Autumn Leaves

It was a day of dares.

Well, technically, the first one wasn't really counted. It was merely a consequence of losing a game, stemming from the fact that my mom didn't encourage gambling (due to the news about some nutter getting fined by police for doing so in the assumed-safe-limits of his private home), which degraded us to using peanuts to replace cash. Thus, the driving force of the card games shifted from earning extra bucks to avoiding the penalty of having to eat ALL of the groundnuts pooled in to use as bets. And what do you know, both victims were the only people around with braces. Not to mention we hiked up the number of peanuts each to 7 for the second round and there were 6 of us... You do the math.

Firecrackers. Shhh. (Thank God our Malay neighbour was cool with it)

The mythical creatures in the form of bearded lions with tiered fur, painted mouth and manually-controlled blinking eyes. They literally crashed into the house.

I was just as shocked when they ambled their way up. What the heck. Privacy intrusion?

But apparently, they meant good. They went to bless dad's laptop and workplace.

And while one was doing that, the other was...

...hell yeah, shameless self-promoting.

Once they were done with their rendezvous on the upper floor, they continued to the front compound. They danced;

They 'ate' the food;

And they got high.

House blessed and audience satisfied, it was time for lunch!

Got away from the Summer heat for a while by lingering in a bubble of Autumn in a park, on our way to the Winter of One Utama.

It all started with Jia Wei fiddling with Mae Jin's iPod Touch.

A peaceful change, considering the slight madness back before the magical quadrupeds (it's the magical quadrupeds, Charlie!) attacked...until someone stumbled upon this evil application called Truth or Dare, luring the person to type in all of our names and 'spin the wheel'.

(The following dares are listed randomly)

Dare #1: Get down on your hands and knees and meow like a cat.

Victim: Jia Wei

He simply half-kneeled, half-sat and half-squatted on the seat. And squeaked. He probably got 'cat' and 'rat' mixed up.

Dare #2: Touch the toes of a friend's foot while singing to the song 'Red Little Indians'.

Victim: Ying Hui

Holy crap. It was barbarically disgusting and utterly humiliating, if you recall the fact that we were doing this in a relatively chic restaurant and in the presence of a live DINING audience. Miraculously, no one puked.

Dare #3: Lick your hand in a sensual way.

Victim: Ying Hong

All I can say was, you made me proud, bro, you made me proud. Like sister, like brother, and no one runs a tongue across a straw/cutlery/utensils better than I do disregarding the fact that I tend to end up having my tongue slashed

Dare #4: Sing and dance the Macarena on a chair.

Victim: Joanna

At this point, there WERE people staring at us. People with no life. I mean, they were just having lunch. WE were having lunch AND doing dares or spilling truths AND causing chaos AND attracting attention positive and negative alike AND having that much more to look back on. Jealous much, peasants?

Dare #5: Squirt tomato and chilli sauce into your mouth at the same time and swallow it.

Victim: Mae Jin

No one dared to sit opposite her, or venture near her for that matter, just in case she choked and painted everyone red. Or she might find it so ludicrously funny that she had to spit it out to laugh.

Dare #6: Fall back onto someone who could catch you.

Victim: Eu Chern

This wasn't as bad as the others. Though Jo could have just raised her hands in the air and break his fall with her legs instead. Just sayin'.

Of course, these were merely the tip of the iceberg of Truth or Dares. Most of which included less preposterous Dares like skipping and hopping along the perimeter of the place, singing the words to the Happy Birthday tune instead of speaking them, concocting a dish out of those on the table for the victim and the list went on. Not to mention we occasionally opted for Truths.

Too bad Jing Hua came late and missed all of this. But at least she didn't miss out on our caffeine-intake session and a certain shopping mission.