One. Twenty-one.

I went to my friend Rob's 21st birthday party on the weekend. I had great fun. It had a big lead-up to it, what with the whole James Bond 007 theme and everything. We had preliminary e-mails, tricks about where it was going to be, even Rob's dad coming around to personally deliver the invitation complete with bracelet.

It was a blacktie event, so we all had to dress up in suits and everything. Second time ever that I've actually looked forward to an event where I wore a suit. The first was the Blue and White ball that was my high school's version of a prom (or at least, what it's supposed to be - single-sex schools can be weird in that). This time, I wore a proper suit, complete with bow-tie, not some weird, Indian politician-style suit like I did last time. Since it was a 007 theme, I decided to go pseudo-dressed as Emilio Largo, the villain from Thunderball. So I grabbed an eyepatch. In retrospect, I should have watched the movie earlier so I knew to get a white jacket instead of a black one.
Needless to say, I was ousted by another fellow going even further and coming dressed as Ernst Blofeld, complete with make-up scar and fake cat glued to his arm. He'd stroll around and ask people to stroke his pussy :S


A little bit of explaining here - back in high school, I joined with the "high achievers" clique of my year - we'd hang around in front of the library and make jokes about videogames and other pop culture things, when we weren't discussing computer hardware. One member, who shall remain nameless, was one of those people who everyone else disliked because they were a) a pretentious snob, b) incredibly obnoxious, or c) absolutely full of themselves. We formed our own little group, our name jokingly taken from something he'd called us - Elitist Academic Pricks. So hence, we were the EAP.


The EAP'ers that stayed in Adelaide, minus Ian, who sadly couldn't be with us tonight.

I'd been listening to a lot of "theory" on getting girls recently, mostly Dave DeAngelo's work. I must say it all sounds great in theory, but it seems that it all melts away once you get out and start talking to girls. I dunno, maybe it's the way he does it or something. But I digress. I came in with one objective: to get one girl's contact details, be it a number or an email.

The night started well enough. I met my friend Jeff, who was back from Queensland for a few months and at the party with his girlfriend Juls, as well as some nice girls - one a really nice girl who was one of Rob's friends from Flinders. I went to get a drink and by the time I got back to chat to her, she had wandered off to chat to what must have been other Flinders law friends. Note to self: if leaving her, ALWAYS try to get her contact details. Then I met a nice girl I had met at one of Rob's previous dos, Kat, who's doing a film course of some sort at Uni SA city west, between juggling four jobs.


Pimp shot! The blonde is Jeff's girlfriend Juls, and the dark-haired girl is Kat. My brother says that I look quite the player with the eyepatch and suit.

I also met a nice, charming Chinese girl (I'll call her J) who as a good friend of Rob's. Unfortunately, I think I screwed over my chances with her when I made it known that I thought she had, at some point, been Rob's girlfriend. She regarded Rob as a bit pompous, and made it clear that she could never get with him. However, she seemed to like Henry a lot, as I saw them talking a lot during the night.


J, Rob, and me. When I asked for a photo with her, she wanted the birthday boy in as well. I swear, if I showed someone this photo, probably one of the first things they'd assume is that J was Rob's girlfriend.


Jeff, his girlfriend Juls, and me. Note how the player image is totally ruined with the addition of glasses. However, on the upside, my vision is much better. I swear I should have got contacts before this event. Maybe when I have money I'll get contacts for going out.

After about an hour of mingling with friends and family of the birthday boy (mostly spent talking to Kat and Juls), dinner was soon served at the back.
A full-on, proper blueblood affair. There was red and white wine on the tables, more than one set of cutlery, and a string quartet playing. The food was excellent, although I seem to be continuing to suffer bad luck in the steak/large piece of meat department, getting stringy meat after the first two pieces. Sadly, the EAP crew were separated across two tables - I was sitting with Jon, Jeff, and Juls.


