Zheng's Farewell

We just played a prank on Zheng yesterday muahaha. He's leaving for U of Nottingham on Wednesday. And since almost all efforts to go yamcha and play captainball with him have failed prior to sunday, we had no choice but to use devotion time to satisfy our desire to make his life at least a little bit difficult before he leaves. We played the Follow the Leader game again (we played it for Chen Li also, except without the prank). Let's rewind a little bit.

September 15, 2006, Friday

Geng Yi sms-ed me while the Bible study group was having their fei-low-ship. I was lying on the sofa cuz I didn't feel well la (as usual). He said youth was off for saturday. I asked him why lor, and asked about the farewell for Z. He called and said they (Unc Ivan and G) were gonna do something for Z on Sunday after church. I asked him what it was. And he veryyyyyyy cheekily said:

Hah! That's for me and Unc Ivan to know and for you to find out! Muahaha!

Oooook.

September 16, 2006, Saturday

Geng Yi called me in the morning.

Eh, Hwei. Wanna ask ar. You got anything to do for Z tomorrow anot?

Har-har. Chen Li suggested letting Z eat my saliva, but it was unanimously agreed that Unc Kian Boon might kill us for that. So we turned to Chen Li's second suggestion, which was rotten vegetables. But we both pondered the possibility of Z getting cirit-birit again. It was unanimously agreed that Unc Kian Boon WOULD kill us for that. So Geng Yi suggested banana plus wasabi plus biscuits and he went like this:

Wahahahahhahahah!

Keji!

Anyway, Geng Yi said that Z had suggested going to church to play captainball since youth would be off. So it was agreed. We would grant Z one last game of his favourite captainball before he leaves. Geng Yi called the rest of the youth.

Same day, 4pm
Geng Yi came to fetch me, Shaun and Adrian. We bought some bananas also.

Same day, 5.30pm
Those who were present:

• Geng Yi
• Me
• Shaun
• Adrian
• Yen Mei
• Ju
• Unc Anthony
• Sherene

8 of us. And the person who wanted so much to play wasn't there. -_- Unc Kian Boon wanted him to help with the dinner they were preparing for the MMU guys at night. Hmmph. Never mind. We played anyway. Simple mathematics would show that there weren't exactly enough players for each team. 2 Defenders, 2 Goal-catchers, and 2 players for each team. And since I'm the kind of striker who doesn't like to run about and get all sweaty, there was only Sherene to run about for the ball in my team. Anyway we managed just fine.

Team A - Sherene, Me, Geng Yi, Adrian
Team B - Ju, Yen Mei, Unc Anthony, Shaun

Of course the goal-catcher and the defender kept getting away from their positions to help also lor. And I had to run a little bit. Hmmph.

Same day, 11.41pm
After Geng Yi, Li Lian, Adrian, Shaun and I went for the Footstool Players play, we dropped by Z's house to see if he still wanted to yamcha (he said yes two days before) because he didn't reply Geng Yi's messages or pick up Adrian's calls. Lo and behold, when we got there, the MMU ppl were still makan-ing and enjoying themselves. Shaun and Adrian went in to look for Z. Geng Yi and I (being the pranksters we are) decided to hide and scare them out of their hides. So we drove and hid in front of a big truck. And we waited. And waited. And waited. At first we were laughing gleefully. But as time wore on, we got bored. So we drove back front, and guess what? We discovered Shaun and Adrian were nicely lounging around in the house, eating the food, and chatting away. Aargh!

Orang keji dikejikan pula.

Well, anyway, it was obvious that our date with Z had to be cancelled la. So off we went.

Same day, 12am
Shaun and I prepared The Thing.

September 17, 2006, 12pm
We played Follow the Leader. Geng Yi had already told Shaun to be the one to escort the Guessers out. Geng Yi told the group that whoever had 3 wrong guesses would have to eat The Thing, which by now consisted of Koko Crunch, Crackers, 3 Bananas, Chilli Sauce, and Garlic (compliments of Sherene).

1. Z - No problem
2. Stephen - Had to eat The Thing - Vomitted
   
3. Frederick - Had to eat The Thing - Liked it and wanted more
4. Z again (Geng Yi cleverly said: We start with Z and end with Z)

Ok. Here's the thing. After Shaun had escorted Z out far, far away, he whispered to the group:

Ok. Now I'm going to give Z 5 guesses. Each time he guesses, whoever he guesses, whether right or wrong, we will say wrong, ok? And I'll do it this way: He has to eat The Thing for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th 'wrong' guesses. Wahahhahaha!

No la. He didn't laugh like that this time. Wait Z hear pula. So anyway we selected Adrian as the leader. Z rightly guessed wrongly (hmm) for the first 3 times. So he rightly had to eat The Thing. He looked like he was gonna throw up. Haha. The 4th time, he rightly guessed it was Adrian. But awwww, too bad. We said it was wrong. Eat again. Really looked like he was gonna spit it out on CK's head. 5th time, wrong again. He took a long time this time. But of course wrong also la. Makan again. Just when he was gonna eat, he asked: "Actually who's the leader?" Oops. Geng Yi said: "You eat first la."
Kesian... had to go toilet.
After that Geng Yi made Shaun and me eat it, cuz we prepared it, and he ate it himself, cuz he organized the thing, to be fair to Z la.

It didn't taste that bad, except the banana was pretty strong. I rather liked the garlic. Everyone else hated it, though.

When Z came back, he asked again: "Who was it?" When Geng Yi said "Adrian", Z's face was like, "Oh noes, I've been punk'd!"

After that we had a time of sharing. Z shared about his time here, and how he's gotten closer to some people, from whom he drifted apart in the 4 years he was away. Geng Yi called on Marcus to share, but Marcus started a conversation with Z instead. Went something like this:

Marcus: Eh Ah Zheng, I heard the place you're going to is very ulu wan right?
Z: Ya.
Marcus: Oohhh, like this eh?

=_= I can't remember the rest of it, but it was something like that la. The rest of us were like... batu jatuh di atas kepala... -_-|||

Anyhoo, Geng Yi spoke for all of us when he said that we have more to write than to say, because by sharing, sometimes our tears wouldn't listen to our command, and they just spill out all over the place. So we passed him the card Sherene made, with all our comments and farewells in it, and Geng Yi said that those who wanted to hug him could do so. Then we left. And it was over. Hmm.

Really wished we could do more for him, but... the problem with this finite world is that you often don't have the sufficient time to do the things you want to do. But then again, I still feel that even if we'd had the world's biggest party for him, there would still be an emptiness in my heart when he leaves. I think the emptiness would be even bigger too. We so often try to squash all these sad feelings of people going away by feeble attempts to replace them with joy and little parties and farewells, but we can't run from the fact that those ARE farewells. And farewells always contain an element of sorrow and loss.

When Chen Li went away, I told her: "We haven't seen the last of you." I genuinely felt that way, because it was just KL after all. It isn't like she's going to Penang, where she can only come back so rarely. But Z's going away seems to be different. Being the paranoid person I am, I can't help feeling that he's not coming back. Of course he'll occassionally drop by Malacca during his hols and all, but the 3rd year rings a different melody, when he'll leave for UK. Maybe it's because he left us for 4 years. It feels like he's always leaving. Hmmph.