Weekend Socialising

Although I appreciate having a lot of “me” time, I cannot go on for very long without socialising with friends. This is why Raquel calls me an extrovert despite my claims of being an introvert. Okay, maybe I’m somewhere in between — an Introverted Extrovert or an Extroverted Introvert, if there’s such a thing. This past weekend, at least I was able to appease the extrovert in me.

Friday night, our friend Chinita invited the group to join her and the “food-trippers” group for a 7pm dinner and a movie afterwards in the city. Due to another engagement, we couldn’t go and stay the whole night in the city. So, I declined the invitation.

After eating dinner in the city anyway that Friday night, I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 7pm anyway so Raquel and I went to the restaurant where they were supposed to be having dinner and just greet Chinita personally a “Happy Birthday” and say hi to the others.

On the way to the restaurant, we saw RC, T and Lin crossing the street at Russel Street. We thought it would be funny to sneak up on them from behind. We snuck behind Lin, started walking beside her and then talked to her about her permanent residency application, much to her surprise.

We all stopped at the corner just before the restaurant and waited for Chinita who was running late (as usual, so I heard). They estimate Chinita to show up about 7.30pm. While waiting for her, we just stayed at that corner and talked up a storm about anything and everything.

Chinita arrived at 7.30 as predicted. We greeted her Happy Birthday and we should’ve been on our way then. Instead, Raquel and I accompanied them in the restaurant and had some drinks. Along with the drinks came more talking, of course. What was supposed to be just a short few minutes of catching-up conversation turned to be an hour-and-a-half story swapping.

The next day, just for kicks, I asked our neighbor friend M and Ira if they wanted to play a quick game of tenpin bowling in the afternoon at the nearby Werribee bowling centre. As Ira has driving lessons, she postponed it for 6.30pm which was just fine.

So while waiting for 6.30pm, M dropped by the house and we had a guitar jamming session. As I’m still quite the guitar newbie, these sessions usually turn out to be impromptu guitar lessons with M as the master and me as the grasshopper.

We were so preoccupied with our guitar playing that we didn’t realise that it was already past 6.30pm and Ira was texting us that she, Ej and Ej’s beau Tn were already at the Werribee train station waiting for us.

We had forgotten about the Weerama Festival held in and around Werribee. In fact, they had closed the street adjacent to the train station because it was the venue for the fair. When we got there to pick up Ira, Ej and Tn, there was this band playing on stage playing 80′s hits. It was great!

After eating some pancakes, watching the band and some chatting, we left for the bowling centre. We paid for two games. Fortunately, there was a Saturday night discount where adults only need to pay children prices. Cool.

M wore his now trademark bowling glove and bowled up quite a game. Not only that, he also caught the attention of the bowling attendant girl that invited him (and us) to join the league. We teased M that maybe all he needed to get the girls was to just show up at the bowling centre with the bowling glove on.

After the game, we tried looking for a place to play some billiards but to no avail. In the end, we just spent the remainder of the night singing karaoke on M’s Magic Mic. We finished at about half-past-midnight. Whoa.

When I woke up Sunday morning, my throat was slightly sore but it was okay as I had enjoyed myself singing to my heart out the night before. Man, that Magic Mic has a lot of songs! Makes me want to buy one myself. Either that or the Singstar game for the Playstation 2. Hmm.