District 9, and cardboard boxes

On Friday night, I returned Michael L's call, wondering what he wanted. Turns out he wanted to see if I was available for a movie (District 9) the next day. I tentatively agreed, but said I could confirm later, wanting to know who else was going first. Throughout Friday night, I thought about it in the back of my head, and ultimately agreed.

He said no one else was available, and I was ok with going with just him. Besides, I hadn't seen him in a long time. I asked him if he had asked Ele annd Tracy, and he said that Ele was busy, and he hadn't asked Tracy.

On Saturday morning, I messaged Tracy asking her if she wanted to join us. I then went for a jog. It wasn't the best jog in my life. I started out ok, but soon after I reached the cafeteria, I felt some discomfort in my knee. I continued a bit longer before deciding to call it quits for the sake of my knee.

Towards the end, I did try to lightly hop and skip on it. Skipping was ok, hopping made it feel vulnerable. I even tried to sprint. I couldn't do it like I used to. I couldn't sprint fluidly. I ran like one of those stiff guys, like Shawn Bradley. As much as I tried, I couldn't get the fluidness back. It made me happy to think I had come such a long way from limping. It made me sad thinking about what I was capable of in the past.

I went home and saw a reply from Tracy saying she was interested and asked what movie. I also received a missed call from an unknown number, which turned out to be Ele. I had deleted her number after that night on MSN when she just went offline on me. The next night she was online and apologised, saying she was in a grumpy mood, and then went offline again. I thought maybe she wanted me to call her up to talk. Or maybe not.

I checked the voice message left by her, and she was asking me out to yum cha. I thought it was strange. She told Michael L she was busy and here she was asking me out to yum cha? I called her back, and she said she had called Michael L after me and he told her he was meeting up with me so they agreed to have Japanese before the movie. She also said she wanted to talk.

In the shower, her soft, childish voice saying she wanted to talk kept repeating in my head.

Talk? Talk about what?

My guess was she wanted to talk whatever was making her stress, which was most likely her work. But I couldn't help but think in the back of my mind that maybe there was something more. Also, was this a sign that I had entered the no-return friend zone, or was it a sign that she was a little bit more comfortable with me?

After my shower, I got dressed ready to leave. I deliberately left my hair ungelled, and just wore my favourite hoody with jeans. Gone were the days of Bob's fashion influence of wearing tight clothes to impress girls. Stuff that.

I drove to her place and gave her a call. I waited a few moments before seeing her run out and then slow down as soon as she saw my car. She wore an open cardigan with a shirt underneath. I think it was really the first time I noticed how big her breasts were.

When she got in, I drove off and we talked about what had happened with the plan. She said Michael L had asked her about the movies and she had declined without even knowing when it was, laughing. Then when she found out I was going with him, she changed her plans from yum cha to Japanese. She said Tracy wanted to skip lunch and would join us later for the movie.

Because I knew this would be one of the few moments we would be alone together, I asked her how work was, intending to get straight to the point of her troubles even though it probabaly was too early. She said it was good, but stressful. Even though she deferred her CFA course before, it now starts in December and she doesn't see the time for it.

She also said she was moving to Ultimo next Saturday, which surprised me. She said it was so she could save time travelling to and from work. She would be living with about four others, including a Korean girl. That was a flag for me. Korean + female + Ultimo = prostitute. No joke.

I told her that even though the meeting time was 1pm, the movie actually started at 1:45. She then suggested that we'd have enough time for yum cha, and I was like whatever. So she called Michael L and arranged for him to wait for us so we could pick him up and drive to yum cha instead.

She brought up my birthday and said that I didn't invite them to it. I was a little flattered that she remembered my birthday. I chuckled a little and then told her I didn't celebrate it.

I got to the shopping centre and found Michael L. As he was entering, Ele was talking about her work and didn't even stop to say hi to him, and just kept talking, ignoring his greeting. He managed to join in the conversation when it came to mistakes at work, saying he once forgot about a $10m trade. Geez.

We drove to the restaurant which was nearby. The car park was completely empty, and once inside, there was only one other table, with another coming in soon after us. It wasn't the type of yum cha where they pushed trolleys around - you had to order from a menu.

Ele told me what she wanted in the best Cantonese she could muster, and when the waiter came around I used my Cantonese to order.

The food was ok, it wasn't the best. Michael L actually brought up the subject of romance in relations to Ele, saying Eva had said that she should move on from her boyfriend if they weren't going to see eachother, instead of making other people waiting. I wondered who these other people were. Ele basically said she didn't want to talk about it. Well, not with us anyway. Don't know why Michael L would bring that up as a guy.

