how i was bored out of my skull on new year's eve, and other stories
written: 2:58 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 01, 2004

Profound Cynicism At Your Service

Yesterday I went to help backstage at the countdown at Boon Lay. That is, I supposedly was needed to help and I had this grand mental image of me running around being busy and all but in the end, I spent more time sitting around doing absolutely nothing than anything else. Fuck me, it was boring. From 12 noon to 1 a.m. I was there at the main stage rotting my last day of 2003 away.

Having that said, I really couldn't care less about the new year. And people, including myself, say 'happy new year' to each other but seriously, what the hell is so happy about the fucking new year? I'm turning 18 this year and I don't want to turn 18, let alone take my 'A' Levels. I'm going back to school tomorrow and I'm not prepared, and I'm not merely referring to the unfinished piles and piles of holiday assignments (Cain was right: do your homework). I don't feel like I've been 17 enough and 2004 symbolises all the things I don't want happening to me, but I can't stop time for it does not flow in a petite hourglass that I can flip back whenever I feel like it; it flows like river, the ocean, its many tributaries, and it never stops.

Which is why I don't get the point behind countdowns and other things along those lines. What the hell is there to celebrate? You're a year older, is that a good thing? No, it's not. I don't want to age. I want to remain young forever.

I wanted to stay home this morning and write a coherent letter to myself, another pseudo-poetic piece of shit that I've been churning out every year ever since starting this mini "tradition" in the year 1999. Feels like a lifetime ago, that year. Strangely, my secondary school gave me the idea. They made us to it at the end of 1999 on the last few days of school, and they said they'd return us the letter we wrote at the end of the next year, which was the year 2000, but they didn't. Not that I'm surprised. They -- staff and students alike -- have probably forgotten all about it but I still remember. I always do.

By the way, today is Rukawa Kaede's birthday. Team Shohoku's Number 11. Happy birthday, Kaede. Would write a fic for you but I'm too fucking tired to.

Okay, shall stop digressing now. To sum up the countdown: it was boring. I guess it doesn't help that I was pretty much alone there, seeing as I'm simply acquainted with the people that I was with. It would've been better if Mel were there, but she wasn't. Not that I'm surprised. I SMSed her in the afternoon and asked her to go and she said she'd try, which meant that she won't. Oh well. Too bad.

12 noon to 6 p.m.: Did nothing. A few minutes before 6 I was running around a bit though, taking things and looking for microphones for the MCs, whom I was supposed to cue, but in the end they knew when to speak anyway. The only good thing about wearing the ugly black countdown T-shirt with Walls's logo on the left breast and a stupid dog tag kind of thing that one hangs over the neck that says "Countdown official" was that I got backstage access. This would come in handy later on, which I will talk about later on.

Crappy Audience Sucks

So the countdown started about 15 minutes late. A lot of band performances. The audience was, unfortunately, largely made up of middle-aged people and thus they were all seated, and at the end of every performance, there was hardly any applause. It was fucking sad. I don't know whose grand idea it was to provide chairs but there you go, they did. Rows and rows of chairs, simply inviting people to make the party not a party. Singaporeans are so lame.

I liked the ACJC (Anglo-Chinese Junior College) band, whose name I don't remember. They have a really really cute guitarist. Unfortunately they're one of those punk-pop-rock-shit people who like Blink 182 and other related nonsense, and apparently their obsession was so great that even their lead singer resembled Blink 182's lead singer (the guy with the slanty eyes). He's kinda cute too but I still liked the guitarist better; he had awesome hair.

Meeting Cheryl

Better yet, St. Nicholas's cheerleading team, my batch's, made it to the finals of some cheer dance competition which was held during the countdown, so I got to see my friend Cheryl again. It's been ages and she's still pretty as ever, and short, too. She seemed to have changed a bit though, or maybe it was just me. Met her in the McDonalds' toilet, of all bleeding places. I was washing my hands and she was coming out of the cubicle where she changed into her cheerleading outfit (very fucking Chinese New Year man, all red), and I was looking into the mirror and I saw her reflection in the mirror and she saw me, and she went, "Hey...!", and I also went, "Hey...!" And we hugged. How nice.

They got second, by the way. I think they would've won first prize if someone hadn't fell/fall/fallen when they were doing their final pose thing whereby they climbed onto each other and stuff. RJC won, which was a fucking shame, as I thought they really sucked. My school, JJC, got third. I thought they would win but I really wanted St. Nicks to win. Elite school pride and all. Go St. Nicks but I still hate you.

When Things Got Even More Dull and I Tried With Futility To Liven Things Up

At around 10 I started to wander around, got away from the main stage and went to check out the foam party. It was ultra lame, if you ask me. They erected this... pen with foam and little kids were inside, splashing about, while a crowd gathered around the pen and watched. And whatever it was they were playing wasn't music at all. Some techno rubbish. Made me rather giddy.

My school, JJC, brought about a hundred people to the foam party and they were doing cheers there. I stood aside and watched with amusement etched clearly on my face, and I would've joined them if I weren't by myself.

There was this dance group that performed too; ICAS, which stands for Indian Cultural and Arts Society. Why am I mentioning this, I hear you ask. Because one of the dancers was absolutely gorgeous. I saw him in the afternoon during the dry run and he is so cool, the way he moved so effortlessly with such grace and poise, and of course, more importantly, he's hot, with a bit of the mixed blood thing going on. I couldn't stop staring at him and because I'm a moron, I looked away whenever he glanced in my direction.

