Of the Voluntary Insomnia
This post will be pretty damn long,therefore it will be divided into paragraphs with sub-headings.Tough read ahead.

Concerning the Departure
As always,i hate departures.I was thinking to myself as my father drove down the dark expressway at 10pm,Tuesday night after an awkward family dinner at a seafood restaurant to celebrate my grandmother's 91st birthday.I know,crossing the 90 year old mark is a bloody big deal.But that doesnt mean that we must be susceptible to wear tasting restaurant food and pain-striken relative-related conversational topics.Dont you just hate it when your relatives are sitting at your table,with your parents not around and asking you questions regarding your life which is actually of no concerns to him or her whatsoever.As i fondled with my Ipod,one of my relatives started asking me about the capacity,the price and stuff.Also,the fact that i am going to NS,which is a dawning truth that i am not ready and not willing to accept.People just have to bring dreadful subjects up and the most awkward and headache-prone times.I just dislike my relatives a lot,and how they make desperate attempts to start up a conversation.I love to make their mouths drop or eyes opened wide.When i stepped into the room with the new hair and the coat most of them were pretty surprised.Well,its human nature to boast to the enemies.The enemies that has my blood in them.What a shame.

I was thinking to myself that no matter how boring my trip to Taiwan is,it is still going to be better than being back here in Singapore.To me,Singapore is a representation of reality.People asks about what reality is.Just like what Morpheus asked Neo in The Matrix."Real.How do you define real?"It's one of those "Duh" questions commonly dismissed by most.But i guess it makes sense,that it doesnt make sense at all.Reality to me cannot be defined,but perhaps the best analogy that comes close is Singapore.The problems start to pour in,and the reality starts to hit.All the things in life that are tucked away comes flowing back out the moment you set foot on the ground.I hate to leave,and i hate to wake up at 6am in the morning just to catch a flight.Going back is a suicidal act,and waking up early is worse.I didnt speak much this time,considering how my mind's already set for the reality attack.Like before,the business class ticket really does look friendly to me.Dad warned me about breakfasts on business class,saying that they are no different from meals from the Economy class.Well,porridge really isnt my cup of tea.But the alternative was worse(Cereals).Instead of nerd boy,i had an old man for my on-flight companion this time.He was an oddball really.He emptied the plates,which was odd enough.Then he refused to watch any movies,or play any games which was avaliable.Then he tried to stare at my monitor for the subtitles in the movie i was watching,and the games i was playing.I watched The Bourne Supremacy on the flight,and he had his eyes glued on my screen instead.Which was kinda weird and uncomfortable to begin with.

The movie was alright,and it killed time pretty efficiently.Of course,this time i never bothered to make any constructive conversations with my travel companion.In fact,nothing at all.I killed time by listening to my Ipod and taking a nap upon the morning flight.The flight to me was brief,and soon i found myself looking upon a familiar sight.The skyline of Singapore.As familiar as it is,i felt a little alienated from this piece of land.Like,i dont belong to that place at all.Truly,i dont.But having the rest of my life spent here,and feeling that way is peculiar enough.I took the flight back alone,again.It felt great,though that hope for a female travel companion of my age disintegrated soon after lift off.Picking up the luggages at the airport myself was easy,and i took a cab from the airport back home to prepare for the chalet later on in the afternoon.As i looked through the window,it was a strange sight.It looked as if ive been away from this place for a long time.Perhaps its been stalled away in my mind for too long and too deeop for them to stir up any forms of familiarities.Whatever it is,it didnt have the familiarity i had when i arrived in Taiwan.Just that lack of likeliness made a vast difference in the two places.Both destinations,at one point of the journey.

The driver of the cab tried to start a conversation too.I think it is a policy amongst the firms to be friendly to passengers picked up near tourist attractions.They seem to be so friendly all of a sudden.I just made phone calls to friends,to make arrangements on the chalet and the Friday Night dinner.The gate at the original side of my home was closed,and the driver had to U-turn to the other side.Lots of changes went on after my departure.I guess that might explain the alienation of myself from this reality.

Concerning the Brief Breather
My trip home was fast,and i didnt have much time to unpack and repack my things.Mom prepared my clothes and the toothbrush for the chalet already,and all i had to do was to throw them all into my sling bag.After all was set and done,i was prepared to leave.My room smelt different already.Six days,and already different.Wonder how it would be like if i be away for five days a week,for two years.Just another room for guests i presume.It was sad,and a brief visit back home.Wonder how many more times would i be able to see this room again.Truly sad,indeed.

