Monday, November 29, 2004

It was Grad Night, and I have never before taken so many taxi rides in an entire day. I think in total we flagged more than 4 cabs in a span of a few hours.

Me and my friends checked into Hotel Royale at noon, had lunch, and strolled to Meritus Mandarin to rehearse our dance item for the night (yes you heard me right, I'm dancing). Our item is called "Tarzan and Jane", and yes, its to the tune of the song by Toybox. That same song that's always boomingly played from the pirated CD stall in pasar malams. If you ask me, its a very nice dance. :P

Anyways, so we decided to wear masks to create that mysterious kinda feeling, like when the audience is kept in suspense about the true identity of the dancers, it make things more exciting (I think). So we combed Orchard and finally bought this kid's party masks from Cold Storage. Its quite, kiddy, but it will do lah.

When we finished practice it was already near 5pm, and we're supposed to be seated by 6.45pm! And we were getting frantic. Aiya you know girls lah, give us an eternity to dress up and make up, and its still not enough time.

By the time everybody showered and changed into our dance clothes, and applied make-up, did our hair, it was already way past 6, and Hotel Royale is not exactly very near to Mandarin. So we took taxi #1 down.

Our dance was the first item, and it actually felt quite good to execute all the dance moves we practiced so hard the previous night before. And when it ended, everybody was cheering and clapping for us! But ironically, although we dreaded performing and almost withdrew, I felt a little sad that its over, and I'd have gladly done it again.

So we changed into our dresses for the night, and Zinc wonderfully forgot to bring her metal belt which she specially bought for the occasion, so we took taxi #2 back to the hotel to get it, and taxi #3 back to Mandarin Hotel.

Some highlights of the night:

1. The food at Meritus Mandarin is heavenly!
2. I took so many photos with everybody that my eyes hurt from all the flashing.
3. You get high dancing with smoke and flashing disco lights around you and the booming amplifier only metres away at midnight.
4. One of the waiter was quite cute, and when I told michk I had a secret crush on him she cleverly announced it to the whole world.

(Actually the the last point is quite off topic and out of point, but hey, crushes are part and parcel of growing up right? Now he's just a fuzzy memory lah can't even properly remember his looks.)

After the event was over, we went over to 5 Girls and a Body Guard's Mandarin Hotel suite. And in comparison to our little room in the dinghy Hotel Royale, it was like stepping into a palace! Even the smell is different. Our hotel smelled of stale smoke and dust, but theirs smell of fresh linen. Took more photos, and left their place at around 2am.

Michk, Jul and I decided to take a little stroll in Orchard, and it was weird walking in a deserted and quiet Orchard Road, and then we took Taxi #4 back to the hotel.

Thus ended a hectic day, and my days as a Nanyang Girl.

writing at 11:45 PM

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