Here we have Jeff pouring some wine. Or was it cham-pagen (Zat Brannigan ftw ^_^)? I don't know why I took this shot, just that I felt like doing it and that it would be amusing in some way that's now forgotten to me.

Jeff, having been quite the choir-boy while we were in high school (sorry to you if you're reading this, Jeff - no offence intended) came up to sing to the accompaniment of the string quartet, and got us to sing what I was later told was (I think) the Welsh national anthem, done to Gustav Holst's Jupiter, from what Jon tells me. The string quartet even played "Happy Birthday," which was quite amusing. And then Jeff led the "Hip hip, HOORAY!" as well. He was called up again to sing happy birthday with the Rob and Rob's brother Tim, this time to no accompaniment, except the drunken singing of other partygoers.


Rob's brother Tim on the left, Jeff in what I think is a tweed jacket in the middle, and Rob in the white jacketed suit on the right, all singing Happy Birthday.

The speeches were quite amusing, especially the mother of the birthday boy going on about "acts of lust." Still, the speeches made me think of what I had done. But I'll leave that introspection for a different entry.
Finally, we came to the last act of the party - the casino! On each table, at each seat, there was a bag of poker chips. Each table had the task of winning the most money at the backyard roulette table that had been set up. I tried my luck and was moderately successful. Another group raked in a lot, but at the end, the winner, coming from behind, was Tim, brother of the birthday boy. He came in with bags and bags of chips that he'd taken from tables whose occupants had forgotten to take the chips from, resulting in winning with roughly 930 chips, followed by 631 chips and then my table at a modest 300 or so chips.

A little before I left, at about 12:30am Sunday morning, I met this friendly old fellow who was an old scholar of St Peters, the high school where I went, and went on to sing praises for the school. He then gave me some strange words - I'd come to value the time spent in high school rather than the education I got there when I grew older.

But did I come away with any girls' contact details? I did accomplish what I set out to do, but barely - one e-mail address. Let's hope I can build from there.

Easter weekend

Well, I had a pretty big(ish) easter weekend.

Thursday night
After searching around for the place my friend Charles invited me to for a poker night, I came to a really nice, ritzy place close to the Parade. Who should I meet there but a white guy (Charles' other friend), one of the 3rd year Biotechs, and a couple of 3rd year pharmacy people, including my (gasp) evil twin doing pharmacy!

For the last three years or so, in any lecture that is shared with pharmacy students, I haev seen this guy that I swear looked so much like me that he was like my twin. He was so like me - glasses, round shape, nice guy, wallet chain (but mine was bigger ^_^ ). He rather took exception to being called the "evil twin," though.

Anyways, we settled into a good game of poker. We each had to put $5 into a pot, and winner-takes-all. A long, 4 hour game of poker was what ensued. First the white guy raked in a huge amount of money, knocking out Evil Twin, and was dominating in the early game. Then Charles, over the course of about an hour, knocked him out. Then there was only me, and the other 3rd year pharmacy, a girl named Lee, left in the game with Charles. The 3rd year biotech who was there, Jin, acted as shuffler and dealer. This dragged on for two hours before I got knocked out :(

I had what I thought was a good hand - double queens. Charles bet cautiously at first (having the most money throughout most of the game), and then went all in. Thinking he was trying to scare me, I went all in as well. Wrong move. He had a straight, and I got knocked out.

We later spent part of the night playing eye-toy and DotA, before I fell asleep at about 4am. All in all, I had a lot of fun ^_^

Friday
Coming home, it was almost like I was sneaking back home after a night out. I freshened up, intending to study for a bit after some brunch. I never got to the study bit, instead ending up on the computer chatting to buddies from the US on MSN. Curse you, MSN!

That night, I ate out at Cafe Kowloon with those same friends I played poker with the night before (minus Evil Twin - he was going to Melbourne, and add some other people I hadn't met before). Lots of fun was had, and Lee's cousin Joyce was cute-as. She apparently was studying law and commerce or something in Melbourne, and in the first year.

