a sign of maturity...

...is when you no longer spend every other weekend at downtown east and actually enjoy it.

since our cycling trip the other day, daddy had been very intrigued by the idea of camping in the outdoors (while waiting for us, he saw many people doing that at ECP) and tried proposing it to my mom.

no go, much to my relief, ha!

and so he settled for a 2D1N stay at a chalet, thinking that it would be a good middle point between camping and just a bbq.

the thing is, my parents had never been to a chalet in singapore before and always thought it's similar to those in hong kong.

it's not.

and we would have our extended family there in hong kong to share the experience with, which will of course make a lot of difference.

zzz.

i was very reluctant to be part of this whole chalet thing but i finally gave in for i ultimately want to spend more time with my family.

still, it doesnt change my dislike for downtown east.

this coming from a person who used to go there for at least three to four times a year, thanks to class gatherings, birthday parties bla bla bla.

my familiarity of that place was to the point that i could remember where everything was in that self-contained little "resort", from the individual chalet clusters, to the theme parks to even the fast food restaurants and entertainment facilities.

though much upgrading has been done, the bulk of the place remains the same.

and it is as crowded as EVER.

with kids, big families, teenagers, kids, big families and teenagers.

yikes.

for vincent's sake (his first time staying in a chalet), i volunteered to bring him around the place. for my own sake, i thought of starting off the tour with some sweet, soothing ice-cream.

and these eye-catching wordings on the wall in an ice-cream shop beckoned at me, as if answering my silent prayer.

looks promising.

but looks only.

it tasted kannasai.

soft serve, my foot. it's just any ordinary ice-cream and i could have easily spent half the money to get a much better tasting sundae at macdonald.

yikes.

saw popeyes, where i bought my favourite fries and biscuits.

took FOREVER (though they market themselves as FAST food) to get my order, by which time i was already breaking down at the seams from being surrounded by all the screaming children and wannabe teenagers sulking and talking loudly and rudely in big groups in the restaurant.

fortunately, something FINALLY worked out right.

moist, warm and savory, popeyes' biscuits are simply HEAVENLY, i tell you.

when we got back into our room, it was only about three in the afternoon and the novelty was starting to wear off for my parents, such that they no longer exclaimed at everything they saw (i bet i inherited my optimism from them).

so everyone was feeling rather lost, for we didnt really know what we could do for the rest of the day.

what did my friends and i actually manage to spend 3D2N at these chalets in our younger days, i have no idea.

so anyway, i then whipped out my laptop and worked on my law exams preparation while the rest watched some old hong kong movie (but it was stephen chow, so not THAT bad) on tv to while the time away.

pathetic or what?

hahahaha.

after an hour or so, we all decided to go for a swim at the pool, somewhere even i hadnt ventured into.

my father and i just did our usual laps but i could see vincent was getting bored after like two laps, so we started making up games to keep ourselves entertained.

hmm...we managed to waste about another hour plus at the pool before we returned to our room, with a whole stretch of nothingness looming before us again.

hahahaha.

out of desperation, i actually spent the next hour watching local tv - a rerun of some channel 8 drama with fiona xie, jeanette aw and all that, some swimming show or something.

then lawrance arrived with his friends and we could finally start up the fire for our bbq.

at first, the boys marked the bbq pit as their territory while i was assigned sai gang jobs like cutting cucumbers.

it was only when they got bored with the job did vincent and i have a chance to display our talent.

you'll be surprised by how good i am at it lor. i only discovered it myself earlier this year,

haha.

so anyway, we were sitting around torturing our bodies with these cancer-causing (but yummy, thanks to me) trash when we started talking about nemo and how sad he looked when we left the house.

the silly dog isnt silly at all when it comes to food and play.

he knew we were going out to play and sat at the door like a petulant child, refusing to be left alone at home.

he even ran out of the house (which he never did, unless we were gone for a long time and he got too excited seeing us again) and parked himself at the lift.

pooooooor old thing.

so my father, who wasnt at the scene because he was getting the car ready, felt increasingly uneasy about it.

and by the end of the night, we decided to go home to keep nemo company.

WHEEEEEEE.

best news ever because i was starting to be overcome by the siansation of having to sleep on the beds that my brother and his friend very inconsiderately lied on to play their card games after the bbq, without bathing or even washing their feet.

boys. *roll eyes*

so anyway, the plan was that the boys would stay for the night (they are still at the age of actually NOT despising downtown east, i guess) while my parents and i would head home first.

so here comes what is even better than the best news: my dad had quite a few cans of beer and couldnt drive, which means...I GOT TO DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!

hahahahaha!

bestest best news ever.

i thought i would be banned from his car for ever more (though i DIDNT damage his car at all from the few times i did drive it) but apparently lady luck was on my side so yap, i got to drive home last night.

it was very uneventful when i did get down to sit at the driver's seat (as usual, the hype was more exciting than the actual event of driving) and i was drained by the end.

but everyone was very happy to see nemo, who was even happier to see us.

and so that is my family's first (and hopefully last) time at the chalet.

:) :) :)