I went out through the new gate and took another cab.This time,i made sure that i plugged my earphones to the ears before the cab driver intended on any possible topics.He sped down the expressway towards Tampines Interchange where i was supposed to meet the guitar club members.I got there a tad bit early,and was accompanied by Debbie and an icecream cone melting at shocking rate.Being in a cold country has an advantage in the sense that icecream lasts.They dont melt in your hand all that quick.But i was pretty new to the sight of girls in sleeveless tops of shorts walking around everywhere exposing their thighs and arms.I mean,not that i have a great fascination over it whatsoever,but coming from a cold country where men and women alike dress from head to toe in fur coats and sweaters it is a rare sight for girls to wear a little more revealing wardrobes.It is no wonder that rape and molest cases are lesser in the colder countries,compared to the summer countries statistically.Revealing clothes i guess,are just more provocative.

The lot of them were late,with Siew Chen and Michelle turning up a tad bit earlier than the rest.Then Mr and Mrs Wong came,followed by Choon Guan,Kevin,Valerie,Ahmad and Agatha.Soon we found ourselves on bus 29,heading towards the Aloha Holiday Resort at Changi Village.

Concerning the Eerie Settings
We got off the bus,and before us a wall of trees with vines hanging down over our heads.It was an unpleasent sight,and site for chalets.They call it a "Holiday Resort",and i beg to differ.It looked more like a horror theme park or a Fear Factor episode throught the haunted mansion.The place was particularly quiet,and Mr Wong led us round an old chalet,which was pretty big.Then down a grassy slope and to a tall hedge that divided two different sections of the chalet.It was connected merely by a metal gate,with the bars already eroded away by the corrosive nature of the seawater.With the pots,the pans,the charcoals and stuff in our hands,we stumbled through that broken gate and up muddy slopes to another open area,with chalets all over.Our chalet was Chalet H 533 on Netheravon Road.It was a tough one to find,and it took Mr Wong a while to locate the place,which was pretty much hidden from the chalet before ours.The entrance was round the back,and the door was particularly hard to open.As Mr Wong stuggled to pull open those gates,i mumbled under my breath,"This is how horror movies always start.Locked doors of an old house." Tee Oii heard that,and laughed as we broke through the door eventually.

The chalet is old,and it looked like an anciet building really.Reminded me of the old houses we see in Secondary School History textbooks,describing the residences of Eurasians in Singapore.Well,that chalet looked very much like it,and the over hanging trees were creepy in a way.The settings of the rooms were odd,especially on the second floor.It had four rooms,and two toilets.Spacious enough,but creepy all at once.Room 1 was the biggest,and it seemed to be the master bedroom.The king size bed sat alone at the centre of the room,with a big piece of mirror in front of it,and on the left side.A baby tramp sits in front of the mirror,with the mattress torn off.Ahamd found particular comfort in that tramp,though i found it disturbing in a way.The glass doors at the side opens out to a balcony,which is connected to every room on that side of the house.We did not continue our discovery through the second floor too thoroughly for the other rooms,as they looked alike really.The toilets to me were pretty scary to begin with.Dark,and the windows were similar to those seen in Ju-On.Not that i freaked out after the movie,but i hate it when my mind goes to untamed places.I half expected a kid's head to pop by the window,or a human skull in the drawers of something.Of course,i found none.But still,it was creepy.

The lot of us got comfortable in the living room.Ahmad and I started an early jamming session,and 3x5 was the obvious choice.Haha.It was fun indeed.The J1s prepared the barbeque,while the J2s sat indoors.I know it is irresponsible to a certain degree,but i guess it is a custom to be served by the J1s.After all,we did serve them last year(Though i was in Taiwan).Only five guys turned up at the chalet,which was pathetic considering the physical size of the club.I guess this is a perfect example of a United Separatist.All of them were guys,and none of the girls came.Sad news for Ahmad and I,as we discussed the various fantasies we had.Haha.Of course,they were just crap talks.But im sure somewhere deep in our hearts,it wouldve been really cool for it to come true.The evening approached,and the houses got creepier and the shadows grew darker.

Concerning the Night
Singapore Idol really was the topic of the night.Being the final night of the season and the match up between Sylvester and Taufik,it had the whole island talking about it.The guitar club were in the living room,anxious for the results as well.As the both of them performed(In which,Sylvester was awful for Bon Jovi's "Its My Life"),we had the barbeque pit at full blast and the chicken wings coming in hot and steamy.I kept myself full with sausages and chicken wings,with occasional trips to the fridge for refreshments.The lot of is pulled chairs into the living room to wait for the results.Ahmad and I headed upstairs to an empty room before the result show,and we jammed inside once again.Mr Wong joined us brief to once again,show off his skills.Michelle and Siew Chen were there to witness the greatest,and we ended uo laughing our heads off as we composed a song called "The Endless Song".After a whole lot of bullshit by Gurmit Singh,the result was finally announced.Taufik Batisah is officially the Singapore Idol,and the whole group of us cheered like no other.Ahmad hugged me to an extent that i almost choked.But of course,i really didnt care much.It was a really exciting sight to see the dismay in the eyes of the "Pinkies".After a brief celebration,the girls wanted to leave.Some of them anyway.We took a lot of photographs,and of course Mr Wong revealed his beautiful pale legs to the camera(Which was indeed,sick).

