Of Bears, Werewolves and Apple Crumble!

I'm SO should be doing my 3,000 word essay (almost 60% done) for my Conventional Warfare Studies paper due this Friday but there are more important things in life...like giving an update on last Friday first ever Cousins Monthly Gathering (CMG) to be held at someone's home!!!

Unlike our normal outings, we decided to gather at Rina's house last Friday for the CMG...It was to be an adults only event...no kids allowed...so those with kids in tow had to find 'creative' ways to temporarily 'dispose' of the young 'uns! This is where a healthy, harmonious and happy relationship with one's parents and parents-in-law comes in useful!

It was at about 2000hrs that the first batch of cuzzies reached Faurin's homely home (oh...most couples try cute combinations with their names...some work well like Fauzi + Rina = Faurin, Farah + Shafiq = Farafiq...even Azhar + Wan = Azwan sounds nice even if I don't actually see them using it...so would Anwar + Naziah = Annaz...but some shouldn't even try...like Boboy + Yati = Boti or worse...Boya!!!) Anyway, my BH and me fetched Boya and Annaz and the 6 of us reached Faurin's place with our contributions. I had earlier called for pizzas from Pizza Hut (4 boxes), Boya bought otak2 (I wonder how it got its name?!?) and Annaz + Farafiq brought bee hoon goreng and popcorn. Farafiq was supposed to come but unfortunately couldn't find a creative enough solution for their son! (Read: didn't manage to convince their parents/parents-in-law to look after their 'oh-so-chubby-I-wanna-pinch-his-cheeks' son). Having not had dinner...and lunch, I proceeded to give the spread of food a once over and then some...Adil and Lin (hmmm...what's her full name?) came a while later and brought some cookies (I had milk with these later on!). By then, we were already watching "Tenacious D" which I had gotten from *ahem* reliable sources...

I was the self-appointed GameMaster for the night and had prepared some games which I had thoroughly researched from the internet and also tested out during our last picnic during CNY (THAT is another story in itself!). We had also bought some party games from Toys R Us the previous week namely Party Scrabble and Pictionary Mania and were raring to try them out...It was already about 2200hrs but Lynn & Glen (whom we all lovingly call 'Usop') arrived a bit later with their chocolate fountain, marshmallow and apple crumble! They had like 3 big bags full of their stuff!!! Oh...of course not forgetting the drinks, ice-cream and Relaxed Chicken (ayam lepak) that the hosts prepared...Tanti came later as she had to give tuition in Sengkang! Way to go Tanti, no matter how late...no matter how far, she was there to be with us! (Hint, hint...;) So the 13 of us dutifully indulged in a night of fun, food and fantastic games!

Oh the games...well, we started at...get this...2330hrs! That's 11.30pm for you folks who have difficulty reading 24 hours time and need to do conversion! When normal human beings are starting to turn in, we started our games!!! A few other games were brought along by the rest...I saw Cluedo, Monopoly and Twister...In any case, we played Pictionary Mania first. For those who have played the 'normal' Pictionary, this is like 6 times better (as there are 6 different categories or types of play)!!! It was guys against gals and thru a sheer stroke of luck (as the planets were fully aligned with the moon) and because we let the gals have it their way so as not to discourage them from playing these games in the future, WE LET THE GALS WIN ;) We played 1 round and then we started another game...This was variously known as Assassin, The Murder, etc...but it essentially calls for people to find out who the 'murderer' that keeps 'murdering' people is. The group sits in circle and cards are passed around. Getting the card that is designated as the murder card would mean that the person is the murderer. All he/she has to do is to wink and 5 secs later, the 'winkee' (as opposed to the winker) falls to the ground dead! The rest tries to spot the winking in progress and votes the guy out...It was supposed to be a fun game but there was one thing that we had wrongly assumed...THAT EVERYONE CAN WINK! A wink is different from a blink...Blinking rapidly is NOT winking...Only those who were there knew who that person is! Hint: She moulds the future of our nation!!!

So we moved on to the next game. It was simply called 'The Bear' game! This was a game I saw a group of instructors from Hotel Wing (I was from Charlie Wing OCS and my sister company or wing is Hotel Wing) playing in Starbucks in an unnamed country after our end-of-frame dinner last year. I had always wanted to try it out with the cuzzies and had asked one of the ex-instructors to explain to me the intricacies of the game. So there and then, at 30 minutes after midnight (!), he was explaining to me about the Bears, Guru, Healers and Humans! As I understand from him, this game is the current rage in OCS. It's good as a time-filler. This game has the 3Cs in it! You try to CONVINCE people who you are, if not you CONFUSE them...if all else fails, you CON them! It was quite addictive and we played till 0400hrs!!! I had only 1 hour sleep the previous day...plus a short 2 hour nap in the evening after I had gotten back from work so all-in-all I had like 3 hours sleep in 48 hours!!! Anyway, Boboy and me decided to sent Tanti, Yati and Lin back home...I was zonked out and told Tanti to drive back to her place. Then, fighting the Z monster, we sent Yati and then Lin back to Tampines...then it was back to Rina's house to fetch my BH. We sent Boboy back and crawled into bed at exactly 0600hrs in the morning!!! It was tiring but fun, fun, fun...we'd do it again in a heartbeat...April is coming...Palm Gardens anyone!?!? This time we will start the games early!

(For a description of "The Bear Game" in its entirety, look at the post below. Thanx to LTA(NS)Faizal for your initial input and follow-up comments!)