We talked about eachother's work as well. At one point we got to talking about phones, and Ele asked to see mine. I wasn't sure if I had any 'incriminating' messages of recent calls, so I refused. I was pretty sure I didn't, but I mean, I wasn't sure if calling that massage place was in one of my recent calls, and I didn't want to be interrogated as to what that label in my phone was. Besides, I thought, it added a little mystery to myself.

I asked to see her phone because she had changed phones, and she showed me. I didn't look through anything, but I did use it to take a photo of her eating, lol.

Michael L kept rushing us because the movie was starting soon, but I didn't really care that much. I mean, they would always have later sessions. When the bill came, it was like $23 each, but we all had $50 notes, so Ele and I put our notes in. When the change came, I gave most of it to Ele, meaning she paid the right amount and I paid for Michael L's.

Tracy then called Ele saying she probably wasn't going to make it because her bus came late. We decided to go pick her up and while Michael L looked up session times on his phone. It was interesting to note that Ele had taken the front passenger seat.

We eventually picked up Tracy on some corner because she ended up catching a bus and then getting off at a later stop. We decided to get the 4pm session at Bondy. As I started to drive off, I was thinking about how this had turned into a bigger adventure than I thought. I mean, when I was still under the impression that it'd be just Michael L and me, I even considered catching a bus instead of driving.

So Tracy is working now, and I could feel Ele's temperament being tested (although she stayed silent) when Tracy complained about how hard work was and that she now got home at 6pm (yes, 6pm!).

I guess it's because I hadn't seen Michael L in a while, but I thought he had changed. Apparently not. He was still the backseat driver, occasionally throwing in a comment (read: criticism) about my driving. Because I wasn't very family with the shopping centre car park at Bondy, I just went with the route I was familiar with, which was kinda on the other side of the cinema, and lo and behold, I copped a critique from Michael L about it. I ended up finding a really good spot right near the entrance. I was a bit nervous parking, even though I had done it so many times before. I guess because there were passengers in my car, in a way it was kinda like performing on a stage.

Because we had a bit of time before the movie started, we walked around a bit. Michael L wanted to check out Borders, so we went there. Ele and I ended up splitting from them as we browsed through the store together. She had talked about the book 'The Ugly Truth' earlier, and I said she could show me. She asked the staff member about it, but he couldn't make out her broken English so he asked her to type it in the search computer. She could barely spell it correctly and needed help from me. Turns out the book was not in store as they were waiting for more stock.

We walked to I think it was like the self-help section, where she showed me a book called "He's Just Not That Into You". I flicked through it and pretended I was interested, and then found another book for men on attracting women. I picked out a quote which said that more than 50% of women didn't care about a guy's appearance, saying attitude was more important. I asked her if she agreed, and she said yes, the guy just needed to be tidy. I gave her an extreme example of my face being burnt with my eyeball hanging out and she laughed and said that would matter.

We walked elsewhere and she started telling me about her work problems. She told me how she liked watching 'How I Met Your Mother' and there was this bit about a guy who had a lot of bad luck but eventually found happiness, and she asked something about going with the flow in life or going out to create your own goals. I told her it was a matter of personality for some people, as some are natural followers and some are natural leaders.

She also talked about some work social function and how she didn't like to kiss ass while others did. I don't know, I found that I treated her a bit like Twish, where I'd tune in and tune out sometimes. Well I mean, I tuned in more with Ele than Twish, but I just didn't feel the same level of attraction as I did before. I still had hope that she would like me, but I wasn't obsessed like I used to be. I guess time changes a lot of things.

We went upstairs to see what was there. I thought it was just Gloria Jeans, but they had a movie section as well - my specialty! I wanted to show her some good movies, but they didn't have many, so I showed her Frost/Nixon and told her about it. She seemed pretty interested and I said I'd lend it to her next time. Also told her about Sliding Doors and she seemed pretty interested in that too, so I thought that'd be a good one to lend her. It was only later that I realised I had given Frost/Nixon to my dad to take back to SA to watch. Oh well. I didn't want to lend it to her right now anyway because I feared she might lose it during the moving process.

She also told me she was now enrolled in a commerce degree, studying business law.

Tracy called Ele and then found us. We found Michael L, and then they wanted to get some drinks. Tracy had been craving for some cake. So we went to the food court below the cinema, and Michael L and I waited while the girls checked out the stores. Tracy got a coffee and cake, and Ele got a boost juice. I went to the toilet and Michael L also got a boost juice when he saw what Ele got. I had my mind set on coke and popcorn, so didn't want to eat anything to spoil my appetite for that.

