2A Barbeque At Pasir Ris Park

I know I should have blogged about it a long time ago, because it took place two weeks ago, but I don't know why I just don't feel like blogging recently, and I just woke up this morning and this thought came to my mind: It time to blog, you lazy idiot. And so here I am, and I will blog about the event that I enjoyed the most at recent times, which is the 2A'06 gathering at Pasir Ris Park.

The Beginning

This idea of organising a 2A barbeque came to my mind on the 3rd day after our Graduation Night, because I was having some difficulty sleeping at night when I think of my friends, so I came up with this idea to meet up with the class that I missed the most.

The Planning

The first date and location that I have chosen is on the 20th of December 2008 at East Coast Park, but it wasn't successful because before I got replies from everyone, the barbeque pits available at East Coast Park for that day was already fully booked. And So I decided to change the date to the 3rd of January 2009.

Then Elaine suggested to me on MSN that we should have the barbeque at Pasir Ris Park because the transport to East Coast Park is not very convenient, which also reminded me that I actually didn't know how to get to East Coast Park, and so I decided to change the location to Pasir Ris Park.

Then I had to contact everyone, with Simon helping me contact the boys, some confirmed with me that they are going while some cannot give me a definite answer but there was about 20 people who are most likely to be going, so I went ahead with planning the barbeque. But as I had to work on the few days before the barbeque, my mum had to help me buy the food and marinate the chicken wings and clean and prepare the food for barbeque , so Thank You to my Mother!!!

The Morning

Soon, it was the day of the barbeque itself, and we packed the stuff into plastic bags and I prepared the 2A Membership Card, I was ready to set off to meet the 2A-ians at Choa Chu Kang MRT control station. On the way there I met into Yu Xuan on the LRT on her way to work, then it was during this time that my handphone started to ring furiously.

I reached Choa Chu Kang and as I left the barbeque stuff with Min Yan, Yu Xuan, Wan Lin, Rebecca and Wei Chang who are already there, I took out my handphone and saw that my sister had just sent close to 20 smses to me to tell me that I have left out the Otah! As my handphone was out of credit, my sister cannot call me, hence she sent so many smses to make sure I get the message. So I had no choice but to go back home and take the Otah. Then when I got back to Choa Chu Kang, Hui Sian, Chin Seng and Shun Yu was there. So we set off for Pasir Ris where we will have our barbeque.

The Transport And The Fire

But it was never a good sight to see that a class barbeque has only 8 people who set off together to the barbeque site, there was 4 girls and 4 boys but it wasn't awkward because when 2A'06 people get together, we can find things to talk about rather naturally, and that is exactly the reason why it's the class that I missed the most after leaving Kranji. Then I got a phonecall from Sandy telling me that random uncles were sitting at our barbeque. But they went away later, which was really random. Anyway, we reached Pasir ris and bought Charcoal and the other nesscessary stuff before we took bus 403 to the park.

The barbeque pit I booked was Pit number 1 at Area 1, I know, I know it's sounds very good, but in actual fact, the pit wasn't the best because you would have completed a marathon after walking to the pit, and your feet might rot like how they do when you are working. So we decided to take another pit, which is pit number 28 at area 2 because it was still empty at around 4-5 pm and as I called the AXS service hotline and they said the pit is available for that day.

And so we began to start the fire as the frozen food cannot last long and not turn bad without being kept in the fridge. But I guess it was never easy to start a fire at Pasir Ris Park, because the wind there was strong enough to turn a flying frisbee into a bullet, Simon's hair into Astro Boy's hair and fire into nothing in a blink of an eye.

So we had to ask the uncles at the pit beside us how to set up a fire because they have already started their barbeque. And one of the uncles came to help us and taught us to make use the corners of the pit to start a fire first, then move the fire to the middle, so Simon, Shun Yu and me hold the picnic mat and cover the sides so that the uncle can start a fire. He succeed and so we got our fire for barbeque!

Later so we took some chicken wings and hotdogs and gave it to the uncles as a way of thanking them, and they gave us some of their food too. I remember it was something like satay or just random meat poked onto the satay sticks. It was rather tasteless and the meat was tough enough to be used as rubber bands, and I suspect this is why they were so quick in pushing the plate into our hands like it's something they cannot wait to get off their hands. But well, they still helped us start the fire.

The Night

Soon the sky became dark and a few more of 2A-ians arrived, but while we were happily eating and cooking our food, something unexpected happened. A group of teenagers showed up and they had booked the pit we were using! And so after a small argument, of course we had to move because it was their pit, we were rather lucky because pit number 26 was available, and so we use the aluminium containers to move the burning charcoal to the new pit and continued our barbeque.It was soon after that when I got a call from the AXS server who sort of scolded me for not using the pit we booked, but I gave her my word that I will move from pit number 26 if anyone comes, and so she cooled down a little and agreed to let me use the pit and even advised me to be careful not to be found out by the person who conducts spot-check on barbeque pit users.

And soon it was time for us to go home because it was already pass 10 pm, and we had to travel from the east to the west side of the country.

The MRT

Of course the fun didn't exactly end here, as it was late and we are at the last stop of the mrt stations, there was a lot of seat and space, so some of us sat on the floor and played card games. I know we are behaving like typical inconsiderate teenagers here, but you can't blame us, the wide space we had in front of us was too tempting. Then we even played Truth Or Dare, letting whoever chooses Dare to get phone numbers from people or tell some random people that they had nice hairstyles. But of course we got back to our seat we the MRT became more crowded.

The Sequel

Of course, like every other movies, you have to pave the way for your next movie sequel, just like how I have to pave the way if I want another 2A gathering, hence I came up with the idea of a 2A Membership Card! People who went to the barbeque would have gotten it, the others still have yours with me, so if you want it, come for the next gathering! Unless you want to meet me just to get the card, so for those who haven't got your card, here's how it looks like.

Well, the gathering ends here, but it doesn't mean there will not be anymore 2A gatherings next time, some people suggested having one ten years later, some say once every two years, and some say once every year, well, I say it will depend on my mood, which is always good for a 2A barbeque, and also when will someone use the 2A Membership Card.

The Credits

Some of you say I deserved all the credits for organising the barbeque, but I say not. Here are the people who I want to thank for helping me make this gathering possible.

My Mother. How can I get my chicken wings and other food stuff (buy + prepare) without my mother?! And also the constant reminders of what I need for the barbeque, I must say Thank You, Mum.

Simon. For helping me inform the boys about the barbeque.

My Sister. Somehow she just plays a role in helping me make my decisions.

Shun Yu. For helping to get the barbeque started and for helping even when he got his hands burnt.

Everyone else who answered my SMSes, and made my job easier, unlike some others. You know who you are.

P/S: Not all the photos I took are put up, call me selfish but I want to keep it for 2A people and myself only, so if you want all the photos and also the class photo that we took together, leave a tag on my tagboard, and I'll send the photos to you by email or from MSN, but you also have to wait till I got the class photo from Jia Ying first...sorry~