Saturday
Nothing much happened, except working all day. I hate my supervisor.

Sunday
Family gathering on my dad's side, complete with all sorts of Viet food. In vietnamese we'd call these kinds of gatherings "di nhau," which I think would translate to drinking with friends, or generally having a good time drinking. Amazingly enough, everyone left early (about 10pmish), leaving my mum to spend the next couple of hours snarling at my brother and I for lazing around and playing all day instead of helping her clean up the house.

Monday
Nothing much today either - just clean up, and washing the "loan" Prelude.

On your marks, get set ... drink!

Whew ... what a great weekend, and a great way to start my mid-semester break.

Saturday night: I got ready and prepped to go to my cousin's 18th birthday do with some other cousins she was inviting (all of legal drinking age - my brother was sad because he couldn't go).


The guys before we set out. That's my cousin's boyfriend Alan on the left, me in the middle and my cousin Khoi on the right.

We went to the Archer hotel, where we couldn't find the birthday girl at first, looking all around but finding her nowhere. Michelle (Khoi's older sister; Alan's girlfriend) called her, and she insisted she was there. It turns out she was right at the entrance with her friends.


Family shot - The girl in the white shirt is Anh, the birthday girl, and the girl she's sitting on is Michelle


The guys at the pub

Nicely enough, she was having a tab special that night - $300 tab, which we of course took advantage of. Two Jager Bombs, a vodka sunrise and a Cowboy shot later, I was totally pissed - all drunk within about an hour of each other.
I'd never had a Jager Bomb before, so the first one I stuffed up - I poured the Jagermeister into the Red Bull instead of dropping the shot in. Same effect, I'm told, but you get less alcohol in you.


We had a group Jager Bomb drink - great fun!


Us before the group Jager Bomb - note Anh jumping the gun


Post Jager Bomb - note Alan's expression; it's like he had something bitter

I got to meet some of her other friends. Mostly people from high school. I swear, quite a few of those girls were drunk as well. I saw Anh's boyfriend there as well, though it looked like he was hiding in a corner wanting some attention from the birthday girl herself.
I managed to get some really ncie photos here ...


Michelle, Anh, and somehow, I managed to get the side of Alan's face. I'm sure he'll laugh when he sees how this one turned out.


Pimp shot! The girl on on my right is Anh's friend. I don't know how to spell her name, it sounded like Took or something.

After some fun, we went off to get an AB from a nearby fish and chip shop - lamb and chips covered in tomato sauce. Greasy, oily takeaway at its finest. I'm told the AB stands for Abortion (Khoi had this particularly colourful story about how they perform a Caesarian on the mother sheep to remove the lamb foetus before they kill it and make the meat for the AB), although other names include After-Beer and After-Booze. Apparently the food oils in this help settle the stomach and the alcohol that you consume.
Then back to the Archer for some more fun!

Later on that night, I met up with my friends at Soul Bar down in Chinatown. Despite what Khoi had said earlier about Soul Bar being dead, it was really packed. I met up with my friends (including those who used to do biotech but now switched to commerce - man, I hadn't seen em for a long time).


Some of my friends from uni: Dennis on the left, JC in the middle, and Thanh on the right.

It was the first time I'd been to Soul Bar. A LOT of Asians there, compared to the Archer, which had a lot of white people there. It was a lot darker in there than the Archer. I met one of JC's friends, this nice girl named Jamie. Sadly though, I didn't get to hook up with anyone like I was hoping. I wouldn't let that stop me having a fun night though. I got out on the dance floor, in the press of people, and had a lot of fun, though I think I might have pissed off my friend Charles a bit by constantly hitting him with my flailing arms while I was dancing.
I ended up getting home at 2:30am.

Sunday wasn't as fun as Saturday was, but I still had fun. After we finished work, my dad and I went up to his accountant's for two reasons: one, to pick him up and take him back to our place to go out to Chinatown to eat, and two, to borrow his (the accountant's) car.


