odd. these days, i keep getting stuck in unfamiliar, uncomfortable situations during meals. everyone concentrates on their food with such vigour that i’m surprised the deader-than-dead fish doesn’t come alive again, or perhaps the soup starts boiling from the heat waves shooting out from the eyes.
it’s as if everyone has something different at the back of their minds. the lunch atmosphere is just thick with suspense… propositions, guessing and i dunno wat. or else it’s just that everyone is too tired to talk. or maybe there’s some awkwardness going on. yeah probably that. i can’t really tell what the origin of all that awkwardness is but it’s making me quite tired that i can’t really be bothered to socialise anymore.
today’s birthday dinner for my cousin was a prime example of ‘an awkward meal’. i couldn’t get certain mind baggage off my thoughts, my elder cousin was uncannily dissecting her spaghetti goreng to minuscule bits and pieces… arthur (that’s the younger cousin’s) boyfriend was wolfing down his food… dunno what happened, maybe he got starved by the birthday gal this afternoon… while the birthday gal was eating with this extremely ‘xin4 fu2′ expression on her face. heh. the miracle of love, must be.
after some lame attempts at striking up a conversation, well, it was just uncomfortable for me because i’m so used to speaking mandarin with the bday gal… but i can’t now, cuz her bf doesn’t understand mandarin… and plus i can’t nose around and ask about certain stuff with her bf PLONK right next to me…
gradually, there was just pure SILENCE. suddenly the topic shifted to politics and then arthur and my elder cousin each had their fierce remarks to make that my head just ached… and ached…
thankfully, the topic changed after a while. but i made the absolute fatal mistake of discussing a certain book with arthur…
lesson learnt: thou shalt not argue with a lawyer les thou would feel like being run over by a tractor.
and then the topic changed to one of their favourites - how i was as a kid…
OMG…. all my chou3 shi4 just gets poured out in front of an almost-stranger. x_x
i did things so terrible that i don’t even remember doing them! like going around biting everyone and leaving teeth marks that took months to fade? climbing up the window grills and getting stuck there like a pathetic caterpillar? acts of cruelty against beetle bugs at my aunt’s place? hiding in the curtains when my parents came to bring me home? seems like my childhood antics always end up as dinner conversation. :S
sent my cousins back later on…
lesson learnt: do not let teeny ride in the car unless she’s concussed or asleep, or gagged.
the elder sis kept reminding me about traffic rules and safety tips while her younger sis (the bday gal) was cheering at the back and asking me to speed up, cut lanes and in general, practice extremely offensive driving.
omg. headache… how it aches…
