14th UGS gathering/1st UGS mini-gathering?

Today, three of us UGSers set out with a mission in mind, get a present for a friend. Okay, first of all, sorry that I was so late and screwed up plans to go for a movie after the present hunt. But hey, if we did go for the movie, we would not have had as much conversation as we did, right?

Anyway, the place where we met up at was Crowne Plaza, as show in the photo above. I didn’t bring my camera because it was bulky, and I thought that Cedric or Tay would have brought theirs but they didn’t either. So, the photos shown in the post are from my personal archives..

As I said, I was late and when I arrived, the duo had already chosen the present and all I had to do was give it my nod of approval and we proceeded to the cashier where, to my horror, Cedric almost forgot to get the present in the shopping bag after paying for it. He seemed to be distracted by the task of keeping the receipt safely in his wallet. Where he proudly showed receipts, movie tickets and what not from ages ago to me. Tsk tsk. Luckily I was there and automatically picked up the bag as we left.

Later, we decided to grab a few snacks from the supermarket downstairs before heading to the cinemas. This time Cedric yet again almost forgot to get his drink which was placed in a plastic bag after he paid for it, reason again being that he was busy keeping the change and receipt in his wallet. See? That’s the reason why guys can’t go shopping alone. Haha. Ok, just kidding.

Oh did I mention the stares we got from people while walking around? I would have liked to believe that it is our amazing good looks (si ai bin) that attracted such “admiring” stares. However, all credit went to Cedric and his green hair. In fact, later on when I spotted a friend, she claimed to have noticed Tay and me but didn’t recognise Cedric at all due to his hair.

Ok, after exiting the supermarket was when plan after plan started to fail. First, we went to the cinema at Crowne Plaza, only to find that the place was under construction and looking practically deserted. Kinda creepy. In the lift on the way there, something happened that reminded me that I’m with two underage kids afterall. The two of them were pressing lift buttons, it didn’t seem to detect Cedric’s pressing, so Tay tried and as he did, Cedric reached out and somehow knocked Tay’s drink can out of his hand, creating a puddle on the elevator floor. Heh, sei kia memang sei kia.

Next, the guys wanted to walk over to Star Cineplex instead. I insisted on us calling beforehand to see if there were any movies to watch at that time but all we got was voicemail. So, out we ventured into the hot afternoon sun to Star Cineplex. Where we were yet again disappointed, there were no shows to watch right then, and we had curfews and couldn’t watch the later shows. Which then prompted Tay to start indirectly accusing me of being the reason they couldn’t catch a movie, since I met up with them late.

So what happened was that in that moment of indecisiveness on what to do, we just plopped down and sat at the chairs in front of the ticketing counters. And talked and talked and ate the snacks we were supposed to have during the movie, and talked.

After the food was finished, and the heat there got a little unbearable, for me at least, we proceeded to walk back to the shopping area. This time, we took the scenic route, walking along the Waterfront. And it was surprisingly pleasant, with the wind blowing,the trees providing shade along the way and the walking path being well maintained. Good going Kuching! Haha.

This time, we caved in to Cedric’s request to go to the bookstore at Sarawak Plaza. Got bored out of the selection there after some time and headed to Tun Jugah instead. Where I suggested getting a drink, since the air-cond is cooler there. Plus, it’s nice to sit on those high chairs near the huge glass windows overlooking the “city” scene below.

Talking ensued again and we tried to count whether this was the 12^th or 14^th gathering. After slowly trying to go through the whole list from gathering number 1 to the latest gathering, we summed up that this was the 14^th gathering afterall. So, in my last post, that was actually the 13^th gathering, not the 11^th. Oooh.. Kenny’s leaving us for KL is the 13^th gathering.. Okay, we lot at UGS are not superstitious, right?

Anyway, all too soon, it was time to disperse and I’d say that this is probably the most laidback, spontaneous yet enjoyable UGS mini-gathering I’ve been to.