Back to a night in late 2011, Christmas Eve, that Love Actually party at one of my friends’ house.
I was there like, 2 hours before it began, and still most things were kinda undone. An unfamiliar face gave me a good first impression by helping me to bring my motorbike inside the front yard (grateful for that). Not until later, that I knew he was Jiang, lovely guy, just not for girls with fainted heart. I remember we were clearly assigned in groups, baking, decorating and miscellaneous team. However, the disorder in front of me didn’t really show that. There were several folks concentrating on handicraft, some tried to boss up and show up behind the stove – with attitude, and some were simply lost (like me). Well the hostess was not be blamed at, since she’s already gone wired with all the baking mess at every corner of the house. Actually I had a compassion with her mom. Tsk tsk…
Anyway, I didn’t let myself be neglected for too long, just role my sleeves up and get in some thing – anything. Like drawing cookies with melted chocolate, sounds good huh? Not as easy as it sounded. The chocolate was passed around through several amateur hands until it’s dripping onto the carpet, then people started to panic and jumped like monkeys! A quick-thinker got the idea of using lemon to clean it up (in order words, it’s ME). And so the lovely guy mentioned above and I did some kick-ass job of cleaning up the choco mess! Just a side kick, I was supposed to be in the baking team, but some how the little kitchen was congested with some Know-how ladies so I’d better just step out of their way.
Haflt an hour or so, the balloons arrived, surprisingly beautiful and festive-ful. And guess what, our lomo photos would be attached to each balloon to represent the presense of that person that night! Innovative, right? I know, and so soon enough, the whole ceiling was fool of red balloons!
The preparation process was pushed up a little bit as the time was running short. Most of the food have been finished, but to be frank, they didn’t taste as good as they look, or may I say, they didn’t look apetizing at all… The cookies ended up plain and rockie (I mean it). Red velvet (or whatever they might call a simple choco cupcake!?) turned out to be super dried and hard. Conversely, mango tarts were like mushy purée on top of falling-apart pastry base. Tiramisu cups might have saved the day had they been a tart richer in flavour. Salad was like those washed and boiled veggies put on the plate, no seasoning, no flavouring, too less sauce on top of too much lettuce quickly bored people. The soup and appetizers lifted the spirit a bit, but again, cold food could never receive any exceptional compliments. Oh and I didn’t taste the savoury pastry at all as I thought it’s enough …
We had an exotice camellia with half-blooded features inherited from Vietnamese mom and Morrocan Dad. She’s gorgeous with simple dress-up and natural make-up! I admired and envied at the same time with her slender legs and transparent skin. Well you know, there’s always someone like those at some point of your life that makes you feel less confident in yourself and sets the new benchmark for future self-satisfaction…
The party commenced 1 hour and a half late. Gotta understand as there were only two dressing rooms for a bunch of, like 8 kittens? Some were lazy wall flowers with the least makeup possible, while some spent more than half a decade to pile up powder and waste other’s time.Meanwhile, the scene was awkward: Jiang and Meow butter up the Camelia and showed up their gross english. While the guys wondering aimlessly around the living room, hoping to find something more interesting to do rather than sitting there and putting up with the unbearable conversation of the threesome.Well, anyway the party started happily with us mingling, getting to know each other. We all would circle up with Jiang at the centre, did somes ice-breaker by introducing each other, and took group photos in freaky and fun styles =D.
Personally thinking, Dab and I were not in the best condition possible to even start any conversation, just some casual requests like drinks, borrowing this and that. That’s it, and I didn’t expect much though. We no longer had anything in common, all he did were being nonsense and mocking me; jumping into my throat at anytime to bring me down. But whatsoever, don’t really bother me much.
An became everybody’s muse, she’s nice and kind but somehow that’s the closest we can get. Two different words never collide together, just got it that way. ..
So the party slipped away as people talked in small groups. Nothing special until the great toast of the night, as a tradition in the movie “love actually”. We would turn on the theme song, bro Nghia – our bartender (forget Dab, his mouth is always bigger than his capacity) prepared a special drink for us where we all had to bang it hard in one shot to bring the bubble out and bottom up at once! Then we will exchange hugs and scream Merry Christmas to our heart content. All were recorded on camera and really brought me some excitement, like yay, my hug hunger has finally been subsided !
We got a little too over the top though, considered throwing all the cups in the air and clean up the mess on the floor afterwards, but it’s fun and warm up the atmostphere a lot. Next, dim the light, gather up and put your hands in the air, we were ready for the acoustic show. Meow was totally a super star of the night, not only was he so talented with all the instruments but also he was given the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard. So glad at last I gotta hear his voice in live… What a magical moment, when you know somebody’s melody could move your heart so tenderly…
The night was a not as expected (perhaps our expectation was just too high) yet it managed to be successful, I believe, In a spiritour way. We had each other company in a night where singlehood used to be about lonesome and eating ramen cups. The food was not the best but it’s perfectly prepared with our friends’ love and hard work. The decoration was ordinary but the ideas behind it were exceptionally great. We had fun, joy and new friendship. To me, it’s already enough for a merry christmas…
