Woke up too late to even contemplate the possibility of breakfast, so brunch it was. Noodles and rice and soup and stuff. It wasn't all that good but I enjoyed it all the same.

We had went out to Jurong East for lunch. "Do you remember this place?" Mom had gleefully pointed out on the bus.

"Of course I do," I protested indignantly. "It's my piano lesson place. I can't forget that."

Mom had to go there for some massage. So I went to the library while she was at her girly session.

I looked so out of place in the children's section, damnit. To be honest, what with the type of books down there, there should be older children loitering about. The books are fairly thick and complex. But I think the reason that only the littler fellows are down here is because of the genre.

I mean, you don't get a children's murder mystery, do you?

No. Even the Warriors series, which has a fair amount of death and gore and all that lovely stuff, still is relatively tame. Erin Hunter draws the line at necrophilia, after all.

I suppose that's where James Patterson and SF Said take different paths, then...But in a lot of children's books there are still quite a lot of dark themes. So maybe there's another reason.

I honestly don't know why the teenagers avoid them and go for the stuff (I'm biting my tongue from saying 'the crap') like Twilight. Is it because of the species? Anthromorphic, sentinent cats and dogs not your thing? That could be a factor as well.

But I'm just going in a pointless circle.

Anyway speaking of SF Said, I read his (or her???) masterpiece again in the library, Varjak Paw.

Absolutely fab book.

I love it so much.

I'm contemplating making it into a manga (yes, like with all the other books I've read)

Pity there was no time to read the sequel because then mom came back. Wow. A whole book. In one sitting. Before I had time to get over this stupendous revelation I was out of the library and drinking some warm, black herbal concoction mom had bought for me.

Which...I didn't like. But it grew on me damnit xD

We wandered around the shops a little and talked.

"Can we take a cab back?"

"What?" She asked, stupefied. "Why?"

I didn't know, actually. But at that moment I felt rather sick of buses and MRTs. Already. xD

"Granma always takes a cab around" Mom commented.

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know, probably thinks herself rich. Or important."

A laugh. "Is she?"

"Important? Oh, no. Rich? Oh, yes."

"Seriously? She doesn't look it."

"She has seven kids, she lives off them."

"Well then why can't we just ask money from her so we can take cabs around?"

"Haha she already gave you the gold chain!"

"Goodie! So let's pawn the chain and ride back in style."

________

We didn't ride back in style, as it were.


Later in the day we made our way over to Lakeside MRT and then from there to AMK MRT, where Aunt Daphne would come to pick me up for a sleepover.

Pretty much the whole reason why I was happy to be here, reuniting with friends & family.

Mom and her sister chatted the whole way and I just kinda sat there in their shiny Mercedes in comfortable silence. Although, I was starting to feel a bit disappointed...

They'd moved into a new house just before I moved to NZ, and I hadn't seen it yet. And when I did, I was...just...phwoar. Blown away.

G O R G E O U S crib, man. Absolutely gorgeous. Five levels (including basement & attic), absolutely stunning, 3 individual rooms for the kids, and guest rooms, and so many toilets, and a garden, and a conference room, and a garden, and all in all it's just a stunning place. Oh man. Oh man I'd like to live there.

I met their cat, too. Sebastian: a little tabby with blue eyes and so different to the cats I've ever seen. Well, then again, the only cats I've ever seen are the old and lethargic strays in Singapore. This was a kitten.

And an energetic one, at that.

Ran all over and around and under the place. And Sebastian bit, too. Sharp teeth, but they barely leave a scratch. Over the days he (she?) would grow fond of nibbling my hands and feet whenever it had the chance.

Apparently we'd be going to a seafood place for dinner.

'So...where are we going?'

'The crab house'

'Wait, wha...? Oh, okay. I thought you said the crap house.'

'XD'

Crab!

Crab!

The first time in a year I'd eaten crabs (save for the smallish, pathetic excuses of crabs we'd fished from the sea in Wellington). Oh god. I was so deprived haha. We had curry crab (with the little bread pieces to dip), and then black pepper. Unsurprisingly, the black pepper far exceeded the curry one in terms of spiciness.

Dinner was a fun affair. I drank coconut juice and played around with the flesh. Drew on my mom's notepad. And...promptly lost it once we went back to their house. Which was a shame because I had drawn lots of good stuff in that notepad. Why is it that I always draw my best works on scrap notepaper with pens, of all things, and in the most surprising locations?

After that, Mom left, and I watched a Korean drama in their living room. There were four of the most gorgeous asian boys starring (although sadly none of them were Lee Jun Ki). Rachel asked which one I liked the best.

"Hm..." I had to go for the pretty brunette with the neat hair.

A part of me worried that I picked him simply because he looked a lot like Raito.

I thought about this, considered it a very possible probability and then dismissed the thought.

But the guy was nothing like Raito, he was all quiet and shy and hardly spoke a word. In fact if I met a guy with that kind of personality in real life I'd like to give him a slap, supermodel looks or not.