Ahmad and i were just about to take Room 1 when the girls came in and claimed the room for themselves,saying that other rooms are too small or separated.Ahmad and I had our reasons(Which involved XinYu),therefore we moved out.Of course,he took the baby tramp.We settled in Room 4,which really isnt a great number.But i dont think superstition was that important an issue,plus Ahmad started jamming 3x5 again.This time Mr and Mrs Wong came in to check out our pieces.Mrs Wong even filmed as playing the song,which was totally unexpected.Kevin,Agatha,Choon Guan and Andrew buried their heads in Monopoly downstairs,while the girls talked in their rooms.Ahmad and I joined them soon after,and played games which included some pretty interesting forfeit,which included Ahmad's kiss to a man.Haha.We played through the night,and by the time we noticed the time,it was already 2am.XinYu and LiPing bathed as Ahmad and I sat outside the toilets.Both of them didnt like the feeling of the toilets either,and i guess they felt better with two watchdogs outside.We talked about how the guitar club has been a great experience for the both of us,and that this is all going to end as we head on towards our own separate ways.I just listened,and didnt comment much.I already stressed in my blog,so i was too lazy to start over.

My bathing experience was creepy in the sense that the floating plastic bag of mine from the clothe hanger really freaked me out a bit.It slipped off the old clothes and floated through the air.From the corner of my eyes,it just seemed like a floating object in the bathroom.Considering the multiple ghost stories i heard and the indian boy who drowned near the beach a few weeks ago,it was pretty creepy.But of course,it was only the mind playing tricks.Whatever the eyes see,the mind believes.The motto of an illusionist.

The night continued,and i spent it eating instant noodles and writing autograph books for the girls.Dini amazingly,fell asleep on the dining table while the rest had their supper around her literally.Oh,not to forget the fake currency used in Monopoly and the occasional "Pay!" from LiPing and Agatha's mouths.The night drew on,and the outside became quiet.Everyone fell asleep,with Room 4 soon taken over by the guys.And as for the J1s,they locked themselves in Room 3 the whole day,with occasional visits to the living room and kitchen.And as for Mr and Mrs Wong,they disappeared into Room 2 until the morning.Of course,the only time we heard from him was when i went to the door and shouted "Ahmad dont eavedrop!".

Concerning the Wee Hours
It suddenly became really quiet at one point.Agatha and Dini disappeared into the night suddenly.Michelle and Siew Chen visited us in the living room once in a while,and XinYu fell asleep on the floor.For some reason nobody was able to move her onto the bed.Grace fell asleep on the sofa,and that left Ahmad,Liping and myself still awake.Of course,i was on the verge of my sanity and i was speaking nonsensical things by the time we took that "502" photograph.Even the insects outside disappeared,and the lamps outside made an eerie yellow glow through the window.The numerous experience with horror movies really elevated your wild imagination at that point,especially how Agatha's reflection through the glass window scared the nerves out of me.LiPing sat next to Grace reading her autograph book.Ahmad was mugging the 8days,while i listened to my Ipod.Then an idea struck me that maybe we should play with the sparklers.Tee Oii made a rocket out of a full packet of sparklers earlier,and lift off failed badly.That only proves that Tee Oii is the sort of terrorist with intentions,but havent got the skills at all.It lifted off,spunned a few times and died out immediately.

So we grabbed the remaining two boxes and ran out into the open space in front of the chalet to play it.The moon was hanging high up then,with little clouds covering it.The whole place was silent,save for the rustling of the trees and insects far off.We tried to light the sparklers,and managed to do that after multiple attempts(Thanks to Ahmad the Man of Fire).Ahmad ran around like a happy little kid with sparklers,while Liping tried to throw the sparklers through the air like shooting stars.And as for me,i tried to throw it onto the second floor balcony.But it ended up on the tree.We all made wishes to the sparklers before it died out,and i continued through it onto trees.Of course,i had my fingers crossed the whole time that the tree wouldnt burn up.

530am was approaching,and it was supposed to be the time when we head out to see the sunrise.We woke Grace up,and went up to Room 1 to wake XinYu up as well.She was in a daze when we woke her up,but with the lure of the last sparkler XinYu sprang up from the bed with a sudden burst of energy and followed us downstairs.With our sandals ready,and the cameras packed,we went round to the back where the main road was and headed towards the beach.

