I don't have the time to blog today, so I'll do it tomorrow, these pictures are just fillers for the real post on today's RWinds barbecue. Needless to say, it was the BOMB.


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RWinds BBQ!

Initially I thought I wouldn't be able to make it for the cycling/roller blading in the afternoon before the BBQ itself, but in the end my PW meeting got postponed, so I was able to make it. When I say "make it", it was like one hour later than the stipulated meeting time. I didn't anticipate taking MRT from Clementi to Eunos would actually be so long.

So I arrived at 3:50 PM, and walked down the park connector to the bike rental shop... only to find the rest of my batch zooming off on bikes and blades. I hurried over to rent a bicycle (which took a while because I was figuring out how to sling my bag such that it didn't brush against the wheel) and cycled as fast as I could in the direction I saw the rest of them go in.

They were waiting for Aaron and me just 100m down :D. Thanks!

I don't particularly like cycling (and I have never even tried to roller blade before) because I can never keep up with everyone else, but the batch took a leisurely pace so I managed to follow along comfortably.

With us today were Eric, Samuel, Benni, Zhi Xuan, Ryan, Russell, Kang Wei, and myself from our batch, and Aaron and Jeremy from two batches above.

That pic of me is by Benni.

Okay maybe the pace wasn't leisurely enough for whoever was blading (and not Samuel), so the second blader had to keep changing hands, or in this case feet. After Jeremy got tired of blading (and nearly crashed into a tree thanks to Aaron and I), Russell took over the blades (and shortly after that there was a collision of him and Eric which had them both hanging on to the siderail of the bridge), and after him was Eric (who fell a lot of times, but I must say he was the best non-Samuel blader).

The last pic was from Benni too. Kudos to all our roller bladers (bladists?) who together managed to bring that pair of skates the whole distance we cyclists cycled. I might consider trying out roller blading one day, but I think I need really heavily padded arm/leg guards (and a butt guard if they have one). And I need to lower my center of gravity too.

When returning the bikes, David and Austin joined us, as well as a Sec 4 RGSSB trumpeter whose name I can't spell (sorry!).

Aaron's house was a little walk away, but it's a little hard to miss because the estate is simply huge. The condo estate, I mean - it's really really big. And it's BLUE. Leonard, Jerald, and Weiqi were there waiting for us.

For starters (and there weren't many people there at the BBQ pit yet) we all trouped up to Aaron's house and went to play with his Wii, some music game that involves conducting coordination, with crash cymbals added in whenever you like. I scored a marvelous 0% Chemistry with Russell but a decent 67% with Jerald, and was laughing too hard to take another turn.

Not like a bunch of musicians was meant to have more than one conductor anyway.

The sky was slowly darkening when we decided to go down...

... perfect for a BBQ. Many people were there (I saw plenty of familiar faces from CODA 4, as well as the new people this year) and it somehow feels good to be able to enjoy a barbecue with a bunch of young adults and working people, who came together because of music, but here tonight not to make music but to enjoy the food and the atmosphere.

After plenty of food and drink, cooked by the self-sacrificing bunch in one of our two BBQ pits, we had an extremely long and entertaining game of CHARADES.

(note: from our batch Zhenyi, Yet Hong, and Hui Jun all came one by one)

We divided into woodwinds versus brasses, and after writing the words for each other, we commenced. I won't and can't describe the scene, but there was lots of laughter, lots of fun, and this was the highlight of the BBQ.

Epic words:
Charades - what red? reds?
Oligopoly - oh lie goh ball?
Milky Way - *mimes milking cow*
Sarah Palin - something pail?
Sour Plum - ryan: "HOW COME GUESS SO FAST"
Wonder Girls - I finally know what is "nobody nobody but chu"
Thing - this one didn't come out but I can guess how hard it would have been
***** ***** - this thing didn't come out, sad

If you want the real deal, go find the videos in Benni's Facebook.

Good way to spend a Saturday!

Labels: band