MC chalet is over. :)

Was especially enjoyable coz we didn't have to pay anything (well, hardly anything) since the whole thing was funded by the extra that um... I dunno, suddenly appeared in the Welfare Cell's budget. :P

Anyway, was fun, although it could've been more so if it'd only rained less.

Met at Parkway Parade and bought a whole lot of food for the barbecue before checking in; was tempted to buy a book from the MPH there while the earlier few of us were waiting for the rest of the MC to show up, but decided not to. :P

Learned that tau pok can be rather excruciating; both to be involved in and to watch. Tau pok refers to this thing that the guys sometimes do, randomly picking one guy, and then a whole bunch of them pile on top of him; all done in friendliness, of course. :)

When we got to the chalet, first thing that they did was to tau pok Xuzi, the poor guy. :P

And I've done at least one new thing this year, aside from stepping into a club for the first time at the mini-bash during Arts Camp-- we went for a KTV session altogether on the first night of the chalet; wasn't completely enjoyable for me, since most of them wanted to sing Chinese songs which I knew absolutely nothing of, but it was all right.

Chong Han wanted to sing Phantom of the Opera stuff since he'd recently watched the movie (he's already spouting off random lyrics at random intervals as it is), and I managed to spot "Music of the Night" on the selection list for him!

Then later, when he and Diana and me were singing it together, I think I kinda shocked Steven at how high I can go. :P Got horribly embarrassed after that, so I left it to Chong Han and Diana to finish the song.

Xinyan brought her lappie so that we could watch movies on it, and earlier, we'd rented a few VCDs at Parkway, so after we'd all bathed
and were sitting around doing nothing, Alvin, Hock, Yuimin, Xinyan and I all gathered around her lappie on the beds in our room to watch the first disc of Bridget Jones' Diary; was pretty damn funny, really. :D I love British humour. :D

Speaking of rooms; we got rooms K7 and K8-- K8 was all right, although I suppose it could get a tad stuffy if a lot of people were in it, but K7 (my room) was freezing.

Second day... came back to the world of the living somewhere around 11 am, I think, but we lazed around the room till about 12, haha; had brunch at the McDonald's (quite a long way down the road), then we walked back to the chalet to start on preparations for the barbecue. Most of us decided to rent bicycles on the way back in the end; only $6 a day! Anyone who wants to rent bicycles for a nice ride in the park, go to East Coast Park, I'm telling you. :P

So, bicycles. It's been an awfully long time since I last rode a bicycle, so was a bit unstable at first, but was all right, I guess. :P

Got back to the chalet and started thawing the food and washing it and marinating and seasoning and whatever whatnot, and came to the most interesting epiphany that livestock lead better lives than we do. Aside from the "getting slaughtered for food" part of the clause, that is.

I mean, all they ever have to do is eat and eat and eat, and to ensure that they're healthy, the owners of livestock farms will also definitely ensure that they have good living conditions and that they're well taken care of; and even after they've been slaughted, they'll still be washed and given a massage (in marinade). We should all have been born chickens or something. A lot less worries, no? :P

Finished everything at some point in the afternoon, after which we made our way down to the beach, presumably to play Captain's Ball in the water, but silly accident-prone stubbed my toe on some rough, sharp rock; basically abraded the skin on my left big toe to the extent that it started bleeding. So, no water games for me.

Cycled back to the chalet, did some last-minute fiddling around with Ivan's and Denise's prezzies, and took a nap till the rest of them came back at about 5 pm. Was actually surprised that they came back as late as they did, coz while I was cycling back, it was already starting to rain. Which means that the lot of them had been playing in heavy rain, while out in the surf. They're crazy, that's what. And probably suicidal. But then, that's not really my business. So, meh.

The guys got the fire started and we began cooking food at about 7 pm; Yuimin went nuts and spiked everything except the Jasmine Green Tea. Most of the affiliates who were coming were late coz of the heavy rain and traffic jams and whatnot, so after we'd cooked (and eaten) quite a lot of food, a few of us grabbed the bicycles that we'd rented at about 8 pm and rode off. We cycled all the way to Bedok Jetty and stayed there for about 10 minutes.

We pretty much went into our own little corners then, and right then, I had too much time to think. It's my brain's natural response, I'm telling you; leave me alone and before long, I'll start thinking strange/ deep/ confusing /worrying thoughts.

Thought about exam results and scholarships and school fees and the friends I have and the sorry state of my non-existent love life and strange random things, like how since the jetty was so long, standing at the end of it made it so that really, you were standing right in the middle of the open sea.