I noticed Ele went quiet while we sat, with only Tracy and Michael L talking. Ele was kinda looking around.

Up in the cinema, we got our tickets. I got my medium popcorn and coke and was ready to go. It was in one of those big, luxurious cinemas. Michael L sat on one end, with Ele next to him and then me and then Tracy. I swear the screen was so bright it basically lit up the whole cinema.

Tracy kept checking her phone throughout the movie, which I thought was a bit rude. Because there was a little platform thing between Tracy and me, I placed my popcorn there, although she never took any. I offered some to Ele a few times and she was always receptive with a smile, and Michael L only took some once.

The movie was actually quite good, even though I thought it was different from what the trailer showed. There were some really gruesome moments which reminded me of Saw, like when they were about to take the guy apart piece by piece, and when that Afircan dude wanted to eat his arm.

Throughout the whole movie, I thought about how cruel the human race was. I am sure that if any aliens came to our planet, we would glady dissect them in the name of science. But if we were ever stranded on another planet, cutting us up would of course be a blasphemous thing.

It also showed how self-interest can change a person's view, and this was conveyed beautifully by the main character, who at first didn't give a rat's ass by evicting the prawns, but once he became one of them, he could empathise with them, which was most blatantly illustrated when they forced him to test their weapons on a prawn and he refused, saying the prawn hadn't done anything wrong.

It's something I see in my work. I remember a client was caught on CCTV glassing another guy. The mother was so delusional she went as far as to suggest that that wasn't her son, and at court she said that all jurors should be equipped with state of the art television sets to see the video clearly. Of course, if it had been her son who was the victim, I am sure her views wouldn't be nearly as the same.

I felt sorry for the main character, I thought he was going to escape with the prawns. It was so sad that he kept making flowers for his wife even after he had completely transformed. I really hated that bald guy, I hate anyone who abuses people who are at a disadvantage.

I sometimes looked over at Ele, hoping to share a moment with her. I tried to do it when the gruesome bits came on, as a way of providing comfort or comic relief, but it never happened. It was only towards the end that we looked at eachother and sort of laughed.

After the movie, Tracy said she had received an email from G about his birthday dinner next Saturday.

Ele said she needed to find some cardboard boxes for packing, so we went around to some supermarkets asking for them, but they all said we were too early for it. There was talk about dinner, but it didn't eventuate because Tracy had to fix her laptop and Ele had to pack, so I drove them home and then dropped Michael L off (he had sold his car) with a few more criticisms about my driving.

Instead of going home, I decided to go look for cardboard boxes for Ele. I drove to the Bra and asked the supermarket there, but they said I was too early. I then walked around the streets, and especially dark backstreets looking for cardboard boxes. I kinda felt like a criminal, which was kinda exciting. In one dark lane, I stopped to check out some rubbish, only to realise later on that there were a group of guys huddled up talking in a car park next to the pile of rubbish, looking at me to see what I was up to, lol.

I did a far bit of walking, searching, but the best I could find were boxes that had been flattened. I then drove up to the Wick to look there. I parked my car in the shopping plaza car park and, fearing that the supermarket would tell me I was too early, I decided to go for a walk around the hospital block, hoping there'd be some boxes there, but no. I saw one or two boxes around rubbish piles next to some fast food stores, but didn't think Ele was looking for dirty boxes.

I eventually went to check out the supermarket, and they said I should've tried later, but I was welcome to walk around and take any I saw. So I started walking the aisle, and there were some storemen unpacking stuff. I picked out big boxes that were being unpacked and asked them if I could have it. They were all pretty happy to help, which surprised me. I guess it means they don't have to go to the trouble of flattening the boxes.

I found two and walked out with it, and then spotted a large rectangular one outside the florist and took that as well. I put them in my car and then drove to Ele's place. I called her, but she didn't pick up. I called Tracy and she put Ele on, and she said they were on the way to Tracy's house. She said she'd come pick them up from me tomorrow, but I said I'd just leave them outside her flat.

I got out of my car and, like some sort of thief or rubbish dumper, looked around sneakily as I pulled the boxes out, crossed the road, went into the boundaries of the flat looking for a good place to put them. I placed them behind the front fence, hoping no one would throw them out thinking it was rubbish. I sent Ele a message telling her the location.

I went home, and was surprised I didn't get an invite to G's birthday dinner. Oh well.

Ele later called, but I didn't answer. She then sent me a message thanking me, and I just sent one back saying no problems. I didn't feel like any further contact at that moment. It was back to nomad me for now.