I met a bunch of old schoolmates. To which two girls tapped me on the shoulder and, with an expression of shock and hand covering mouth, went, “Oh my God! ALBERT!”

I mockingly did the same back to them.

“You look so different!”

Ah yes, what could be more complimenting than girls acknowledging that I have:

1) eyebags
2) longer-than-a-schoolboy hair

They looked the same, just with different hairstyles. I was still taller than them. 🙂

Later, in a moment of silence, I pondered the previous meets with schoolmates I had not met for 3 years. Guys would go, “Haha you still look exaaactly the same. Never changed.” (This was very recent, with my longer hair…)

Then I thought of a bunch of girls I bumped into KLCC. They said I looked very different, (and much better, at that!) even though that was much earlier in the year, and I was still visiting my Indian barber.

Conclusion?

Girls know what to say when they meet old acquiantances. “You look so different!”

Guys are unobservant idiots. “You look exactly the same!” (Except me lah, I could tell the difference… unless guys tend to change more after school or something.)

Edited 14:11 hours 18th November 2003: We also bumped into a church friend of a friend. Ironically, he was selling insurance! Odd. Faith is about optimism, while insurance is about pessimism.

I went to KLCC to meet up some friends. While waiting, I walked around Kinokuniya to discover wrapped books! Had my friend who once worked at MPH, wrapping books all day, found a better pay here?

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but that’s all they’re letting me read.

After the rest left, I took a cab with KJ to Sungei Wang. On the way, the cabbie commented on those new taxis on the road. There were fancy ones like the van-like one (RM4 per entry instead of RM2). We both wondered what it would be like in such a cab.

We went up to Ezone at Low Yat Plaza and got slaughtered at Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. The first map, that was. I forgot I was using the Light Side so I kept using Drain and Grip to no avail. 🙁 The next few maps saw us ganging up and slashing bots and humans to a good fragcount. 🙂

Next up, we saw Unreal Tournament 2003 being played nearby, so we joined in a server and reaped. Really. They were using alternate fire (like the Pulse Gun’s laser spray) but it seemed to have no effect on us. Rockets never seemed easier to lay, as we hopped. They were circle-strafing too, but for some reason we kept getting Killing Sprees. Even in teamplay maps, with us on one team, 3 to 4, we still beat them, with about 20-30 frags each, and single digits for the others. (50 was the team fraglimit). KJ only beat my frags in the last map, but he managed to join the server sooner.

By then, our two hours were up, or we’d be spawn-raping Battlefield 1942 games. 🙂

It seems that most cybercafe-goers can’t handle 3D first-person-shooters other than Counter-Strike. 😛

KJ then showed me his wonderful shortcut back from Sungei Wang to KLCC. (I never walked back to KLCC since I could get the bus home from there…)

He walked through the open-air car park opposite Starhill Plaza. The one with giant tomato sauce cans. It exited at Eden Garden Restaurant. We crossed the road to pass by Wisma UOA. From then, it was all familiar territory, but he surprised me again by walking through a car park before Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We entered KLCC via the starting point of the park’s jogging track. All in, 15 minutes.

We met up with Dinesh, and we took a Cityliner bus to head nearer to Ampang Puteri Hospital. KJ, upon realizing it was our stop, rushed out. I didn’t know what his rush was. What, were Cityliners more aggressive in Ampang?

(Edited 19:04 hours 18 November 2003: Dinesh and I later realized that we forgot to touch out our Touch And Go cards, resulting in a penalty! We kicked KJ for that.)

We took a cab up to Johnson’s place for his birthday party. There was a small golf course on the left, as the cab went up the hill, going up anti-clockwise.

Three of us entered in awe, with at least five luxury cars with single digits for license plate numbers.

I went inside, and saw a tiger carpet with a head. I kicked the head. Ow! It was not stuffed. It was a plaster casted head.

The inside of the house had Chinese vases and oriental ornaments. The house had mirrors! I could imagine the disco lights coming down, and a fluffy pink bed for all the groovy kinkiness of Austin Powers.

On the way out to the barbecue pit, I saw a swimming pool. A swimming pool! I did not see that on my way in. There was also a raunchy Statue Of Liberty. She had liberty, alright.

Food was good, if not overcooked by master of ceremonies Shaz.

Met the overly philosophical Ed there, among many other familiar faces. We sat, we ate, we told stories.

Ayman crammed Quek, Kristin and me in his jeep. Who needs a motion master?

I got off at Ampang Park and flagged a taxi. By chance, it was the RM4-per-entry one! It was past midnight so I didn’t kick a fuss. It had no front seat. There were two tires in the back, where there were two ‘back‘ seats facing each other. He took the tires and placed them in the front.

It had a glass window between the passenger and driver seat, and a black tray in between to pass the money.

He reached my place at RM17.40. I handed him RM20 (I didn’t ask about midnight charge.) I waited for the change.

(Translation of conversation in Malay.)

He: What, I haven’t even counted the midnight charge!
Me: I thought you already set midnight charge in the meter, since the meter went up in 20 sen increments instead of the normal 10 sen…
He: No, it’s RM4 per entry, and 20 sen increment during the daytime.
Me: Ohhh okay… thank you very much.

I quickly got off before he could say anything. 🙂