That place really is eerie at night.Some might say that it is "Peaceful",while others like me found the place utterly creepy.Cant blame me,since Changi beach is famous for one thing:Haunted stories(Aside from the Homosexual Assault stories Ahmad was saying,and the "Water Bottle" incident from Choon Guan).Ahmad and I were skateboarding on the side of the road without skateboards.I guess we were just dead bored,and too tired to be tired.We reached a platform above the beach,and never really went down.It was like a viewing gallery,and we went down the wooden platform towards the Northern end of it.We found Agatha and Dini already there,and we joined them to watch the sunrise.Ahmad and I sat on the ledge,while the girls sat on the floor and talked.Well,XinYu managed to light her sparkler there,but was too afraid to let it burn till the end.That's XinYu for you i guess.The moon hung low above us,and we were covered in the soft touch of moonlight.The boats floated nearby,with lights flickering softly and quietly in the night.The waves crashed onto the shores as the ships sailed by slowly and silent.A bunch of people were on the other end of the beach fishing,and their fire burnt on the beach as well.It was a pleasent sight,and the lot of us just sat there for a moment enjoying the peace and silence.

For some reason,sunrise never came.The left hand side of the coast was brighter than the right,and we headed that way instead.We passed empty swimming pools and ship yards with absolutely no lift in sight.We came to the side of a beach,and sat ourselves down on a log.We threw stones,and talked about things there.The right hand side brightened up more,and we then became the "Sunrise Chasers",running from coast to coast,trying to catch the first glimpse of sunrise.Sadly,we never did because of the angle of it all.It was hidden from us behind tall trees,but Ahmad was determined.He led the group through that same hole in the gate earlier,and ran past other chalets to an old jetty which was kept out to the public.The sunrise was still blocked by the trees,but the sky slowly and gradually turned blue as we positioned ourselves for phototaking.But Dini's camera soon ran out of battery and we got tired of things.We headed back to the chalet and dragged our heavy feet across the gravel road.

We got back to the chalet at about 7am,and i went to the girls' room to sleep instead of the guys',since Kevin,Andrew and Choon Guan took up all the avaliable spaces.Ahmad slept under a table instead of a bed,which was really odd.I guess it mustve been the rashes he had.He claimed that the walls and floors are cool,so it helps with the rashes.I wonder what's wrong with the floors in that chalet.Everybody seems to love it a lot.As the bed was too small,the lot of us slept horizontally instead.I slept on the edge,while Liping and Grace slept there on the same bed as well.I didnt really care who was sleeping with me.The moment i had my head down,i knew i was heading straight for dreamland.Grace really shouldve turned off that damn handphone alarm of her's.That song's been stuck in my head for the longest time.

Concerning the Trip Home
When i got up,i was horrified to see Ahmad in front of me.It was 9am,and we were about to leave the place.I packed up real quick,and found myself sitting at the dining table with the rest of the group.I took a short nap there,while the rest drowned themselves in Mrs Wong's voice as she sang to Mr Wong's guitar jamming.There's something about her voice that is both weird and cool.I dont know.It reminded me of Jewel,but with a little twist towards the extreme end of things.Soon,the doors were locked and we headed home.As i waited for a taxi i noticed the Changi Hospital that was located right in front of us.Then i realised,how close we were to that accursed place.The "Night Club of the Dead".I took a bus to Tampines central with Ahmad,Grace,Liping and Choon Guan instead.I was really tired by then,and took a cab back home.

The cab driver was very friendly,asking me about my guitar and stuff.Like i said before,cab drivers nowadays seem to be paid to be nice.Anyway,so we were talking about things when the subject of NS was brought up.Of course,i was reluctant to talk about it,but soon i discovered that his son is going to NS a day after me,and that he is from SRJC now.Well,so we talked a little about the school since i am pretty familiar.Then he told me that his son was from Maris Stella,and he almost drove off the road when i told him that i was from there too.It was too shocking for him,that he actually drove me to NanYang Polytechnic instead of NanYang Junior College.Of course,he didnt charge me extra for it.Nice man.He even called his son concerning his class.Fabian Low.Haha.Well i think i have an idea on who he is,and i guess he doesnt know me.But we'd know each other by the face i guess.

Well,so my first day in Singapore ended with a blast.Ahmad and Liping said that last year's chalet was better in a way.Well,i wonder how much better it can get.Perhaps the fact that Mei Shan,the beautiful and astounding guitar club president was there last year.Oh well,no J1 girls turned up this year,but who cares.I had a lot of fun with the others as well.Will never forget the car games we played on the bed together,and the forfeit we had to do.And Dini,if you happen to be reading this,you still owe us your forfeit.So you better come back to Singapore to finish it.That's that now,goodnight.;)