I'm okay

I'm okay

Of course I'm okay. I'm not one to wallow, with or without reason, so ignore the last post because I'm feeling *quite* fine now. That, or maybe I've mastered the art of denial. Hmm..

In any case, the past two days were interesting. It's Korinna's birthday today! And in true bridging-babies '03 tradition, we wanted to greet her at midnight. Ivy and I were stumped as to what to do, because we have ALWAYS been knocking at the doors of suppposedly unsuspecting bridging-mates at midnight to give them a "surprise" treat or cake or something. After we greeted most everyone throughout last year, the "surprise" became, well, not too much of a surprise. On my birthday last year, I was in fact semi-waiting for them to come, and, in preparation, I already ordered a cake and plates and spoons and forks! (Hehe, but I still was a bit surprised and extremely happy just the same ;) )

Yesterday at noon, Ivy and I still didn't have any concrete plans. My digicam is still at Konica, and so that left us with less ideas. We thought that buying a cake and "surprising" Kor at midnight was "so last year" and so we were stumped again for the most part. Ivy and I were to meet at lunch with some friends to discuss, and she came up the last-minute idea of making a butterfly-themed card for Kor, who apparently has been fond of butterflies lately as evidenced by her blog. Ivy had to go to a despedida (send-off) party in the afternoon, so I took on the task of having people to sign the card, even going to King Edward VII after dinner and going back and forth to Kor's studymate/lunchmate Sundeep and Kor's dinner date Woen Ping's rooms.

Ivy and the rest went ice skating too, and they were to come home late, so she decided that the greeting will be done in the afternoon today instead, and not at midnight as per tradition. I messaged Wayne, and he repeatedly told me he had no plans for Kor's birthday at all (although he came up with something eventually). I finally caught up with bridging-mates Navuth and Tuk, and together we agreed that we wouldn't do nothing at midnight (same sentiment I felt also last year during Kor's birthday which coincided with CNY). I mean, after all, we were there, and it was most sensible that gather and greet her right?

So having let everyone I know Korinna knows sign the card, I packed some of my dried mangoes (the only decent edible stuff I have), a small keychain-like accessory in the shape of a starfish (my tiny gift for Kor), and told Diana, Navuth, Tuk, Nirorn and Rotana to meet up at five to twelve. Everyone was game. We went to Kor and Ivy's block, and before knocking at Kor's room, went to Ivy's room to check if she had arrived yet. She was there already, and after some discussion (whether to give the card now or not since it was still unfinished, whether to even greet Korinna that time or wait for the next day for more people), we decided to knock at Kor's door. No answer. And the door was locked from the outside (most residents usually leave it open and lock it from the inside) We initially thought she was asleep, but could she have gone elsewhere? She wasn't picking up the phone, too.

So we bridging kids had to think of something to do! We couldn't post the card yet, since it was unfinished, so after thinking it through, we decided to record a birthday video and email it to her! Haha, I thought it was brilliant. We did an extended Happy Birthday song, with "happy birthday" spoken in 7 languages! I did the "Maligayang bati" Tagalog part, Diana said something in Hokkien, Laotian Tuk did a Thai greeting, Navuth spoke in Khmer, Rotana spoke in French (some speak French in Cambodia, see), Nirorn had his greeting in Mandarin (fresh from Mandarin lessons last sem too), and Ivy the photographer did it in English. Then we did one long happy birthday at the end, with Diana adding a Tagalog twist. ;)

Hehe, that, plus music videos of sorts. Diana, Ivy and I sang a number of OPM songs (music from Filipino artists), while Cambodians Navuth, Nirorn and Rotana did a Khmer song with clapping, while Tuk clapped along. And oh, Navuth recognized the theme song of the Philippine soap, Pangako Sa'yo (Diana suggested this since Kor is a fan of Jericho, the male lead). It's cool to learn that they showed the soap in Cambodia! How cool is that for a Pinoy soap! It really was a well-crafted teleserye anyway, so I'm mighty glad that it was "exported". =P

We left the video-shoot area i.e. Ivy's room at almost 2am, while Ivy fixed up the videos and finished the card. They had another birthday-greeting session at 2pm, and I'm sure it was fun. Wasn't able to attend though, since I was at Siglap South Community Centre for NUS Choir's practice of the Chinese song Lei Yu with Victoria Chorale.

Over dinner at McDonald's with this year's new bridging kids + Ferron + Jeunesse + Gelo, Jayson gave me a crash course on Mandarin 101! Now the Lei Yu scores make a lot more sense (hehe it's written in hardcore poetic Chinese language some stuff even Jayson and some Singaporeans can't understand), and I learned a lot of useful tips regarding pronunciation of Chinese words written in Pin Yin! I suddenly realized that I was singing wrongly in terms of the pronunciation of words! Tunewise, I still can manage.. somehow. Hehe.

It's the end of a day and the start of a new one soon. I'm seriously swamped again, as usual, my room's a mess once more and I still have mind monsters to vanquish. I'm tired now, but I'm switching to OC mode, and I'll have all of these stuff settled soon.


P.S.
Pardon the incoherence.


Music of the Moment: Nirotanavutuk Jodivy's Happy Birthday
Currently feeling blank.