It’s always great whenever we have a gathering, be it dinner, drinks or in this case, a chalet. It’s usually the celebration of a birthday, or a festive occasion. This time however, it’s more of a farewell get together. One less participant to our future gatherings. Soon, she’ll be off to Down Under for the pursuit of higher learnings. That’s a good thing too, as always when it comes to furthering one’s intellect. I remember another such gathering we had a handful of years back, when another one of our clique departed for studies too. I missed one when one of our clique departed for work overseas.
We decided to have a chalet this time, since we had a rather good deal for the weekend booking of Costa Sands Resort Down Town East. What a mouthful for a name. Could have been shortened down to Downtown East or something, but they wanted to make it long and impressive. It’s also liable to be confused with Costa Sands Resort, which happened to be a few minutes drive away, something which I was caught in. 
The place has really changed too. A real big and significant change, proof that I’ve not been in the area for a decade, probably. Could it have been that long? I don’t recall, but it sure appeared that long to me. The entrance to the resort shifted to another area. The relocation of the chalets would have been a major logistical nightmare, had they decided to shift it. All the chalets have an assigned BBQ pit, which is good. Something which I didn’t notice before. One of the surprises for us was the Xbox console in our chalet room. Good to have, provided you have a few games on hand, which we didn’t, (un)fortunately. Depending on the crowd, it can either be very engaging, or a complete bore. The TV is also a staple, but something which is totally detrimental to social activities – something which we apparently discovered. I suppose it can also be attributed to age, one where we decided that it’s so much simpler to just lie on the bed and stare at the glass box. It entailed minimal movement of muscles and effort, but whether it reaped maximum benefits, it’s anyone’s guess. It came to a (hilarious) point where we were all lying on the bed, with chips and water all placed beside us. Even though there wasn’t any TV remote, we managed to “hack” it by using the remote control software in the mobile phone. How’s that for ultimate laziness!
Sadly, the idea of a chalet with fun and games has somehow been lost from us due to all the hectic work and fast life we’re in. That, or perhaps we were just too tired!
The night of the BBQ itself was in a league of it’s own. No doubt there ere quite a number of attendees, both out clique and her, but I’d say that for such a short notice, we managed to pull everything together, and quite nicely done too. Surprisingly, the only one present from our side were our batch climbers. Missing were our seniors. For them, it worked much like a chain. All you need is a member to appear, and the rest will follow suit. Anyway, it was just as enjoyable with just the handful of us – a close knot group, something which I’m slowly growing to appreciate. Fortunately for us, the rain decided to take a break that night, thus allowing us the peace of mind to cook and consume our food. For all the food that we had, we were pleasently surprised that a good majority of it were finished. That included the chicken wings, which is almost always in oversupply. Well, one of the guests gracefully volunteered to bring the cooked wings back home, which was good. All the hotdogs were finished, together with the satay, crabsticks and hundreds of fishballs. Only the prawns and (as usual) fried noodles were left. I’d say that of all the BBQs that I’ve attended, the amount of food we had was a good quantity, and the leftovers and wastage were minimal, which is always a good thing. Also another first was the amount of food I consumed. While I usually consume much lesser than optimum intake and spend more time near the pit, this was a complete reverse. Our guests were hovering around the pit most of the time, while I was seated by the table most of the time. I ended up eating more than normal, and not to let the situation go to waste, I occasionally brought the raw food to our volunteer cooks. This ensured that everyone else had food to eat while at the same time, making sure that most of the food gets cooked, and eaten. Always a good thing.
By 12, everyone departed while the few of us stayed back at the chalet. Somehow, the TV took control of us yet again. Can’t be helped, I suppose. We had a relatively hectic day running around getting the logistics for the BBQ. Mental note to myself to get rid of any TVs for future gatherings at chalets! 
In no time at all, the weekend chalet get together is over. It sure was great, as it always has. The flight off is scheduled for February. I’ll probably be seeing her again come middle of February, when I head over for a short tour. Depending on how the situation develops, if everything goes well and according to plan, I’d probably be seeing her again sometime during the second half of the year.
Let’s see how things progress.
