(NB: i realize i talk a lot of nonsense, but i assure you, it's all about being caught up in the revelry of the new year)

i never knew Singapore had so many people living in it until i went down to the Fullerton during the new year's eve. i mean, 4 million plus people seems so insignificant when you compare it to America and their (insert unknown statistic that trumps our little red dot's anytime). plus you've gotta factor in the fact that there are many other who would rather stay indoors than stick around with the crowd. families, couples in hotel rooms, couples watching fireworks from the hotel rooms (doggy style, no less), people working shifts, people working at the bars and clubs, etc. you would have thought that 2 million people would be either at home or work. which leaves behind another 2 million roaming the streets of Singapore, all dying to be caught up in the rapture of 2006.

but perhaps, and just perhaps, on new year's eve only, nobody want to spend a depressing night alone on such a festive occasion. i've been through years of adolescence thinking about beach parties and counting down and kissing under mistletoe during every festive countdown. and apparently, as an adult now with added responsibilities, the cool thing is that you get that freedom to take part in as much of the festivities as you would like. i dunno how to make this sound un-desperate, but the thing is i never want to spend a new year's eve alone, ever again.

i remember during the end of 1999, i spent new year's eve in church with the family. the church my family attended was somehow hinting through the sermons that the return of Jesus and his hollaback crew of angels would be at the turnover of the millennium. and you know how religion works around mystical numbers and ominous signs of the end times. apparently 2000 really did it for religious fanatics all over the world. if Nostradamus were still alive, he would orgasm once he knew about the millennium.

well, conspiracy theories predicted that computers would crash, planes would tumble and the stock market would collapse. as for me, you didn't need a prediction to know that i would spend my millennial new year stuck in church for a countdown service. ironically, we sang 'Count Your Blessings' as the first hymn of the century. i went home to cry in bed that night. swearing that when i became an adult, i would never spend new year's alone again.

and true enough, money equates to freedom. or well, financial freedom at least. i paid 25 bucks just to enter FLO at the Fullerton. i could have gotten in free because an acquaintance was organizing the new year's event for Budweiser and some Nikka vodka thingamajig (it tasted really horrid, either that or i've got bad taste, prolly the latter). but i had to do the afternoon shift. arriving at Fullerton, you are swamped with countless Singaporeans all looking forward to firework and shouting '321Happy New Year!'. for me, i was looking forward to getting into some air-condition and alcohol.

have you heard of the chinese idiom: people mountain people sea? meaning that a particular place is so packed with people that it looks like mountains and seas of humans. i was at the top of the stairs leading into One Fullerton and there were so many different coloured people, banglahs, china chinese, malay, ang moh, etc. i think i spotted an albino too. it was more like people, people and just more people in a very muddy sea of latte. there were uncouth china chinese screaming into their handphones. banglahs were making human chains, trying very hard to squeeze through the crowds. the albino looked awfully lost.

but all in all, the night was really beautiful albeit the noisy and sweaty crowds. it was drizzling, but that didn't hamper the fireworks performance. i have never really been wow-ed by fireworks before, because i've always thought that they were no more than a waste of money. everytime i see firework, i only see 500 hundred dollar bills being lit up and blasted into the sky. i could use that amount of money and buy myself a lifetime gym membership. which would result in a much hotter me. wouldn't that be nicer to ooooh and aaaah (or perhaps ooh la la) over rather than silly and overrated sparkles?

so anyways, here are my resolutions (which chances are, will prolly never be fulfilled) for the year 2007:

1) Lose 5kg
it's mandatory, it seems, to have a resolution involving weight loss, dieting or cutting down on food intake. some people resolve to hit the gyms more. other resolve to give the Atkins one more try and make everyone live with the plague of halitosis all over again. whatever it takes to lose weight eh? but really, it never hurt anyone to lose some weight. and i think i'm a big supporter for weight-loss resolutions. in fact, just yesterday i saw this uber-fat kid on the MRT with his mother and sister. he took up 2 seats. the reed-thin mother and sister only took up 1. and the whole time i was thinking how thick his legs were in terms of Subway sandwiches (thanks to you, Aiman). his legs alone were as thick as 4 foot-long Subway sandwiches put together side-by-side. except that there's way more than 6 grams of fat packed into that thunder thigh alone. and the crowning fact? he's only a teenager, 16 at the most. morbidly obese people are the number one cause of short-sightedness in Singapore. they are really not easy on the eyes, i must say.

2) Driving License
the number one rule of clubbing always involves a set of wheels. and a set of wheels is what me and my clubbing girlfriends do not have. a set of legs in the form of boyfriends, yah, maybe. but still, not enough. which is why i wanna be a bike-riding mat by the end of 2007. i may not have as much protection as someone in a car, but at least i look cool doing it. and i could have the bragging rights of being in a bike accident. i know it sounds so lame, but it's a childhood dream. i wanna ride a bike. cars to me, are just meant for having sex in multi-storey carparks and of course, claustrophobic suicide attempts with carbon monoxide.

i bet you're asking like 'wah, only got two resolutions ah'. and i'm going to tell you 'yah! only got two resolutions'. because i feel that my life now is pretty much complicated enough as it is already. working and studying and clubbing and a boyfriend. so i'll just take it as it comes (that didn't sound very right, didn't it?).

and thus the very eventful and memorable 2006 just came and went, like a very talented male escort who left as a thief in the night. despite the fact that you wallet seems to be a 100 dollars lighter and a few copies of Men's Vogue have disappeared from the coffee table, you can't help thinking how good the sex was with 2006. the aftersex, it seems, lingers on in your oral cavity. a mix between clorox, egg white and a protein shake. you make a mental note to rinse your mouth with more Listerine than normal during your daily ablutions.

bitter ex-boyfriends. good army times. picking up smoking. renewed friendships. an increased alcohol intake. MOS and dblO. bruneian sex. raffles-berkeley.
yeah, 2006 was bitter-sweet.

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