Shuing's birthday

So I met up with Malay at his bus stop last night. I find that he tries to finish off your sentences, but does a pretty crap job at it and just ends up repeating whatever last words were said. Maybe it's his way of bonding.

We caught the bus out to the city, walked past the meeting place inadvertently, checked out a new skills tester place and then went back to the cinemas where we saw everyone standing around. We were the last to show up even though we were initially on time and now only 10 minutes late.

Shuing, Bob, G, Gnat, Claire, Michael L, Brain, Scope and Michelle were all huddled in a circle. We were greeted by Shuing and then spent a short time talking to G and Gnat. Claire didn't say hi, but I think she just didn't know we had arrived.

As we walked down the street towards the restaurant, I walked with Brain, Scope and Malay whilst the others walked ahead. I thought maybe Claire was playing the ignoring card as well, but it was fine with me since I was doing the same.

We got separated on the way to the restaurant because Malay stopped to talk to some friends. So Brain, Scope and I stood nearby waiting for him while the others went ahead to the restaurant. As it turned out, Malay had somehow managed to get past us and was outside the restaurant waiting for us.

When we met up with Malay again, we went into the restaurant and I was just hoping that I wouldn't have to sit anywhere near Bobby. Luckily, I managed to get a seat next to G with Malay at one end of the table, and opposite Michael L and Claire. Pretty good.

It was only when I sat down that Claire said hi, which confirmed for me that she probably just didn't see me when I arrived. My ignoring plan lasted all of five minutes, because Michael L and her were apparently talking about our salsa class which brought me into the conversation. I joked that she was really good, and she teased me about hitting her head twice when I tried to spin her around.

Now that I had gotten into the mood, I decided to play the friendly card yet was adamant that I'd ignore any future messages or calls from her. In other words, I told myself to pretend to be friendly, yet keep her at a distance.

I found that we actually have more in common than I first thought. Like, she likes spam just as much as I do, and we both like putting it in with instant noodles.

I managed to ignore Bobby throughout the whole dinner, only really talking to Michelle and Shuing across the table.

It was a hot pot restaurant, and there were two hot pots to our table, with G, Claire, Michael L, Malay and I sharing one and the others having the other. At one stage I looked across and felt sorry for Brain that he had to sit next to Bob, now that I knew he also didn't like his "boastful ways" as Malay put it.

Michelle was once again playing mommy of the table, ordering, handing out food and pretty much being in charge of everything.

I was content with not talking to Claire too much, and instead using my time to talk to Malay about the hot girls who had entered the restaurant at the same time we did, and talking to G about random things.

There was one point wheere Claire wanted some photos taken, and she called me over to her side to join in the photo, but I just said no. I think I've figured by now that when she does something like that, it's not that she likes you, it's just that she wants to show whoever is out there that she has x many friends.

After dinner we went to check out the skills tester place Malay and I found before. Everything was $1, but what really made it addictive was that all machines had very good grip which would hold the toy all the way, but they always, ALWAYS, dropped it because the force of the claw going back up was too much.

Claire came up to me and asked me what I was going to get, and I asked her what she wanted, and she lightly grabbed my arm and walked towards a machine with monkeys in it. I put in a dollar and gave her a go, and like I said, she was close because the claw would pick it up, only to drop it back down when it reached the top. I then had a few attempts and gave up to play something else.

I didn't end up getting anything, but the other guys managed to get some small toys and gave it to Michelle and Claire. They then all played this game where you're supposed to throw rubber balls at the screen to aim for objects, but Malay and I kept wandering about trying to get more toys.

After that place we headed for bowling, because Shuing had booked it and said we couldn't be late. For some reason we walked the long way around the harbour, and stopped at a Macca's to get ice cream. While Shuing and some others were getting the ice cream, Michael L and I were outside just talking about how far we could jump up and down the stairs, and across the pillars on the water, with Claire, Brain and Scope around us.

I walked a bit with Claire as we headed to the bridge, and she asked me how Luna Park was, and I just told her we didn't end up going as they thought it was going to rain so they just decided to go to a pub.

As we passed a club, she pointed out that that was where Princess Mary met her Prince, and I got the feeling that she probably fantasised about something similar happening to her. I mean, I know all girls fantasise about it, but come on, you ≠ Princess Mary.

I ended up walking the whole bridge with her. Two note worthy things. First, I had been joking saying that I'd carry her because she kept complaining that she was tired, and then I said I was tired and asked if she'd carry me. She said no, and then asked if I was disappointed. I wasn't really, cause I wasn't expecting her to actually carry me, but I didn't know what to say so I just said yes, and she said "you shouldn't be". Not really sure what that meant, but I didn't think it was very nice. I kinda interpreted as her coming off as saying that she was too good for me so I shouldn't even hope for anything.