Then I went up to the highest floor, the attic. The attic was home to a magnificent guest room, huge and splendid. It was where aunt Jane slept. And it was fucking epic.

I took a bath there, was an idiot and didn't realize there were no towels so I did the best I could with my spare clothes. I was damn lucky I didn't catch pneumonia.


I slept in Rachel's room.
______________________________

Next morning was woken up by aunt Daphne.

We had to go to Church.

This was the only thing I didn't like about the whole arrangement. Church.

God, I would be so bored...

_____________________

I would go with Rachel, all the P6's in one area. It would last 3 hours, 9 - 12.

"So, what's the arrangement?"

"From 9 to 10 we stay here, and sing and the pastor will preach, and then from 10 to 10:30 we go to lessons, and then from 12 to 1..."

"Yeah? From 12 to 1?"

"Um, we do activities."

"Like what?"

"Like...well, activities."

No matter how many times I asked I still got a rather vague answer, so I gave up eventually. I reallllyyy wasn't looking forward to the 'activities', though, whatever they were.

Halfway during the singing/preaching, I was approached by a lady holding a clipboard. She told me to fill out a new arrival's sheet.

"How'd they know?!" I whispered to Rachel.

"Oh, they know. They know the faces of folks here."

I filled it in to the best of my ability - fuck, I had to do it in Chinese -, only stopping to ask Rachel once or twice, 'Wait...What?...'

'Oh that means your parents and your parent's number.'

'Ah.'

The girl behind me was probably pretty amused. And I should've been feeling awkward, but I wasn't. I actually felt pretty amused, too. I'd lost all my shyness and awkwardness over the years. Good riddance. Social graces are such a drain.

After I finished I handed it to the girl.

Later on in the session the man suddenly announced my arrival (in Chinese, of course). I actually wasn't listening, my mind lost in daydreams. And then Rachel nudged me and once I noticed the customary applause for new arrivals, I said, 'That was unexpected,' buried my face in my palm, laughed, said, 'Did not see that coming...'


__________________________

At the transition period between preaching session and lessons, we could eat and drink and basically chat. I stood outside, standing there just munching a bread bun and suddenly found myself in conversation with two old gents.

It was hard to keep up.

I had to keep pretending I didn't hear, damnit.

Jesus, it was embarrassing. My Chinese really sucks. I had to ask Rachel for help a few times. We all laughed. (at me or with me?) After that ordeal (and I'd decided that, OK, I still did have some awkwardness left in me), we went to the lesson.

I was to share Rachel's books and stuff, since I had none of my own. The teacher asked me in a hushed voice, 'Em, are you a Christian?'

I lied 'Yes'

She nodded and started the lesson.

'Of course,' I said to Rachel. 'If you're not Christian then why go to a church?' I laughed. She laughed, too.

'Well, maybe...Y'know, to be...'

'Oh,' I said, realization dawning. 'To be converted.'

. . .

'...But are you?'

Rachel's sharper than she looks.

'No,' I said easily.

'Ohhh...'

'Well,' I smirked, 'I was. Once.'

'Really? Can you tell me why?'

'Sure,' I said, and meant it. 'But later okay?'

'Okay,' she smiled.

There was this dude in a red shirt who kept disrupting the lesson. These kinds of kids were in plenty. Noisy, thinking themselves witty, rebellious. And fun.

I'd missed the SG boys, the outwardly geeky appearance, the glasses, the spike haircut, the board shoulders, the skinniness, the toothy grin, and those bigger-than-average adam's apples.


The room was comfortable and despite the chatter, it was easy to daydream. I didn't bother even paying attention and drifted off, call it sleeping with one's eyes open if you will.
_____________________________

the 'activity', as it turned out, was held in another, wider room. We were told to draw the person we hated the most in the whole wide world, a major asshole you'd love to knock the living daylights out.

I thought, amused, that some people would draw Light Yagami, given that challenge.

I drew Mrs Habeeb, even though I don't hate her. She was the closest I could get, anyway. Well, except for my p3/4 Chinese teacher, but I can't even remember her name or what she looks like anyway...

after that, the pictures were all stapled to a board and we could all have a go to throw darts at the faces.

The response was halfhearted.

And after all that, we were given a lesson and a moral story on how to forgive and forget; love your enemies and all that stuff.Honestly now? Nobody cared. We were all talking and mucking about.

Wow...Sunday school teacher is officially the worst job in the world.

____________________________________

After church, lunch at burger king! Uncle Harold was busy so the teens and tweens just sat at a table. I had a mushroom swiss. Wow. Cheese and mushrooms. Epicsauce much?

I played this guitar-hero-type-game on Esther's iPod. I can't remember now what type of iPod it was, but anyway.

There were no Muse songs, unfortunately, so I settled for Coldplay's Lovers in Japan.

Wow. Medium level and I just about DIED.

Seriously. It was so hard. XD

After a while Esther took me out of my misery LOL. I wonder how she got that good at the game. Practice, probably.

