fulfilling holidays

had a fulfilling holiday, not in terms of presents during the christmas period but more in terms of the gatherings over the last few weeks...

went for a BBQ at junxiang's place on christmas eve... was fun, and it was the first time that i ever had a BBQ along a HDB corridor, luckily no mean neighbours were around to complain about the smoke or noise... bek, jiasheng and their respective girlfriends were there as well... hmmm... it's funny how friends, made during our secondary days, managed to bond after such a long time... well, come to think about it, it had been like...10?? oops, more than 12 years since we got to know each other... amazing... well, the gathering would have been better if there are more of us (from the same class of TMS '94 - '97) but nevertheless, i'm pretty contented...

spent an entire day with my relatives on saturday... turkey treat and things like that... heard that the whole family was there waiting for my appearance since that morning, but pity that some of them left by the time i got there... despite some disappointment (got into an argument with the staff from the Giant supermarket at sembawang over the roasted turkey and logcake), everything was just perfect, just like old times when i was much younger...

as for friends, been on mission to try to meet up with everyone... well, there are just too many of them... hahahaha... but the visit to ntu was great! met up with many of the post-grad friends, and also with my ex-boss... it's nice to see them again, even though it was only 10 weeks ago since i bade farewell to them... the only glitch was that i didn't get to meet the forever-friendly lorraine, who happened to be on-leave for the remaining of the year...

and despite the busy schedules of everyone, i managed to / already arranged to meet up with huaqiang (another secondary school friend), alexie, maybe weiqing too (since i have another 3 nights before leaving), the sjab gang of huisin, peipei and huiniang (tomorrow night) and whoever i forgot to mention...

overall, everything was great in the last couple of weeks... as i re-pack my stuff for the flight on friday, it dawns on me that i do miss my friends and family more than 10 weeks ago when i first left for portugal... maybe it was due to the excitement of going abroad to a whole new country then... but now that everything is settled in portugal, going back to portugal does not seem so fun after all... hahhaha... maybe it's due to the fear of going back to discuss my mobility options for my 2nd semester, and not forgetting, going to face the results of 2-weeks-of-freedom-while-everyone-is-working -their-ass-off.... well, this is, afterall, unavoidable... but hey, i will work hard towards the promise that i made to myself...