4E2 Gathering

It's been a long time.

The class of 2007 met up at Jurong East Mall today. Although only a quarter of the class population turned up, it was still, nonetheless, a joyful and somewhat emotional gathering. It was the first time I, as well as many others, saw Jian Nan in more than two years. It was also the first time that he saw so many of his ex-classmates at one place. Credits to me for persuading this ultra-reluctant guy to attend the gathering. One must know him inside out like a real friend in order to coax him.

After pacing up and down the shopping mall, we decided to settle at Ambush. I had a frustrating and tensed time picking what to eat. I was deliberating whether to order the German pork knuckle or salmon cooked French style. I was planning to order half a pork knuckle but Teck Cheong kept commenting that half will not be enough to be satisfying. However, a full knuckle costs a lot more and I really don't want to fork out so much money on a meal.

When the waiter approached our table to take orders, my decision was to go for the salmon but Teck Cheong insisted that a full pork knuckle would be the wiser choice. In the end, I chose to heed his advice but ordered only half. Fortunately, half a portion was more than what we expected. In fact, I think mine looked the most "worthwhile" among all of us.

Wai Yuen ordered some black-coloured rice (think squid ink) which looked pathetic on a white plate. We all thought the same when the waiter placed his food on the table. Looks bad. Some of us tried it and we agreed that the taste was as good as its appearance. Jian Nan ordered some chicken cutlet where the thickness of the meat was barely a centimeter.

The others had pasta which, in my opinion, is not the main cast of the restaurant's menu. If you were to ask me for a rating, I will give it 4.5 out of 5 stars for food and 3.5 out of 5 for the service. There wasn't really any ambience since my friends chatted a little too loudly but that only meant that the mood was highly positive.

We planned to catch a movie after the meal but the showtimes and sheer amounts of people in the queue screwed our plans. We opted for Plan B which was to head over to Chevrons. We wanted to play bowling but the plan was scrapped too because we had no idea how long do we had to wait.

So, the final decision was to find a place to sit down and just chill out over some drinks. Nicholas and co. ordered beer while the conservatives like Jian Nan, Wai Yuen and I went for orange juice. I never liked alcohol and never understood why people love drinking something expensive and sort of harmful to the body.

We chatted on a variety of topics ranging from serious ones like job prospects to nonsensical ones like who were the outstanding people during our secondary school days. Conversations were filled with laughter non-stop just like the good old days. I don't know when will our next meeting be but there's one thing for sure.

We will be friends for life.