______________________________________

I'd picked up a book to read, from Esther's bookshelf.

Seeing as how those days were dull and disappointing, and the girls were all either very busy or uninterested in my presence, a book would do me good.

I selected a James Patterson novel, purely because, well, he was such a reverend name in the world of murder mystery - I had to read something from him.

Roses are Red. Provocative title, and a very provocative cover image, but the back told all: the crimes were that of robbery-murder, and very little of the rape & sexual assault variety the front suggested. That is, if you don't count necrophilia; the raping of the dead. I mean, the dead can't actually refuse or consent anyway, so...

yeah. I read it. It was good. The chapters were short and snappy and they befitted a book of this nature. The characters were awesome and all. It was a good hook.

I slept in Rachel's room again that night.

_______________________________

Actually, the only reason I could stay another night was because, lo and behold, Monday was a holiday. Hari Raya.

And the absolutely tragic thing was - even though she'd studied all throughout the weekend - I still had to sit with Rachel while she (we) did Maths and Science.

She was studying with the help of this hometutor program, which is, quite literally, a tutor session in a CD. It was actually pretty cool. And informative. I found out how much I really failed at Maths and Science now. Jesus Christ.

After that, aunt Daphne hosted a one-on-one Science overview and...invited me in.

Wow. I reallyyyy wanted to go hide under a rock at that point but how could I refuse?

The science lesson was tragic. It went through all the most basic of basics and I may be an idiot, but I knew all that. God. It felt like I was being taught my ABCs.

She talked about magnets, asked us to name a few properties and I said dumbly,

"The opposite poles attract...?"

"Yes! That's right, like girl and boy. ... So that's why we don't have boy + boy. Well, I suppose you could la...Like friends, that is. Not...you know, in that way. That's wrong; not how God intended it to be."

She laughed and so did Rachel and I smiled, even though I wanted to facepalm. what am I doing here...

_____________

I finished Roses are Red sometime that day.

I loved it. Throughout the whole book I kept guessing here and there, and I never allowed myself to be 100% of who was the killer. I even suspected Betsey at one point. And I didn't think Francis was the man, either. Oh, no.

I loved the ending. It totally floored me. Ah, wolves in sheeps' clothing...who doesn't love them?

_____________

We went out to dinner at the AMK MRT shopping mall, where mom would pick me up later. The kids ate at a Japanese place called Pepper Lunch (irony, because we'd had dinner there), and the adults went somewhere else.

Now the way they did their food was this. You had your meat on yer plate, raw, on this iron hotplate. There would be some butter on top of the meat and you'd spread it around throughly. Then you flip it over and wait till it's cooked.

My chicken and salmon tasted pretty damn awesome.

We talked about what kind of food there was in New Zealand.

'Nope, you'd get nothing like this...And you'd hardly see any foodcourts either. We eat in mostly, my father cooks Chinese stuff. I don't really like western,'

'You don't?' asked Esther.

'Well...I do, but only if it's cooked really nic-'

'What about pasta?'

'Oh! Yes. Pasta. I love pasta.'

'They got Pastamania there?'

I ate at Pastamania once, and I loved it. 'No...I know, tragic.'

The food was good. Very good. Salmon! I hadn't had that in a year. Wow...You don't know what you got until it's gone and you have it again.

'Do you hear that?'

'What?'

'Music'

'I don't hear anything...'

'I do! It's Coldplay.'

'Oh! Yeah, that is Chris Martin's voice...'

'Heh, what song is it?'

'Um...'

I swear to god I couldn't hear. I could tell it was Chris' voice, no doubt about that, but he was murmuring so softly I couldn't make out a damned thing.

'...First one to guess the song wins.'

She laughed. We kept on eating and then suddenly, when the music hit a crescendo, I knew what it was. 'Oh!' I shot upright; she looked at me. 'I know what it is!

'It's um... Clocks...Or Yellow.'

'No, it's not Yellow'

'Yeah, it's not. Clocks now. Definitely sure of it.'

Once the music reached the ending, though, I was 100% it was Clocks. I smiled at the irony.

"Home, home, where I wanted to go..."




_________________________________

The ice cream flavors were majorly weird. Honey & Caramel, Green Tea, and... Black Sesame. I had Green Tea. It tasted pretty good, even though it was just cheap vanilla with Green Tea powder. And the powder looked like pollen grains.

_________________________________


Aunt Daphne then offered to go buy me a present. I initially politely refused, since I had no idea what I wanted anyway. 'Take it as a Christmas present,' she said. Well...That makes sense, but I still had no idea what I wan-

'Hm, how about sneakers?'

Oh.

...Yeah, sneakers would do.

Mom had been insistent on me buying a new pair, since I only had three, and one of them was too big while the other two were falling apart at the seams. A new pair would be good. I agreed.

We ended up buying Nike shoes. Jesus. Nike shoes. Thank god there was a discount on and the price was less than a hundred.

__________________________________