The car - a late '80's Honda Prelude, I think. Sadly it was an automatic.

It wouldn't start at first, because the accountant didn't have a license at the moment, so it hadn't been driven around much recently, meaning the battery was flat. We had to go down to a servo nearby to buy jumper cables, and charge the engine with juice from my dad's Pajero.
The car is certainly interesting ... and a different type of driving compared to what I'm used to driving - my dad's Pajero. For a start, the steering is a bit more sensitive, the car has a lot more power under it (something I exulted in when I sped down Torrens road, whooping as the speedo reached 69 km/h in about ten seconds - I exaggerate, but you get the idea).

Now here's to hoping the rest of my holidays will be as fun.

Low point

Not to get all emo or anything, but I really think I've had a nasty few days.

One test (of which there was almost NO way to study for - asshole of a lecturer claims that if you understand the material you can do the problems) earlier this week, I found out I got crap marks. I have to write an essay under exam conditions, for marks, and I'm shitting myself because I didn't have as long as I wanted to study. Again, asshole of a lecturer claimed that we needed only one week. Did she take into account that we'd have other stuff on too?! I'm just glad I didn't have to worry about a third test as I don't do Microbiology (passed it last year).

On top of that, I get a new haircut yesterday, and in a new style. I'm feeling a bit self-conscious about it, and what's the first thing my dad does when he sees me? Laugh at me and ridicule me. Not to mention acting like the gel somehow is seeping into my brain and altering my personality. He claims he liked the old one better. Claimed I looked more "intellectual." Translation: Nerd. I don't consider myself a nerd - I'm not smart enough. I consider myself a geek, yes - I like to drool over new electronic toys, I like tech in general, and geeky pursuits such as anime - although I might have to get back to you on that one since anime's becoming more mainstream.

And above all this, Forbidden Fruit continues to unconsciously send mixed signals - she asks me to take her out, and when I do, she's "busy" that night. She comes to sit next to me, and then for some reason decides to sit one row down. Gahh, I just feel like screaming and letting it all out. She's so close to me and within reach - yet I can't touch her. I'm beginning to wonder what divine entity I angered to give me such a Tantalus-like torture. I think I saw her boyfriend recently - nothing special - he's short, fat (read: round as a ball), wears glasses, and has a hairstyle like my old one. In other words - the archetypical otaku-DotA head. She seems to harbour a dislike of DotA, probably because it means her boyfriend can't take her out at night. I wonder whether it's still worth it to try and fill in the void, and get her to leave him and come with me - or is it me simply overestimating myself and taking the asshole route?

Well, my cousin's 18th birthday is coming up, so I can get wasted and drink my problems away ... until I wake up with a splitting hangover the next day.

Just out of reach

It seems that the One (now referred to as Forbidden Fruit - dear god, I've been reading Azrael's tutorials too much), has made friends with me. I'm not too surprised, considering that Forbidden Fruit likes anime, and I think is quite happy to have found another person who loves anime as much as she does, if not more. I look at her and think - "She's so perfect ... but I can never have her. What the hell do I do?"

She is perfect. She's extremely cute, she's bubbly and energetic, she loves anime, she lives close-ish to me, and I'm quite sure she was into me as well.

I've been finding that over the weekend, I've been feeling really depressed at work when I don't have anything to occupy my mind, to brood on what might have been and what will never be. It is really depressing. I know I should move on, but I can't get her out of my head for long. It gets worse when I talk to her on MSN or at uni. She's right there ... and I can't do anything. I suppose it isn't helping that I'm rewatching a depressing tale of unrequited love - Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien. Interestingly enough, I recommended her the same anime to watch - I wonder whether I'm trying to send her a subliminal message of some sort (those who have seen it to its end will know who the main character ends up with - not the first one, but one after).

Oh god, I hope she's not reading this.