The Third New Year Post (a.k.a. The Valentine's Day Post)

In lieu of The Third New Year Post (which will appear shortly, I promise), I have the Valentine's Day post instead. No particular reason, it's just that it's late and this will probably be a shorter post than the New Year one.

After a failed attempt to organize a single's outing for tonight, I went to work feeling generally blah. I've always hated Valentine's Day. It's probably sour grapes for my constant lack of a relationship, but I feel that's justifiable. The bitterness was exacerbated by the fact that I felt the beginnings of an illness coming on, with a nagging hint of a headache creeping up my neck. It didn't help that my brother and mother are both sick at this point, since it only increases the likelihood of that happening.

Anyway while doing mindless logging of tapes, I get a happy SMS from Angeline saying she's on leave. I decide to take a couple of panadols and a nap to see if I feel up to anything tonight. A few hours later, I miraculously recover and so the Non-Date Date was decided upon.

Unfortunately the bak kut teh stall at Rochor Centre I wanted to go to was closed. As was the Kwanyin Temple (I just wanted to be done with the whole thing to please my dad). And the good char kway teow at the Golden Mile Food Centre. Goddamnit, with the Chinese New Year holidays, it seems that only the shitty food places feel obliged to stay open. The good ones take long extended vacations that go on longer than they should because they can. Oh, and the Beach Road Army Market was closed too, so no shopping for cool stuff - but that was probably 'cos it was late.

Anyway, after driving around aimlessly, we discover that Meihui was back from New Zealand! How exciting. We drive over to her place and go for coffee and a bitching session. Before that though, we had to go with her to her ex's because she wanted to pass him something.

Me & Angeline: "Bad idea! Wrong signals! Wrong signals all over the place!"

We did it anyhow. No further comment.

Though the bitching session was nothing spectacular, it was nice. Just good company on a night where no one wants to be lonely. Several things were agreed upon:

One. As men get older, they reveal more and more that in fact they are nothing but little boys inside. They get louder, more annoying and attention-seeking. All this is to compensate for their realization that the family that they've once been the head of, now no longer needs to rely on them completely in order to function. They feel unwanted, inadequate, and hence need to reassert their authority. Sadly, this often takes the form of lashing out at everyone for the most ridiculous reasons, drawing more resentment and misunderstanding. Since they are such chauvinistic pig-headed people, it seems the only response is for us to just shut the hell up and let them expend their energies.

Two. The realities of the working world are now crashing down spectacularly on us. We were discussing about going to Phuket, just taking off for a weekend, since prices are really low now. We were all like, "Yeah, let's just go! The three of us! Beaches! Massages! Food! Yeah!" Upon comparing our respective schedules, we realized that there was no way this could happen until at least April. And of course we were utterly disgusted.

Three. The best time to go travelling is when you're a student. I mean, seriously, there's no other time when you can simply just shrug off "work" (taken to mean academics here) commitments so easily and simply disappear for a weekend. That is, if you can afford to go travelling all the time. I kinda regret all the weekends I spent slumming around in college and not going to more places. It's the ultimate irony, I suppose. When you have all the time in the world, you can't afford to, and when you can afford to, you can't find the time to do it.

Ah well. All in all, a good night. Probably one of the better Valentine's Days I've had.

Yes, I know that's sad.

You can take your fucking sympathy and shove it.