OOh.. eons later.. I'm back! Haven't really been spending much "quality time" with the PC since the exams are approaching and know I'll just carried away once I get started. Like right now...

Haven't slept the whole night actually. Tried to sleep at 4am but nope din work. Just had roti prata and have 2 alternatives to choose from:
a) Fall asleep for real
b) Continue studying for my soci paper

Think I shall go with (a)... for obvious reasons...

Anyways, I wanna talk about Deepavali for some reason. It was the usual family affair but it was different in many ways. For starters, I actually enjoyed the day from start to finish, perhaps because I didn't have any expectations whatsoever, so in a way everything fell into place nicely. Got to really catch up with cousins whom I haven't seen in a while, which in a way was the highlight of my day cuz these were the fellas whom I grew up with and they have in one way or another shaped the way I think, act and behave today.

There were some interesting characters at my uncle's place though and I do wanna write about them so I'll remember them for their eccentricities. There was this Chinese guy, a father of two, who was very surprised that I could Chinese, so much so that he took it upon himself to give me Chinese name. Well, this was perfectly alright except that he kept looking for me for hours after that trying to teach me how to write the Chinese characters: ni-di-ya. What was even funnier was that he kept mistaking my cousins for me and ended up getting weird looks from them when he started speaking in Chinese to them. After a while he gave up "looking" for me and decided to harass my guy cousins instead. They were talking about the development of arm muscles (NS guys, what else would they talk about, right?) and Mr Eccentric over here had to butt in and give his two-cents worth. At the end of his little speech of "how muscles do not equal strength you know" he had irritated all my cousins (who moved away and started another conversation elsewhere in the house) except one. That guy patiently listened to Mr E and was actually having a conversation with him. I was truly amazed for I used to think that this cousin of mine was a shallow and egocentric character who never gave two hoots about others, but this incident really changed my opinion of him.

There was yet another interesting character, this one in a positive way. He is a Pakistani who works with my uncle (they're in the travel line) and he can speak an amazing 10 languages. He's travelled the world for both business and pleasure and is such a great conversationalist! He very easily switched between talking to the old grans to talking to us youngsters. He was a hit with everyone and my uncle was joking that he could become an instant success, an overnight celebrity! Mr P here invited me over to his place for Hari Raya too but unfortunately I had to turn him down becos I had prior commitments. Sigh!

Sooo... anyways, think I shall go lie down a while now, can't let Sleep evade me yet again! cheerios!