Alright, I have received complaints about the frequency of my postings. It went from weekly to fortnightly to monthly.
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My reasons? (1) I don’t have enough time! (2) I missed classes more often now (2) I don’t really understand the discussion since I am always late and thus were not really inspired to write. I guess I need to urgently realign myself with the progress of the class!
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Speaking of missing class, I ponteng class today because I couldn’t bring myself up from my bed this morning. But, I was looking forward to tonight’s big event - la buffet de la franchophonie and meeting our ex-classmates whom we dearly missed!
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Our last year’s experience with this buffet taught us to arrive early to ‘chop’ seats at the Olio cafe. So, Evelyn, our chef de la classe, emailed everyone to arrive at 6.30pm (the buffet starts at 7pm). There were myself, Evelyn and Choon Hau at 6.45pm, and almost nobody else. The buffet spread was not opened yet. Everybody was still in the auditorium attending the prize giving ceremony of Runme Shaw Cup Compeition, awarded to the outstanding students in AF.
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After we have territorized one big table at Olio, almost instantly, hungry people gushed out from the auditorium, spilling over the entire lobby and the stairs. The VIPs had their private buffet spread at Olio. Meijia came out of the auditorium and happily announced to us that our current classmate Louisa has won the first prize! That equates to a return air ticket to Paris on Air France, and a week stay at the Institut International de Rambouillet.
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Among the frenziness, guess what was the first thing we went for? Choon Hau and Vincent quickly grapped the wines (yup free wines). Evelyn and I were eyeing the Inniskillin ice wines at the corner. Don’t be mistaken, we are not alcoholic in nature, only in situations when it is gratuit.
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Choon Hau and Meijia braved through the crowds in the lobby to take food for us. See below - how Choon Hau squeezed through the queue and got a full plate of food.
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As we were waiting for them, we were too hungry to resist helping ourselves with the food from the VIP buffet spread. So we went for it, and got captured in someone’s camera for doing so! Perhaps there were overwhelming attendance, or perhaps the food was not quite enough, most items were gone within 20 minutes, some of us didn’t get to sample the fromage, c’était dommage!
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We were very happy to meet Ming Wei’s petite amie and to see Daniel and April again. It was so enjoyable to recount our days in AF with them. We suggested Daniel to open his bread bar outlet in AF and call it ‘Le You-cha-kuei’.
- Daniel: Is it ‘le’ or ‘la’ You-cha-kuei?
- Choon Hau: It’s definitely ‘le’ because it’s a foreign word.
- Ping: (sigh), still want to argue about ‘le’ or ‘la’!
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Well, I look forward to the day when Choon Hau, Daniel, April and Meng rejoin the family, if that day ever comes.
