快乐是。。。

能在一位认识十年的好友的生日卡上随意写上这十年来的感想，能与认识十年的好友吃晚餐以提早庆祝他的生日。。

******

Dear Mr Chai,

When you smsed to postpone our dinner to a slightly later time yesterday, I was a little torn between given you the option to cancel the dinner so that you wouldn't have to rush and not giving you that option so that I can meet you before the 17th. Maybe I'm just sticky, but without letting you know in advance, I had wanted it to be your pre-birthday celebration, not a post one. Not when it's been exactly 10 years since this particular tall guy in a light green uniform extended his hand and intro-ed himself at S29's first recess as a class. Still, I was really super duper happy that you did managed to make it after all, without me (selfishly) not extending the option of cancelling dinner.

After so many years of no longer writing postcards/letters and the many many post-it notes, I didn't think it was so much of a breeze to really put down what I wanted to say in the card. From our common GP classes to our 101 cold wars, 斗嘴-ing sessions (seriously, I think I learnt to argue only then.. haha.. your fault!)... to your self-coined "banana skin incident"... to revising for A levels together.. to disfiguring me with the netball.. to almost cracking my skull with the rugby ball.. to you throwing that major tantrum in CO and me getting pissed off later during the camp.. to you and your silly "it's ok that you didn't do well this time, you're not applying for scholarships anyway" words of comfort (which was of course the reason why I started a cold war with you again.. eh.. I'm not sure about you but these words are not comforting, can?).. all of these are part of the growing up memories that I cherish, even if throughout these years, I've never really said it, or in your words previously, I really didn't know how to keep my friends. Come to think of it, for someone who hated people sticking to her, you were the only friend whom I was practically with most of the time without me running away after a while. Haha.. must be because you were too fierce, esp since the Physics file incident.. Haha

Whatever the case, for the last of my VVVIPs series to have your birthday this year, and for being one of my sturdiest pillars of strength in JC together with GK.. thank you, Mr Chai Kian Ping.. for pushing me hard enough in school, for splashing cold water on me unknown times.. for being horrendously frank about me needing to lose weight or me being a girl yet still being ultra messy.. most importantly, thank you for shining the beacon of light of friendship even when you kept (annoyingly) insisting that it's hard to make friends beyond secondary school and accepting/accomodating the troublesome and weird me as your close friend back in JC.

Happy birthday, JianPing! =)

And yes... congrats tooo!!! I'm looking forward to playing with your son... not attending his wedding the 1st time I meet him, yah?

Yours sincerely,

The adorable 6-year old

PS: Mr Chai, please don't use the same method you used to teach me cycling on your son. Granted he'll not get injured, but seriously, it'll take forever for him to learn how to ride the bicyle that way!