Catchin up with friends from secondary days

One thing about heading back to sg every few months, I get to really catch up with old friends that I havent seen for ages, and i mean ages in years....

It has been a while since I promised myself that I would rotate meeting all my different friends on each trip. It's a reminder that I shouldnt restrict myself to a limited group of friends because that would only result in losing and drifting from the rest of the people who may have less influence in my life now but yet, had mattered so much to me in the past.

I have witnessed many female friends who just get attached, married, have kids and so consumed with their current life that they unconsciously totaled their own social circle so completely that suddenly, should one day their marriage or relationship break down. They actually are shocked that they didnt have many friends left. Strangely, that happen less to guys. Well some guys at least...and life is such.

Anycase, this time round i had a chance of meeting someone from each stage of my life from high school to college to uni.



It was good to catch up with my high school girlfriends. Strange how I met them both in high school but under different circumstances and much later in life, both of them got acquainted themselves and became best friends in uni. We didnt even realise the common link till we started working. How strange. However, its always a good thing that 2 of your good friends are also good friends with one another. It's nice to see both of them remaining to slim and in vogue after being mummies. It's a good thing that they didnt let themselves go! I think most sg women though have learnt to continue looking good after giving birth unlike those years of our mummies and grannies. We had dinner at Kuriya at Cityhall and frankly, I do not quite like the offering nor the price here.




I was elated to finally catch my college friend this trip. I havent seen her since her wedding couple of years back and she is as pretty and slim as ever. Why doesnt any of my close friends get out of shape after birth. It is so against my "belief".....

She is strangely one friend of mine which had spent the "shortest" time together being only first 3 months before her mum insisted she should swap to another college. Yet everyday of that 3 months was a bliss. I cannot rem how we maintain our friendship the last 16 years but somehow we did. I always got along with my good friends mum and hers was no exception. I still rem all those nice meals and soup her mum fed me with.

Looking back, I wished she didnt leave and perhaps college life would have been greater fun for me. I was too lazy to travel the distance to swap college and ended up with 2 half arse years, very much hating one year of it. Then again, I would never have found another good friend like E if I did leave. I guess its all about fate.



On a separate occasion, had a chance to have a nice relaxing afternoon lunch and chitchat session at siglap with one of my ex-course mate, the 3rd ex-NY girl this trip... It's a good thing that her office is so near my place and a bonus that she drives! Still amused at how I ended up being better friends with ex-NY girls than ex-IJ girls out of school environment. She said she havent laughed so much in months. Do I really make people laugh so much? Hmmmm... I never think I have a funny bone... must be my theatrical re-narrating of incidents... Anycase, we had a really nice drink at coffee club. Their milkshake is still as good as ever...though i better watch those intake of cream with my big fat arms in the making.... disgusting... got to stop wearing sleeveless...



Finally, while I completely missed my old uni buddy during his trip to HK, it was fortunate we had a chance to catch up in Singapore when he got back!! It's pretty great seeing him after 5 years since our last partnering up in work. We always talk about catching up while he was working in BJ and shanghai the last 4 years but somehow, time and schedule was never on our side. So when he actually did call me to meet up as promised, it was kinda nostalgic seeing him again, not to mention hours of laughters! Somehow those memories of days when I had to drag him to lecture, lending him my lecture notes and forcing him to do his tutorials came flooding back. It definitely was not those love relationship thingie since we were both seeing someone else then. It was those very comfortable silbing sort of friendship where u can be perfectly at ease and be yourself. Its hard to get those sort of non-superficial friendship anymore.
So after his nappy changing and reading story book to son session, he pop over. He joked that life only starts after 9pm once u have kids!
The first thing I said to him "Seeing you reminds me of Taiwan Sausage!!!" and he went "Oi!!!" It really does. Every time if i go to Pasa Malam and see taiwan sausage, it brings a smile.
Back in Uni, we used to head straight to his hostel room after the stupid 9.30am lecture and wait for the next 3.30pm lecture and he would always whip up his stash of pipping hot Taiwan sausage as our "lunch" while I rummage through other goodies and drooling over the smell of food, trying to do our tutorial. I still recall his room is like a pantry in itself with all the tin cans and small portable oven.

He was also the very same poor soul who had to shoulder all the daggers from the girls outside the uni library when they saw me "crying" and trying to wipe my tears, as my poor friend stood helplessly grinning like a silly duck next to me. The other students had thought he had bullied me but truth was, I was laughing so hard over something he said till I teared and breatheless and ended up half squatting against the wall. He never let me forget that incident....said i sabo him...grumbling all the way as we walk our way back to hall...haaa haaaa

That eve, we completely disrupted any sort of attempted posh ambience of the hotel lounge with our constant guffaws... We both acknowledged that we havent change much. He is still as funny as ever and not even aging (disgusting i hate him for that!) and he said I still laugh as loud as ever..and easily tickled by his cracks and christ, he prob is the only one left to remind me of my uni-nickname among the group....basket... must silence him somehow...


Anycase, as with all proud mothers, the conversation also inevitably and eventually steered to his son with this proud father. However, at least his story was hilarious and had me roaring in laughter.

He shared that he had his"revenge" on his son the other night after countless bullying by the little one due to his teething frustrations, which in turn also made my friend exasperated by the little tantrums.

The 3 of the them shared the bed, with their 2 big dogs on the floor at the end of the bed. The little one loves the big dogs and one night for some reason, the toddler woke up in the middle of the night and crawled to the end of the bed to peek at the sleeping doggies. My friend who had his leg curled up and unknowingly sound asleep straightened his leg and like a ball, he kicked and booted his son, sending him flying off the edge of his bed!!

It was so funny when he said he got up in a flash and grab his son "pretending" not knowing what had happened. He told his wife his son must have accidentally fallen! haaa haaaaa. Yet in his head, after assured his son was alright, he laughed that he finally had his revenge on his son!!! The very idea of him chuckling in the dark and grinning away at the "payback" had me in stitches....