Chalet 2007 Day 1

Our annual family chalet at Aloha Loyang! Mum made kong ba pao, cucur bawang (prawn fritters) and tapioca cake for the potluck dinner. When we arrived, the 'party' was in full force and everyone was stuffing themselves with food. Only one miserable slice was left of the pizza that 1st Uncle ordered, but luckily there were some spicy drumlets left. It was the usuals: 4th Aunt's curry chicken, 3rd Aunt's fishballs, 6th Aunt's satays ...

Our evening was entertained by a zealous pair of Brandon and Gordon, who really amused us with their kiddish banter. We tried to make a fool out of Brandon by making him speak in Mandarin, to which he managed with some difficulty and reluctance, which ended up with him sprouting nonsense.

Us teasing Brandon and Gordon

After eating our fill, Kar Cheng, Ah Sir, Wee, Henglip, Haoling and I went out of the chalet for a walk. Kar Cheng led us to the infamous Red House, which was a really run-down compound of small houses hidden amidst thick foliage. A bunch of juveniles was standing outside the gate, looking apprehensive about entering. When Kar Cheng, Wee and Henglip entered the Red House, the juveniles joined them, while Ah Sir, Haoling and I waited outside with two members of the juvenile bunch. When they at last emerged from the creepy darkness, they looked bored because nothing scared them. We then went to the beach before going our separate ways. Kar Cheng was, as usual, irritating Haoling (and inadvertently, all of us) with his loud remarks and arguments about God and Jesus. God should really do some justice by pushing him into the canal that we were walking along to shut him up.

Walked through a really disgusting muddy field on our way to the beach, but we did not stay long because dark stormy clouds were approaching fast. Back at the chalet, we just ate again and watched TV, and finally at 1+am, the mahjong maniacs left. Ended up with only Ah Sir, Wee, Haoling and I staying overnight.

A rowdy group of BLACK society people were creating a din outside our chalet, and attempts to shut them up were futile. I tried calling the security guard twice, but turned out that the guard was also from the BLACK society and his efforts to get them to lower their volumes were hopelessly weak. I was so frustrated with them, but consoled myself by getting Ah Sir to acknowledge together that those were some very selfish and useless BLACK society people.

The four of us were cramped into one bedroom, with Ah Sir and Haoling sleeping on the lower decks of the two bunk beds, while Wee and I slept on the top decks. We annoyed Wee with our noise and tickles, because we refused to let her fall asleep before we did. We laid in our beds chatting in the dark, because Ah Sir had drunk coffee and could not sleep (and dragged us along to suffer with her caffeine-induced insomnia). I was feeling thirsty and wanted to reach out to the bottle of water on the drawer chest below me, so I shone my handphone light in the dark on the top of the drawer chest. I was stunned to see something scamper across the top, accompanied by Haoling shrieking because she saw it too. Ah Sir shrieked because Haoling shrieked, and the three of us jumped out of our beds to turn on the light. It was a huge cockroach and what followed was a thrilling 90-minute hunt for this nocturnal invader.

So there it went dashing and hiding behind the beds, under the wardrobe and behind the wardrobe, and we tracked its movements relentlessly. There was not any insecticide available, so Wee and Ah Sir rolled newspapers, preparing to smash it into a pulp. I even had to use my camera to visually locate the cockroach under the wardrobe (which was tricky because there was a hollow space at the base).

Cockroach did not suspect it had been caught on camera

So the four of us were shrieking unnecessarily and on the alert for the cockroach making sudden appearances from nowhere. After a while, Ah Sir managed to smash a leg off from the cockroach, but the damage done to it was so negligible that we had to do the whole pursue thing for another 20 minutes before FINALLY managing to drive the cockroach away from the bedroom. Once in the living room, we decided to let it off because it was getting late and we should not waste any more time playing hide-and-seek with it. We returned to our beds wide awake and covered in sweat.

Nobody is going to believe we spent so much time hunting down a cockroach only to let it go in the end.