MARATHON WEEKEND

I woke up today and it was already 1 pm. I had a massive headache. I seemed to be stumbling along the way to the loo. I had a marathon session of meeting friends; some unexpectedly. A friend was right. She said, when it rains, it pours - she was refering to invitation to go out. Sometimes on certain weekends, we would be bored to death. But on some weekends, there would be so many people asking you out, that you had to slot them in all in a day.

The old marquis gang had its annual gathering at Kin Kin’s ass burning pan mein yesterday morning. Seriously speaking, the quality of the pan mein is deteriorating. I still prefer the good old ways of preparing pan mein – using hands rather than machine; even if we had to wait at least 45 minutes at it. The pan mein was still good when they operated it under the big shady tree – the good old times, when we would be very worried about leaves, tree twigs and bird droppings into our precious bowls of pan mein.

This time round, other than members of marquis, we have extensions to it – somebody got married, somebody made new friends, somebody brought along their siblings. A usual gathering of 6-7 people ended up with 11 people. It was a surprise that we got to know each other for almost 9 years. Whenever I told people that these are the friends I made online, they never believed me. I guess we just have to be nice to people in order for other people to be nice to us. What goes around, comes around.

After the religious annual pan mein session, we went our separate ways. Some are getting old or too tired over the weekdays that they need to go home to take a nap. Our purportedly karaoke session after pan mein was called off since most of us were against the idea, apart from the karaoke king himself and the pilot boy couldn’t make it. It was the pilot boy’s idea that we congregate and have a karaoke session before Kat goes back to the UK.

For the rest of us who still have some energy left, we went for a movie. We decided to catch X Men in Mid Valley and were lucky enough to secure good seats within minutes after we reached. The GSC decided to open three special lanes for Da Vinci and X Men. The queue was horrendous. I never liked the idea of going to shopping malls on weekends; unless someone else is driving. KLCC parking fees were getting too exorbitant. The usual flat rate of RM4 for Sundays does not apply anymore and fees are charged on hourly basis. So much so for saying our country’s inflation rate stayed at 4% annually eh?

After the movie, we spent some time in Secret Recipe to rekindle old times. It was good to hear everyone has their own sets of life now and enjoying every minute of it.

I was all set for another session in Kanna Curry House, the newly opened branch in Bandar Manjalara. This time, it was with my TAR College friends. Our discussion on dinners are usually quite thought provoking. The three of us; always discuss the possibility of ended up alone. We often joked about being a spinster and how people always judge a spinster and the numerous myth of being a spinster. In my line of work – there were many spinsters and unfortunately, most of them showed signs of loneliness. They usually would tend to torture their subordinates by giving them work 1 minute before the end of the day to make them stay on after office hours, or to deny them of their rights to take study leave or just simply make their lives miserable. I was lucky enough that most of my unmarried bosses are quite nice to me; except for a particular one whom I met three years back which made my life hell. I hope she had found another way of releasing her frustration rather than lashing it out to helpless subordinates.

It is unfair to label an unmarried person – imbalanced. In our society, those who are unmarried especially ladies, would be subject to stigma of being a spinster. People would always think spinsters are lack of something or something is very wrong with them that render them unmarried.

I guess society has to change their perception now. A lot of unmarried and very eligible women are successful. I happened to watch tv one midnight on those sleepless nights, about Ms Olivia Lum who is unmarried because she dedicated her life to help human kind by providing a system to treat waste water – to reduce pollution into Mother Nature. She has contributed so much to the society as a whole and gain worldwide admiration. A sacrifice that is far more important and genuine.

I asked my friends why are we always discussing things that have not much meaning, whether or not we find a soul mate should not be in our agenda. Our lives now already have worries of its own; it is absurd to subject ourselves to more problems of our other halves unless we are ready. Once we are married – our single lives’ story came to and end, but a new story (and problem) would begin. It takes a lot of tolerance, consideration and sacrifices to be with someone that we love. Afterall, we are all human beings and to err is human.

After the heavy dinner and heavy conversation, I went home only to find that my sister was already getting ready to go out. It was already 10.30 pm and our colleagues invited us to go to Genting Highlands. I was all set and off we go to Genting Highlands. Genting had changed so much since the last time I went; that was almost 6 years ago. There, we had a ball of time at the Indoor Theme Park and relived our childhood dreams - bumper cars, ferris wheels, roller coaster, etc. Some of us tried our luck at the Casino. I slept on the chair while waiting for them to place a bet at the black jack counter.

By the time we were home, it was already 5.30 am. I don’t think I could stay up this late anymore. I just woke up again from my afternoon nap right after lunch to write this. A definite sign of old age.