De one with Goodbye 2010

Auld Lang Syne

It seemed alot of people, or at least those around me, had forgotten about singing "auld lang syne" the second the clock tickles past the 12 am mark. They get so overwhelmed with excitement from count down, and overjoyed from the series of celebration parties immediately after welcoming the first half an hour of the new year. Hmm.. I believe there were others who were too occupied, setting their minds to new year's resolutions and of course, the majority who worried over getting out of terribly congestion and pinning hopes of getting home earlier to retire.

You'd probably wonder why would I bring up the Scots poem song out of the blues. Oh relax, no intentional agenda. Just relating what happened while I was chilling out with my bestest friend, good pal and another long-known friend at the Ink Bar. Proud to say, I was disciplined enough to have only consumed two drinks. Cam-whored for abit until midnight when we made alot of noise which the party gadgets, drink and left for our next event. Well, they celebrated my recent promotion too.

Kueh Pie Tee

How did we end up at Ink Bar? 3 hours before, we had dinner. Made reservations at Fairmount Asian Cafe (previously "fairmount market plaza"). Boy oh boy, we have never been more full. Due to someone's order (just kidding), I let my hair down and ate a spread. There was salad, vegetable, carrots, broccoli, sashimi, mussel, oysters, scallop, cereal prawns, tout, stingray, lamb, beef, turkey, satay, chicken thigh in thai chilli, tandoori chicken, seafood tom yam, crabmeat soup, kueh pie tee, tissue prata, white and fried rice, dhar and desserts.. awww... the durian paste, mango pudding, raspberry-vanilla and strawberry sorbet ice-cream. Ok, I didn't eat all those, but I loved the stingray, tomyam and desserts (yes, the durian paste) completely.

The place was decorated with gray and blue balloons which swirling navy blue ribbons. And this peranakan design dish bowl containing lemon soup. We practically laughed our hearts out when I amused my dinner partners, telling Loo to pose with the dish bowl and become "the little Baba", like how Jeanette Aw did in the local drama series "The Little Nonya". Jessamine was indulging, she even hummed the theme music. The moment was hilarious.

The Little Baba, 2011 (without any intentional infringement/insult meant)

Probably shouldn't be blogging about how Jess started her appetizers with a plateful of meat. But it's gleefully amazing. While we were appetizing the cold-salad and sashimi, she was gorging on meat. Haha.

Loo kept asking where is Clara, who she's with, what will she be doing, why she's not joining us for dinner, when she's coming to meet us. I counter-irritate him with questions on what the subsequent events hold. Damn joker la, he's supposed to make reservations for KTV at his preferred venue at Katong (affordable and economical, says the SMU business analyst). Turns out he said there was too limited time and all the rooms were booked. A trial was conducted towards the end of dinner buffet, it was resolved the available ktvs were extortionately costly, moreover there wasn't any good movies, hence we trailed to the Ink Bar before proceeding to Play nation for Wii (girls' choice).

Wii was ok. Perhaps it's revived the childhood days when I was fascinated with Atari, Sega, Nitando games on Krisworld and the fab X-box. Guess it's the novelty of more interactivity of swinging and seeing your movements being captured on screen that sets it apart from the past game stations. But I derived more fun, laughing at ourselves, doing all those silly movements.

At 3am, I was caught in a little over-dramatic moment, standing by the road in front of Hotel Rendezvous and hailing the stream of approaching cabs with green lights which refused to stop. Loo hailed me a cab eventually, god bless him, but well, it was really tough getting home after a countdown party. Suppose the best is to book the hotel room in advance and put up there for the night. Save all the troubles. As per Christmas.

Happy new year. What's different? There was not spectacular fireworks, no squeezing through sweaty crowds but certain stuff remains: quality time with dear friends, alcohol, the enchanting countdown and fun. What's new? New found joy and better feast this year! Cheers to a better new year!