Post post BBQ

On the 2nd day of the bbq, having slept at 6am that morning, we were shocked out of our beds by a sudden loud bang bang bang bang bang. I glanced at my watch - 10am. What?!! What's happening? Then as my brain started to slowly warm itself up, I realised it was music!!! LOUD INDIAN MUSIC. Then it all started to come back. The bbq the night before, the party, the after party, and then this. What a terrible way to wake up! Not when you've not slept enough, and you've got a slight hangover from the night before. Our neighbours were either avid clubbers, or just plain deaf. They turned on the music so loud it was pretty much surround sound in OUR chalet room. I can't imagine how loud it must've been in theirs. Don't think they talk to each other much.

We decided to get out of our chalet and do something else altogether. We had a few free entry tickets to a carnival nearby and another water theme park. So we did just that. We went to the theme park first and were impressed by the rides. There was the pirate's ship, a roller coaster, haunted house, water boat slides, go cart, etc. The catch was, these rides were for 10 year olds. But heck! We went on them anyway. It was nice to be 10. Who wants to be a grown up all the time? We don't.

The water theme park was really fun too. There were some really crazy slides, and rides that popped your heart right up your throat. One slide we really had fun on was this thing that was made to look like the ramps that skateboarders go up and down on. This one was a mega ramp. What you do is you sit on this tiny little boat like float and they push you down this ramp. What an adrenaline rush! When you're standing watching the others go on it, you think, piece of cake. But when we actually went on it, it was unexpectedly, scarily fun! Truly an adult's ride! Julien always has this funny laughter when he sits on scary rides. So I know when the ride is actually scary, he starts laughing like a hyena. He's really more scared but he tries to cover it with a laugh, and ta-da! The hyena laugh is birthed. It's one of these laughs that make you either laugh with him or at him. Whichever way, he spreads joy and laughter around. With this ride, he was so working that laugh I couldn't help but laugh through that whole ride too!

After all those adrenaline pumping rides, we came back hungry and started the grill. This time it was just two of us. I asked Julien if he had fun during his party and if he was happy. I was expecting a yes I'm happy, but he told me he was actually disappointed. He was disappointed that most of the guests left really early. And when it was time to open his presents, his colleagues were in a corner playing cards through out. They didn't participate. They didn't really seem to care apart from food, and drinks.

You know how when you watch a documentary and they show footage of poor, dying children, and there's usually this knot in your chest that you feel? Well, I felt it that evening after hearing what he told me. It's not pity, or sympathy, or empathy. I think I was more sad for Julien, in a melancholic sort of way. A little bit upset too. It was true what he said. Those with children left early. That's understandable. Their kids had to sleep. Would we be like this when we're parents one day? The others, well they kind of just left after eating and mingling a little. It's like at our wedding, when some of our guests left even before the wedding ended. They left even before Julien cut his cake. I do see more positive in this party though. Everyone turned up! More than 20 over people in fact to celebrate Julien's birthday. They came for him. Some friends actually had prior engagements which they had to attend, and they could've just told us they weren't coming, but they came anyway, even if it was just for a short while just to wish Julien happy birthday in person - that really meant a lot to us. The group that played cards, in comparison to the rest that participated in his present opening, was negligent. True, majority did not stay past midnight with us, but it was still nice that they came. And it's not like we were alone in the chalet past midnight, just the two of us. There were still people arriving, and they stayed and talked till really late too. It's just not really a Singaporean thing to stay out till 7am or 8am the next day (I don't doubt there are some who do it, but the majority don't). We don't live 3hrs away from each other. Home from anywhere in Singapore is just 30mins away by foot, train, bus or taxi. So staying over after a party is not really in our culture either. Something Julien cannot really get used to. He still thinks French in Singapore at times. We went to bed around 6am, which meant our last guests left about that time too. Pretty good for a party I would say.

In my opinion, I think Julien just really missed home. As we were talking still, the phone rang. What perfect timing. It was Sylvain who called to wish him Happy Birthday. Straight away Julien's face lit up. They chatted for a long time. And when he finally hung up, he was a happy Yeti again! Only he "missed home a lot more but it was good to hear Sylvain's voice". So, Thank You Sylvain!!!