aileen, Jin & I

Me & the guys...



Outside the church


From left to right: Kim Loong, Tzin Wei, Linda, Tung, Freddie & I

Later that night, we also attended the dinner reception held at Happy Fine. We weren't sitting in the main dining area so all we did was pretty much eat, drink and be merry. I only had a couple glasses of wine which definitely didn't help the headache that I had been suffering from for the whole day. Couldn't say the same for Tzin Wei and Freddie though who by the end of the night, probably threw up everything they had eaten for dinner. The saying of the night: "Yesu ai ni!" *fAiNt*!

With Linda & Ai Ling...



... Freddie & Tung...



... Jin

We were all exhausted by the end of the night. The initial plan was for everyone to head down to Crowne Plaza for coffee. Tzin Wei and Freddie were far too drunk, so we ended up sending them home. Linda was too tired and went home to sleep. It ended up being just Jin, Tung & I who went down to meet up with Chin Yang, Aileen, Tuan & Ai Ling. By the time we arrived there, the bar was closing so it must have been around 12:30am. We called it a night around an hour later I think. Needless to say, when my head finally hit the pillow, I was in dream land!

Sunday 5th October

Practically spent the whole day at home in bed watching series and sleeping except when I went out to buy lunch with Tzin Wei & Ben. It was the first time I ate the hot dog at Wendy's. Probably wasn't the best first time experience - they added way too much sauce as in, every bite you took, the sauce would ooze out making it super messy and they didn't even offer to put cheese in. Talk about inconsistency for service!

Anyway, finally got out of bed to meet up with the rest for dinner at Chopsticks. Had an early dinner as Linda and Freddie had to head to the airport around 6:30pm. It was quite sad really - sort of a group break-up dinner.

Farewell ya'll


From left to right: Danny, Melissa, Aunty, Carissa, Ben, Freddie, Linda, Tung, Tzin Wei, Liz, Jin & I

Most of us couldn't make it to the airport to see Linda and Freddie off as we had volleyball that night. I suppose it's not too bad as they're just in Wellington. Freddie comes down every now and then anyway. Hehe... Just trying to make myself feel less guilty for not seeing them off! :P

After volleyball, went for supper at Ancestral so that Tung could meet up with Bernard and the rest of the engineering crew. I couldn't stay too long as I had work the next day.

Monday 6th October

Left work early to see Tung off at the airport. Silly guy didn't even bother to check what time his flight was - expected it to be at 5:30pm when it was actually 4:30pm. Good thing I checked! It's strange how on the Christchurch Airport website, it said 4:30pm but on the Pacific Blue website, it said 5:30pm. I wonder if it was due to daylights' savings that they hadn't changed it? Which is quite bad for passengers who don't check with the local airport! Now that I think about it, I don't think he would have minded if he had accidentally missed his flight. Hehe... Didn't take any photos at the airport which I regret now.

Well, that brings us to the aftermath of Tung's departure from Christchurch.

If you're reading this then here's a special message for you...

It didn't hit me 'til you walked through the gate, turned around and waved goodbye as we all stood there, watching you leave us behind all over again.

But like you said once before - "We shall meet again..." and indeed, we shall. :)

Take care!