oddities

supersized grape i found while at bongoboy's surprise party.

it's been another weekend involving lots of hanging out with various people, some of whom i haven't seen or talked to for far too long, and all of sudden i'm crossing paths with perhaps multiple times in the last fortnight! it's been nice, but i doubt it will last. still feels like a bit of a holiday mood - that's certainly a literal truth for those who are students, but even as a worker i'm not feeling as bogged down with the old monday to friday routine. maybe that's thanks to my secondment being a lot less busy than my normal work area, and perhaps too the recent pattern of my weekends involving sleeping in, being out for most of the rest of the day and night, and eating later meals than i would typically eat - quite reminiscent of how i spent my recent overseas holiday.

unfortunately the sunday sleeping in thing ends today - will be away at qyc next weekend, and the sunday after that our church service returns to our usual bat-time and bat-channel, ie sunday mornings 9:30am. ah well... i still have my saturdays :)

anyways, something struck me as being a bit odd. church is having a dinner thing in feb, to celebrate chinese new year and to have a reunion thing involving current and past members + friends. i've been semi-keen on going along, but wanted to try to organise a table to sit with my friends so that i wouldn't have to be a nige/sit with people i don't really know. sadly, the response has been rather poor. the odd thing is that this is my own church, where i'm sure to know many of the people who will be there (at least by face/name, if not necessarily all in person), but i'm still not all that willing to attend unless i know i'll be sitting with friends/people i know. yet on my last trip, i was quite happy to

1. go to a wedding dinner where the only person i knew was the bride, and her i didn't actually meet in person till the day before the dinner. (and so i ended up sitting on a table where almost everyone else already knew each other from their uni days, and thus were having a mini-reunion of sorts)
2. attend another dinner in a neighbouring country with some 1400 other people, where i knew (of) a few more people but was nevertheless seated at a table where the only person i knew i met earlier that day, and where we were the only two single people amongst married couples either with a baby, or expecting one. [above pic shows the panoramic view from the stage... 138 tables (including those on the upper level) of 10 people each - that's huuuge!]
   

so why, when it comes to a dinner in my home country, in my home church, with that many more people i would know/recognise... why do i seem so much more reluctant to go? i'm not sure if the attempted comparisons are valid, but it does seem kinda odd. and i'm not sure what that says/signifies.

anyhow, it's kinda a moot point. mum has been after a decision from me for the last week, and as of this afternoon i'm locked in to going because she said that another person who's going asked for me to go as well, and because it solves the problem of filling a vacant spot on some singing quartet item thing. so now not only am i going, i'm also supposed to perform... and i think i'll have a friend but i don't know if it's my sparkling personality and dinner conversation that they're after, or simply because they couldn't find anyone else to sing :p

i hope the food will be good! cue image of homer simpson-esque figure munching on a mouth full of food and mumbling "can't worry about being a nige - eating!" ;)