four days in singapore

i have a certain aversion to missing classes. i'm always paranoid that i'm going to miss that one mind-blowing concept that's forever going to change the way i understand... renal disease, for example.

so i get a little bit anxious/uncomfortable every time i have to take leave. and i always have to take control of the situation by rationalising the situation and reminding myself that a lot of students don't regimentally follow their clinical rosters.

and it is always worth it. i have never regretted taking the time off, and this time was no exception. i'll try my best to summarise:

friday
6.40am: arrived at Changi airport. caught a cab home, then had a nap.
lunch time: went to town with mum and my brother for lunch
2pm: hair appointment at 2pm.
4pm: back to katong to have my eyebrows shaped. here we bumped into jenny yeemah, who was getting her eyebrows done, too.
4.30pm: manicure and pedicure appointment. bumped into janet yeemah and ah kim. it seems like my whole extended family was having their hair/nails done at the same time!
night: dinner at some local restaurant with the savliwalas, yeemah's family, and weirong gor.

saturday
morning: we went to the temple to pai my grandparents. apparently it was the filial thing to do since my cousin was getting married. when we were standing around outside, i saw my parents talking to this caucasian guy and waving us over. i figured he was one of dad's colleagues, but then mum told me that he's my uncle bob! which meant that nicole's family was around... and before i knew it, there was my extended family again- janet yeemah's family, jenny yeemah's family, and the strausses. so we all went off to lunch together.

lunch: at tung lok with the temple crew, plus the savliwala family.

night: went to funyee's house to hang out with the family. the loreks were there, as well as the strausses. i went over to play with my cousin lucas, and i was like "ha! i found you", and the next thing i know, sophia was tugging at my skirt and saying "now you have to count to ten". well! apparently my hide-and-seek days weren't quite over.

sunday
morning: didn't sleep at all the night before because i had "nobody", by the wondergirls, stuck in my head. jumped out of bed when candice's alarm rang at 5am.

6.30am: arrived at sherlin jie's house. we were the first bridesmaids to arrive, apart from ruiqin, who'd spent the night.

~8.am: groom and groomsmen arrive for the gatecrash! i actually didn't get to see much of the games because i was whisked away to sherlin's room to act as the 'decoy bride'. that is, after charles and his 'brothers' had sung "I will always love you" at the top of their voices, they opened the door to find... me. i told them the bride wasn't here, and as charles turned away from the door, i am sure i heard a "shit! ...i'm going home". haha! of course the other bridesmaids pretended to 'forget' where sherlin jie was, until we were given more angpaos. that's how the game goes.

rest of day: wedding! i was trying so hard to look demure in the wedding procession, but i was so excited about being a bridesmaid that i was unable to wipe the huge, idiotic grin off my face. we got home way past midnight.

monday
morning: frantically googling possible restaurants for dinner.

lunch: at mum's favourite hawker centre on old airport road.

afternoon: went to plaza singapura with josh and nicole to watch the karate kid. then i insisted on getting hokkaido ice cream, because i was still delusional about them having taro-flavoured ice cream. they don't!!! i have been deceiving myself for two years! and they didn't even have any black sesame left, so i had to settle for milk tea ice cream.

dinner: i ended up celebrating my 21st at moomba, which was very fitting because it was an australian restaurant! we didn't book a private room, but because it was a monday night there were very few people and we ended up having the entire restaurant to ourselves later in the evening.

i'd actually planned on taking my presents back to Australia and opening them on my actual birthday, but i could tell from the bags that some of the gifts were very expensive, so i asked for a show of hands from those who wanted me to open their gift. everyone raised their hand! the gifts were pretty amazing, but i can honestly say that what made me happiest that night was that i could celebrate with my family. we're usually scattered all over the world, so it is very special when we can all be together.

the cake was lychee rose-flavoured, and it arrived with some very showy sparklers.

tuesday
flew back to perth today. i think i've averaged four of sleep/night over the past four days, so i am looking forward to a good night's sleep. and then to my 7.30am start tomorrow morning. i really shouldn't have bothered packing any O&G notes into my bag. it was such a wonderful trip, but it does feel great to be home.

random conversation from the trip:
me: "uncle please take me to ________"
taxi uncle: "oh you want ERP or PIE"
me: "err... i don't know, i can't remember. up to you."
-pause-
me: "um, but please don't bring me to JB (malaysia), can?"