Not that I really care anyway. I split the scene after their performance, and when I thought of doing something fun by going up to him and be like, "Hi, I think you're really cute. Just wanted to tell you that", they were all gone when I got back to the main stage from the foam party area. Ah well.

Ran into Cody and another guy from school, Crazy Funny Dude. Sat around and rapped for a bit. Nothing much to say too. They were bored, unsurprisingly. And after that I went back to the foam party area, the community centre, to watch the pick-up games going on at the basketball court. On my way there, guess who I met? Mr. Nerd. Looking cute as ever, of course, and short as ever. Haha. Right, anyway, I didn't see him; he saw me and called out to me. It was a pleasant surprise. He's working now, the lucky lad. I really think he'd get 4 As for his 'A' Levels and I hope he does.

Backstage With "Holland V" Cast, Not That I Cared Particularly

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that I got backstage access and that it was a good thing. It was. The organisers of the countdown invited a few cast members of the local Chinese drama "Holland V", and I got to see them up close backstage while a hordes and hordes of people crowded around the barricades and strained to get a good look. It was quite funny, the way those people -- a lot of kids, a lot of ah mas (old women) and many middle-aged women, some old men, some young guys -- were so desperate to get a look at them. I wasn't even really fazed, though I was quite curious.

Can I just say here that Jeff Wang is very bloody good-looking in person? In the show he played the villain Ying Tiancheng and I think he's quite a shitty actor as he's more melodrama than drama and I hated his hairstyle in the show but last night he was gorgeous. He wore this grungy white sleeveless shirt and it showed off his amazing arms. I stared at him for a bit until I got bored. At one point of time he looked at me while scanning the crowd and I was just imagining what that would do to my state of mind if it were Jay Chou instead. I'm very tempted to go into the events industry whereby one works backstage to organise things, like Jay's sell-out concerts and all, and I would be backstage during Jielun's concert and meet him! Wow, wouldn't that be cool!

Shit, I'm digressing again. Have to finish this so that I can start on the bloody History essay. Right, so basically I became a crowd-controller when Holland V was doing their segment. It was very crappy. The crowd wanted to get into the backstage area and the red and white string/tape/whatever broke, so we all had to block them with our bodies. Luckily there wasn't a stampede or I wouldn't be here typing this right now. Things almost turned sour when this fuck-unreasonable mother wanted to get close to the Holland V people and stupidly brought her kids, a lot of kids, about five, into the backstage area (which was really just beside the stage), and we were trying to get her to get the fuck out of there, but she ended up shouting at this girl from RJC. She was like, "Ni ke yi deng yi sia mah? Wo zai zhao ren leh? Ren bu jian le ke yi zhao mah?" ("Can you wait? I'm looking for someone! I lost my kid, can I look for my kid?")

Really fucking stupid. Who the fuck asked her to bring her kids there? Some mother. I don't know what the hell happened after that; was too busy admiring Jeff Wang's amazing body. Somehow she didn't get out at all; stayed there throughout. I don't know why, what, when, how, etc. I don't care, either. She pissed me off. Shouted at my classmate too, who was already very pissed off by then. Haha.

A couple of young girls cried when we told her that they weren't supposed to get past the tape. They were like, "Wo yao kan!" ("I want to see!") I could really empathise though. I mean, if I were them and if it were Jay Chou I'd really hate me for not letting me get close to him. Talk about a case of 'so near, yet so far'! Oh well.

The Countdown and the Cynic

Etc etc and it was approaching 12 midnight but I looked at my watch and it was already 12.01 a.m., and the clock on the two screens read 11.59 p.m. and the emcee got everyone to start counting down ten seconds before 12, and around me everyone was shouting, "Ten nine eight seven" and so on and so forth and I tried to join it but it didn't feel right so I closed my mouth and it was 12 midnight but on my watch it was 12.02 a.m., and finally it was all over. And I didn't feel anything.

Look, Yelen Is Hitting On Some Poor Guy Again!

The highlight of my night came about 40 minutes after 12. Before I go into that though, let me just say first that there were a lot of good-looking guys around that night, some from the events company that was hired to run the whole affair. So there was this particular guy whom I thought was really cute and skinny and he had lovely dyed hair, and despite noticing him at 6 I only decided to talk to him when I was about to leave. It was quite a spur-of-the-moment thing; I was tired of waiting for something to happen, and thus I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I waited for this band to finish their set as talking in the midst of their playing would not facilitate hearing in any way, shape or form, and after deciding against what I wanted to do and deciding to do it again after all, I went up to the guy, who was standing next to the speakers by himself, and said, "Hi, what's your name?"

Joshua, great skin, nice hair, lovely smile, eyes like Jielun's, but a little bigger, shook his hand, very soft, but that's about it. Not sure if I intended on asking for his number but ultimately, I didn't. Got the feeling that he wouldn't entertain me to that extent. Oh well. I'm already starting to forget how he looks like.

The End and I Love Jay Chou

Oh my god, it's 4.09 p.m. and I haven't started on my History essay! Have to end this here and now, but before that Channel 8 broadcasted some Chinese music awards today and I sat through 2 hours and a half of boredom to watch Jielun receive three awards and to listen to him sing "An Hao" live and he blew me away with his very interesting changing of tune and all and he's amazing amazing amazing. I love listening to him sing.

That's all for now. Merry New Year.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010