It seemed like a good idea at the time

We had a vision, Ming and I. Since our birthdays are about two weeks apart, we were going to do something for our friends together. It would be our last chance to do something for our birthdays because who knows where all of us will be next October. Out came the grand plans; how about island camping! That sounds like a great idea! Think campfires!! Beach! Waves!! Moon!! Salty sea breezes!!! Guitar strumming sing-a-longs!!!! Marshmallows! That's a grand idea! St John's? Sisters'? Well.. a quick check on ferry times blew our idea to pieces. Bleah. Back to the drawing board.

Never mind! What about renting a chalet for the weekend? Nice ones in Sentosa! We had visions of the day at the beach and partying at KM8 when night falls. It was a splendid idea but we left it too late and on the online booking website, saw the chalet we were eyeing slip out of our very own mouseclicks. Aaaargh.Within five minutes of deliberation. It was gone, just like that. Bitch.

So that's how it came to be that we ended up at Pit Six, West Coast Park. With a (boarded up) sea view. Of course we can still see the water front. If we stood on the pit and craned our necks, that is. Well.. it was either that or in campus. We are loser grad students, but hey.. it was a birthday celebration, so no way was it going to be held in the lab. Too depressing.

We counted the number of friends we had and found (much to our surprise) that we had more than ten! Within a week, friends were asked if they had anything on that weekend because we know they are busy people, but if they happen to be caught with nothing on, could we perhaps interest them into attending our modest BBQ (we tried to be as posh as we could be when pronouncing the phrase, West Coast Park BBQ Pit 6. I think that helped a little. HA!) We hounded people to bring stuff to the party, scrounged around for useful things in our lab pantries, and made sure there was enough booze for all (this one very important!). At one time, we thought we had to feed thirty people! BUt the numbers dropped to (a more manageable) 16 in the days running up to D day.

Following JK's recommendation, we decided to shop for meats at a wholesaler. It was in this really ulu location in Jurong, surrounded by warehouses and factories. Armed with directions from a bus guide, we set off from Fong Seng bright and early in the morning after our nasi lemak and prata breakfasts. R was roped in to be the coolie. He had no choice! Lol. We took 2 buses and alighted in the middle of the industrial estate. It was quite an adventure, really, because none of us have been to the arse end of Singapore before. Their faith in my topological skills were renewed when I successful led them to the promised land of cheap frozen meats with nothing but a mental map and a styrofoam box. Actually, it was a bit of a fluke. I kinda knew where it was, but had no idea how to get there. We three intrepid biologists then decided to cut through a park connector and turned right to the nearest road but not without the harrowing experience of side-stepping a dead fish [M: (pointing to fish) Eeugh!! R: Eeeeeks!!!! Me: Aaaaargh!!!!]

Oooh the adventure.

As we turned round the corner, there it was! Right in front of us! Like a gleaming palace cutting through the (PSI 85) haze! I don't know about the other two, but I sure felt like I was Indiana Jones stumbling across a golden treasure.



No pictures of our shopping location, but here's one of R carting our bootie back to B's. In that little box was SGD80 worth of meat! Sausages, lamb chops, steak, chicken wings. It was extremely good value. The same amount of meat would have set us back by at least twice the price at the local supermarket. It was worth going through the wilderness of Jurong for it! Check out the smug look on Ming's face! :D

After that, it was off to Sheng Shiong, the crazy supermarket. R and I jostled in there for about 45 minutes and emerged triumphant with our greens. Preparation was done at B's and Applecow kindly drove by to pick us up. We were late. It was stated in our invites that the fire starts at 5, but we didn't think anyone would take us seriously. Evidently, someone did. DL showed up to find an empty pit. We were running on Filpino time! So that makes us early still. Heh.

More pictures.. we didn't have that many to begin with. I think the photogs gave up when it got too dark and the food was being served! Survival of the fittest, and who better to demonstrate that than a bunch of biologists. You snooze, you lose. 'Nuff said.







There were so much food! Duc made a very nice pomelo salad, DL came with Thai papaya salad. Ming made a kickass potato salad too! Very international. And LG came with 5 bags of chips as promised. Large, as it was stated in our email. It was all going swimmingly.



Here's a picture of some of the food. It was great! My personal favourite were the lambchops. They were really really good. And one of the first items to go. Kudos to B for marinating them! The orange wings were done tikka masala style and brown wings were done in let's-dump-in-condiments-and-ginger.. hmm.. needs-a-little-sugar style. The style of agaration.

We didn't have that much leftovers but the fried tempeh, (who is in newcastle now) was sorely missed. We would have polished all the food off with no problems if she were here!

We played poker, drank, talked and ate ice cream after that. It was a good way to chill out. The hard bit was cleaning up and hauling our cooler boxes back home!

Back at Ming's when the both of us lugged the cooler back, we looked at each other and heaved a collective sigh of relief. It was over! We managed to pull it off!

Her parting shot before I ran off to get the last bus was:

"Phew.. that was fun.. but let's not do it again." Hear Hear.

Thanks to everyone for showing up! Without you guys, we would have no friends, at least in NUS anyway. I hope you guys had fun too!