Second, I found her to be a bit rude in person as well, because she actually said she wanted to go home. I mean, Shuing was nice enough to invite you, and here we are in the middle of festivities and you say you want to go home. Great.

After a bit of a long trek we finally reached the bowling place, which looked more like a night club than an arena designed for family activities. Because there were so many people we had to split into two lanes. Michelle was once again being the control freak and had to assign everyone to teams. I think 'control freak' may be too neutral of a term for her, as she just pretty much put on her team everyone she wanted and everyone she didn't want on the other team.

She asked me what team I wanted, and seeing that Bob was already on her team I chose the other team. I also thought that she may have been smart enough to figure out that I may be going for Claire to place her on the same team as me, but again, she was too self-absorbed to do anything like that.

So her team had Bob, Shuing, Malay, Claire and Gnat, whereas my team had G, Brain, Scope and Michael L.

I saw Claire putting on her bowling shoes and laughed at how small her feet were. It was also at that time that I first realised she was wearing a short skirt with black stockings and high boots. I guess it had been so dark that it never really caught my eye. Kinda a bit trashy if you ask me.

I spent the opening moments sitting next to her as I was filming some of the bowls and did a mock interview with her about her two gutterballs, but then pretty much spent the rest of the night on the opposite side, wedged in between Scope and G.

I noticed Michael L was talking to her a lot, and had been throughout the night. As a guy, and keeping in mind Bobby's remark that Michael L actually had more of a dirty mind than he let on, I knew he was trying to hit on her in a very limited way. Of course it made me jealous a little bit, but to my surprise, my logic was able to control my emotions because of the following:

1. If anything happened between them, Eva would find out and they'd break up. Which is good, because I don't think he deserves someone like Eva anyway.

2. You don't really like her anyway.

3. I thought about the massage girl a lot. I found that it's my way of dealing with things. I will use one thing to distract or focus my energy on another. I've been doing it all my life - using my failure with girls as motivation in basketball; using my rejection letters to work my ass off in my old firm. It works.

4. She's just out to play with guys' minds anyway.

Given how much of a hold jealousy can have on me, I'm quite proud of how I just managed it.

Both Scope and Claire didn't pay for a second game, so Claire spent most of the latter part of the night sitting by herself at the end of the seats and I never approached her, which I'm proud of. I felt that Scope may have skipped the second game due to financial reasons, so I invited him to play with me as a team where I'd take first bowl and he'd get second, and we did pretty well together.

I had a pretty enjoyable night, and for one bowl I even put a ball on top of that rack that's supposed to help kids bowl and I used one of Gnat's toys to push it off, and it managed to knock down five pins, hehe.

After bowling we decided to call it a night, and I was glad because it was already like 1:30am or something. We all walked Claire back to her car which was a bit of a walk. Whilst walking on the main street, I was walking with her with Michael L on the other side, and she asked if I normally stay out this late. I joked "yeah, with different girls every night", and then Michael L said "he's a womaniser". Not sure if he meant that as a joke or if he half-meant it because I remember he once told Shuing and Bob that I seemed like a lady's man with Tracy and Ele with me at the cinemas.

As we neared the car park, I made a pretty funny joke about how they should have skills tester machines at the car park with parking tickets inside, and it made Claire laugh pretty loud. Pretty good eh, given how tired she was.

I guess the final confirmation for me came when we finally reached her car. As she was getting in, Shuing said loudly (and jokingly) "why are you parked in the disabled spot?". I looked down and indeed saw that she had parked in the space for disabled people.

WHAT KIND OF PERSON PARKS IN THE DISABLED SPOT???

Ok, that's it. I'm taking that as a factor towards her character. You can put a line through her name because that it's. I've always admired how Shuing can make decisions about girls based on rational and logical thinking as opposed to testosterone based decisions, like how he decided not to pursue Amy because she was too materialistic. And so now, albeit a bit late, I will follow in his footsteps and rule out Claire based on ration and logic.

To my disappointment everyone wanted to go eat at Hungry Jack's after that. Gnat was smart enough to duck off, even though half the people needed a lift from him. I had to stay because I needed a lift from G.

I also bumped into Phil2 at Hungry Jack's, and I think he still resents being kicked off the team.

Anyway, after eating some of the guys decided to go to Shuing's place. I was glad G didn't want to go, and so the people who weren't going were going in G's car. So Shuing, Bob, Brain and Scope had to wait for a taxi, while G gave me, Michelle, Malay and Michael L a lift home.