A trip back to 21

August is the month of birthdays… for some reason or other, have always been drawn to August babies… somehow there is this natural affinity. As such, I’ve been having birthday celebrations, big and small, multiple times a week.

A common theme that seems to be prevalent this August was age… all the little dinners and parties were of the two extremes… (a) we were lamenting our old age, (b) we were trying to pretend that we were still young. At one particular celebration on Jurong Hilltop, the birthday cake only reflected ‘21’ years (yes, we are into self delusion)

I strongly suspect that it was this mindset that caused us to head on down to Zouk on Friday. The night started innocently enough with S and me hitting back a couple of pints at Paulaners… Next thing I knew, he had this wild ass idea to head down to Zouk. A couple of phone calls to some shocked members of the motley crew, and we were all on our way down.

Must admit that the night was fun. It has been a long, long time since the whole group of us had a chance to go partying together. With the long list of commitments that working adults have, there were usually a couple of “no shows”. So yeah, Friday night was memorable, and we now have more stories to add on to our repertoire of drinking exploits.

So many changes, and yet so many things remain the same. The allure of Zouk is still the same… the drinks are still as potent… we still attempt to drink as much… and the people you see there remains unchanged. So… we are now amongst the older crowd, rather than the young punks… and drinks are now cheaper since Zouk has finally bowed down to competition, and has tied in with credit cards for one-for-one promotions, the clothes don’t fit as well, there are no longer any predators who deem us as prey… but the feeling is still the same. Once in a while, it is nice to just let loose, and have that nary a care in the world attitude. I guess at the end of the day, Zouk will always be a special place for me. It, for me, represents “clubbing”, don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun else where… and it has always been the one “place” away from reality. Many special moments were spent there, and many learning experiences. Haha… finally a place that I’ve grown up with… very much like my favourite book shop.

Think we survived the night pretty well… there were a few indiscretions here and there, but as a whole, we all managed to get home in one piece, and were able to wake up the next day in time for another get together dinner. J Met Z at Velvet… funny… he is most prob the only one of M’s friends that I still talk to, that I don’t cringe upon meeting… hall friends included. Maybe because he was one of those that did not point accusatory fingers back then. But then again, I guess he’s just not the kind that will do so. After all, he hardly said anything against PS back then. Just have the feeling that the past couple of years have not been all that kind to him. Sad… since he is quite a nice fellow… just a tad lost methinks.

So the first half of August has proved to be interesting indeed… managed to meet up with a lot of old friends… the second half of August promises to be just as entertaining. Will be attending the birthday of a very old JC friend… more old memories to be invoked!