Thai's birthday yum cha

Although Thai's birthday was on the 8th, we met up yesterday for yum cha.

I seriously don't know what's been going on with the group since I left facebook, but it seems like they can't organise anything. Add to that, I was starting to get really annoyed with the issue of the present.

Malay suggested getting him something from JB Hi-fi. Although this was a good idea, I really wondered about Malay's repertoire when it came to buying presents for people - it seems like JB Hi-fi is his only source of presents, which is a bit worrying.

So I suggested that in addition to a martial arts blue ray, that we get him something for the family as well, like a family pass for the aquarium. That turned out to be shit because they required you to specify the date of your visit, so I then suggested a family pass to the zoo, which we ended up choosing.

Now there was the issue of who would be contributing. Malay only asked me and Shuing, as he knew we were the only ones who pay up. So he didn't ask G or Brain. I was happy to leave it at that, as I was pissed that Brain didn't even make the effort to ask about a present. But then at the last minute Shuing said he would make the overture to G, as it wouldn't be fair to him otherwise. I said I'd do the same for Brain, because if you're gonna invite G, then you should invite Brain.

Although from our perspective we were giving them a "chance", they didn't do themselves any favours by responding only at the last minute to agree to chip in. Worse was Brain, who asked me if I was going to Eva's afterwards, and I said yes and asked him the same thing, only for him not to reply. Cunt.

To add to the stress and confusion, on the day I picked up Malay. I thought I should extend the invitation to Shuing as well, so texted him using my new number asking if he wanted a lift. He asked if I was Malay, which I thought was a bit weird. I played along and said yes. He asked if I was alone, which was even more weird. I said yes. Malay then proceeded to explain to me that Shuing's presence today was supposed to be a secret, that I wasn't even supposed to know.

That's weird, because Shuing told me he was coming...

Anyway, when we picked Shuing up, Malay explained everything to him. I said to Shuing he told me he was coming anyway, and he said he didn't and asked me to check the emails again. I checked today at work, and although he never clearly said "I am coming", it was pretty much obvious when he asked what "we" would be doing after yum cha.

What's the big deal anyway? Why try to make it such a secret that he'd be coming up to Sydney??? Although he says he loves living in Canberra, I think he's heaps lonely and that's why he keeps coming back.

When we were on our way there, my engine over heated so we had to wait for NRMA. Shuing annoyed me by asking that his dad come, whereas I just wanted NRMA to come and fix my car so I could take it either to the city or back home.

They came faster than expected and gave it a temporary fix by adding like four litres of water into it, though there were some obvious leaks. After that we were on our way and parked in a car park.

They had already ordered some food but didn't look like they had gotten too far in terms of eating. I didn't really want to sit next to Thai's wife, so sat down one seat before her, only to have Shuing nudge me as my seat was blocking the seat he wanted to get to, so I ended up moving into it and next to Thai's wife. She was pretty chatty, asking me about my trip to Korea, as she had been there twice on stop overs.

The meal went pretty smoothly, and the outstanding point of it all was Thai's son, who was just sooooo cute!

When it came time to pay, G asked if we should all pay or exclude Thai and his wife. I could sense Brain watching me closely, hoping for the latter. I said to just divide it by five, meaning excluding Thai and his wife. We paid with my credit card, and outside the restaurant, Brain made a feeble attempt at paying me by saying he had a $50 note which he couldn't break, and then walked off with G before any further discussion took place.

I drove Malay and Shuing back to Malay's place to drop him off as he had to work. We then got into G's car who was waiting outside my house. I suggested we go get a slurpee at the service station nearby, and I shouted everyone to a slurpee. I silently hoped Brain would offer to shout all of us something. It wasn't so much of a money thing, but more to show initiative and to contribute to the group, instead of just leeching off it.

We drove to Eva's place and I nearly fell asleep in the car. Once we got there, we saw that Thai and his wife were already there, along with Ele and Yang. We displayed photos of my trip to Seoul on the tv and I talked them through to people who were watching. I was disappointed that Ele wasn't really watching, as she was busy with her baby daughter.

I ended up giving Eva the Pororo toy, even though I thought about giving it to Ivy. But then I thought, seriously, in terms of priority, who deserves it more?

I also gave the apron to Ele, and tried to do it in the absence of Colin as I didn't get him a present. But he came out from the toilet and asked why I didn't get him anything lol. Ele annoyed me a bit by trying to gently say I should get her something pink next time. Apparently, and if Yang was telling the truth, Ele had said to him she would "kill me" if I came back without a gift for her.

After the photos, Thai and his wife left. Then we played Dixit, and this is where Shuing started to get aggro. For whatever reason, he didn't get it right on both my turns as a story teller. This led to his 'conclusion' that he 'never' gets my story telling. I was prepared to ignore it, but he pressed the point, saying he thought this represented a "psychological problem".

What the hell?

He also said he couldn't understand other people's thought processes as well, and asked me what was wrong with him. I decided to bait him and said "autism", which obviously hit a soft spot because he kept repeating it after that, like "oh yeah I got autism".

He was beginning to scare and annoy me.

After that we all left to eat at a Japanese restaurant nearby, even though I was still full from yum cha. The meal was rather uneventful, maybe because Eva and Colin were there.

When we drove back to the city, I half jokingly suggested going for a coffee and to Scope's work to see if he was there. Shuing obviously took this to heart and G drove us there. Fortunately, Scope had just left work.

We ended up going to that coffee place that Malay likes, the one with the chocolate bread rolls. This is where conversation started to get interesting.

1. Shuing mentioned something about us being special, and I gave a rather nihilistic view by saying if I died it wouldn't really change the world. He countered with the butterfly effect but I didn't buy it.

2. He asked me if I would go for Eva had she not been married to Michael L. I was honest and said probably yeah. He seemed to have a problem with the fact that Michael L proved to be an obstacle for me, saying it wasn't fair for Eva and that we seemed like a good match. I said the case could also be put that it wouldn't be fair to me, where she gets to pick him first and when it doesn't work out to just come to me.

3. Throughout the day he seemed to really want to push the point that I may be gay. This was due to me meeting with Adnan on the trip and going to the love lock mountain. Shuing dropped hints like, after I said Scope's work area was a nice place to live in, he said it was full of gay people. Then he said he knows a guy at his work is gay because they have nothing in common and conversation always ends easily. I tried to make it a point by saying then that meant Brain was gay, and Brain said there was a difference between being gay and being shy.

Perhaps most revealing of all was when we were in the car discussing this (on the way to the cafe), Shuing said something like "if someone is not into financial markets, gambling [and something else] then we have nothing in common and I don't want to talk to you". So he finally let it slip about the gambling thing.

While we were at the cafe, Luna was also brought up, and I expressed my regret at asking her such a dumb question about whether she was from South or North Korea, which killed my chances with her.

I was pretty glad to get home after that, just to be away from the pressure of Shuing's presence.