The Meet
I had arranged to meet Kes at the Serdang Komuter station. She was easy to spot. Uh... some physical feature which I won't comment on, I think she will kill me if I do. :D Meeting KF and Blacky proved a wee bit more tricky. KF had told me he would be wearing this striped shirt and for some reason, I automatically assumed the stripes would be vertical. So, of course, I never saw the guy in front of me wearing the horizontally striped shirt!
Now, Blacky had promised to get pizzas and no matter what, I swore I would wait for him. Hey, pizzas you know! I knew he would be late but after half an hour and no Blacky, I ran off to call Spar. Who had stupidly switched off her handphone. Which made me boil with fury.
So, I ran back to where Kes and KF were still waiting for Blacky and we resumed our lookout. Somehow, I had gotten this idea of a guy balancing pizza boxes on one hand and tryign to weave his way in and out of traffic, so I totally missed the guy who was standing near me, holding a plastic bag full of pizzas. Hm... this just shows how good I'll be at recon work...
Thank goodness I was smart enough (or colour blind enough...) to wear this blindingly bright yellow blouse. I figured since they didn't know how I looked like, I'd better give them something bright to spot and trust me, you can spot this blouse of mine from outer space. Without the aid of satellites, I must add.
So, I got a shock when this guy comes up to me and asks, "Excuse me, are you with the Firebirds?" My head snapped around, my eyes moved from his face to the pizzas to his face again and I go, "Blacky???" He's like, "Yeah!" and we all began laughing then.
The Journey to the Gathering Site
Like Blacky said, it was surprisingly easy to get a cab. Not much traffic too and we got to the Bird Place in a short time. Got off at Carl's Jr. just as Spar directed us. Now, from then on, we got really confused. Spar had said it would be a short stroll uphill to the gathering site and she would put up orange signs to point the way. But all the signs we saw pointed downhill. I began to pray that this wasn't the work of some joker, who had nothing better to do than to turn all the signs upside down to point the wrong way.
Feeling like lost Himalayan mountaineers, we followed all the signs. Found only one balloon, guess some deranged kid took the rest. There were other signs too, I think Bats did them. They had quotes from S:AAB on them, I remember one with a ST quote. By then, we were feeling pretty confident we were on the right track.
Just as we were about to reach the site, out came Spar in her bright red tee and not so bright red hair with this kid, who would turn out to be Gossy and we were like, "Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
The Party
WOOH!!!!!! What else can I say? We had loads to eat - count this: three pizzas and three chickens, 48 fishballs and similar thingy, 8 blueberry cheese tarts, three bottles of soft drinks (or was it four?), two boxes of Dunkin' Donuts, three packs of mm's, one pack of green meanies, 18 buns, one container of potato salad.... and a patridge in a pear tree! No, just kidding about the last item.
We had loads to talk about too... S:AAB (but of course...), Richard Burgi, some alien who has lots of fun either alone or together, pronounciation, movies, books... wow, we sure can yak!
Top row: Garry, Spar
Middle row:KF, Per, Gossy, Bats
Bottom row: E, Kes, Blacky
It's amazing how well we got on. I guess the bond we have online made things easier. Bats really can quote verbatim from S:AAB, you better believe us, we were there when those "words of wisdom" came pouring out of her mouth! Falc has one cool dad and proved to be the only one who looked even slightly like a Marine. Gossy is one lousy medical officer... <grin> ...she needs to refer to manuals before she knows what to do! Kes makes wonderful potato salad, KF is so cute (not a fearsome Weapons Officer at all, sorry to shatter the illusion! LOL), Garry is way more intimidating in RL, Blacky is choke-proof, Per is strong and silent except when she's in the shower, Spar does not have flaming red hair and yes, I did piroutte.
Slowly.
Photos
We took more photos that day than I ever have in my entire life! I hate taking photos too, but orders are orders and when your CO yells at you to, "Get into line with the Privates and don't smile!!!" Well, you do it and you do it quickly. Even if you have to kneel in the mud. Even when the sun is shining right in your face and you just want to die from all that exposure to harmful uv rays.
Phew! I've come to the end of my report. I've loads to say actually, I edited it all in my mind because I'm thinking how you guys have to wade through 10 mostly similar reports and it could get boring. It wouldn't for me though, each report would be a chance for me to relive the day again.
My thanks to all who made it happen: those who brought/bought the food and drinks, those who stayed up all night to make the tags, those who made the signs and stuck it all up, those who had to take down all the signs put up... <sigh> ...those who supplied the cameras and film and all who made it there and made it so, so, so memorable.
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