We headed back after that, and I think all of us were in a much more sombre mood then. Arrived back at the chalet as it was nearing 9 pm, and was quite tired by then. Tired from the activities of that day and the previous day, tired from too much thinking and too much to think about, tired from constantly having so many people around for almost two whole days.

Ivan had arrived by then, and God, I was so grateful for that. Yes, I know, the MC chalet was supposed to make us all bond and everything, and it probably did, to some extent, but let's face it: I'll readily admit that there will always be only so few people whom I will feel completely confortable with.

Denise arrived a few minutes later, after quite a lot of confusion, but hey, she managed to get to where we were, which really, is all that mattered. Ivan cut his birthday cake (which he later told me was the one thing which had surprised him the most; he hadn't been expecting a cake, he said) and then the most amusing thing of the whole night was when Denise, Ivan and I were all trying to plan to give each other presents and pretending that all of us didn't already know, haha.

See, Denise's Christmas prezzie was bought by Ivan and me, Denise and I had shared Ivan's Christmas-cum-birthday present, and the two of them had shared my Christmas prezzie.

I think the only one who wasn't exactly expecting a present was Ivan, haha.

I was creeping around the both of them, getting Denise to write a short message for Ivan's present, and Ivan to do the same for Denise, and I noticed the two of them giving each other pointed looks and mouthing words to each other while glancing at me; the whole thing was quite silly and laughable, really, but it was so much fun!! Gift exchange!! :D

Ivan and Denise got me Esprit's "Free" fragrance (yippee!! lovely lovely sparkly shimmery glitter..!), and Denise told me about how it was something of a joke when Ivan bought it.

Denise: I told him to just go up to the Esprit counter and ask for the Free perfume, and he told me, 'Yeah, and what kind of free perfume costs $39??'"

*Bursts out laughing*

People started to drift off inside the chalet then, where it was cooler and everyone was just getting lazy and clustering around the TV in one of the rooms. Then someone started a game of "Silent Heart Attack" and that left just a few of us lingering outside, joking quietly while being intermittently interrupted by screams and raucous laughter from inside the rooms.

It got to the point though, that the rest eventually went on back in, leaving only Ivan and me with the barbecue and some of the food that had been left on it for pretty long. We found that those food were already half-burnt, so we decided to indulge our pyromaniacal tendencies for a while, especially since no one else was around.

We chucked all the half-burnt food into the pit itself, letting it catch fire and burn, and all the while, Ivan was grinning away while chanting parts of that verse/rap from "Eight Mile" where Eminem and his buddies are burning down that abandoned house where a girl was raped or something in the movie, I think.

When the sausages and other finger food were little more than blackened masses and cinders, we started putting stuff away, then Ivan and I went for a really long walk all the way to Bedok Jetty; I suggested walking there coz well, I don't know East Coast Park, and since we'd only just cycled there, that was the only place which I could think of.

Was nice, walking and talking about everything and anything; was probably also somewhat disturbing and fascinating at the same time coz he and I have problems which are well, quite freakily similar. Reached the jetty and hung around for a while; watched one of the fishermen there think that he'd landed something, but in the end, it turned out to be just a plastic bag; too bad for him.

When we were walking back though, it started raining, so we had to stick it out at one of the shelters near the jetty, where we chattered on some more. Started walking again when the rain stopped, but as we neared the chalet, it started again!

And the sucky thing with that was that Denise had informed us that the side gates had all been shut and locked, so we had to go around the side to the main entrance to the chalets! So by the time we got back, we were both rather wet; not completely soaked to the bone, but still, quite drenched.

We were back at about 3.30 am; we'd been gone for about two hours, and by then, everyone who was staying over for the second night was huddled up in one room, gossipping about stuff that Ivan and I only caught on to later. Some of the gossip brought a considerable amount of anguish to some people, but I shan't say, because er.. well, they wouldn't want everyone else to know either. :P

There was some debate as to whether or not we should even consider sleeping, but in the end, we did; at about 6 am. :P

The rain didn't stop though, and when we woke up at 10.30 to be checked out by 11 am, a lot of us found that we really didn't want to wake up, especially since my room was so cold and the blankets were so warm and the rain was so heavy.

But then the rain started letting up and we checked out anyway; I reached home sometime past 12, and slept till about 7.30 pm, haha... and really, that's about it; that's how I spent the last few days of the year. :)