1 Guy, 5 Girls and 2 Rooms.

Hold that kinky thought. Let me explain. Mom got off from work last Friday with 2 free rooms at the Bukit Merah Laketown Resort (BMLR), which is a 2 hours (1 and a half if you were speeding) drive from Penang. The free rooms, were actually obtained from mom's company. They have planned a 2 days, 1night team-building for the production department at BMLR and the head of the department canceled at the final minute when everything was set to go on Saturday. So the B.O.D, pissed for getting dissed at the last moment, handed the booked facilitation to mom's department because they couldn't cancel and everything was paid for already. There were altogether 11 booked rooms and buffet meals that needs to be filled in, so mom shared it out amongst her colleagues.

What we initially had in mind - the gleaming teak furnitures, crystal clear satellite TV with the mini refrigdgerator by the side filled with cans of cokes and bars of chocolates, plus the fluffy pillows and the fit-for-two bathtub not to mention, the 24-hour rooms service (the miraculously strewn bed after you get your morning breakfast, anyone?) - didn't turn out to be all that. It was far worse. I guess you can call us foolish for even thinking that big companies would provide that sort of luxury to their workers for a lousy 2 days team-building. Grace and I even secretly hoped that we'd get the villa overlooking the lake with a breathtaking view! But... what do you know? I mean, c'mon, it's a team-building! Things are meant to be lousy. So the rooms aren't exactly what we wished for. It turned out to be something like a small bedroom which mom calls as an apartment. You know, the usual skanky rooms for one night stands, with rotting furniture and a musty smell, not forgetting the dust. We practically turned sour out of disappointment after checking in. At least there was a great sky.

It's situated pretty faraway from the water theme park that BMLR stands famous for. Neither of us even knew that sort of place existed in the compounds of BMLR. We've been there a bunch of times, but never did we know they had cheaper rooms (at about RM120 per night) catered for the not so rich also, which happens to be us at that time. I mean, we're not rich but even if we knew about that particular facility in BMLR, we wouldn't even dare check in. Why even bother paying for lame services, right? Might as well just spend a day at the water theme park and get going back to Penang. Unless, of course, it's absolutely free, which in this case it is. Damn it, I make us sound like the same old Chinese people who can never resist anything that has the word 'free' imprinted on it! Are we? Gee... I'll have to make an exception for this case, though. Mom really wanted a weekend away and this trip came up so suddenly and she thought that it might be nice for the family but it turned out to be less than the vacation we had in mind - sunbathing at the sandy beaches at the Maldives. Nah.

Well, it may not turn out as the dream holiday I thought it would be. So what? No big deal. After all, we really couldn't afford any trips to the Bahamas right now and all we had to do was play along with the situation - as bad as it can be. I discovered that the family was really accept-what's-given-and-be-thankful kind of people. It was hard at first to accept the crappiness but after a while, you get used to it and instead of sulking over the miserable trip, you look at the bright side and make the best out of it. Really positive people, aren't we? Though, one thing that wasn't a turn off was the food. I guess the company knew the importance of food during a team-building, huh? You know, it wasn't exactly straight from the The Malaysian International Gourmet Festival but it was still edible. To be frank, it was just the traditional nasi kandar in buffet style.

The first day there wasn't entirely a let down. There was so much free time that we decided to play with poker cards (not play poker!). I've never been good at poker cards and the only games I play with it are children games like Monkey, Blaugh, Heart Attack and the likes. Of course, those doesn't require any reluctant money exchange or snide remarks - just pure fun. Learned a new way to play monkey while I was there. I think it's the older version of the current Monkey that we play nowadays, a more substantial one also. It gets addictive after some time, unlike the usual one that gets me all bored after ten mintues into the game with the little kiddies. Occasionally, I do play BlackJack (it's the easiest game isn't it?) with the elder cousins during Chinese New Year, exchanging only cents and pennies and no more. Even that gets me bored after a while. Other than that, the camwhore sessions with Grace, in which, she whores for my cam, were inevitable.

See, this trip came so suddenly that none of us had any prior planning for it, which pretty much explains why we had to miss a couple of farewell parties and church duties, unwillingly. That weekend itself, we already had plans to celebrate poh poh's birthday. The entire plan deterred when this trip showed up and when mom decided to bring poh poh along, and make as if this trip was planned for her. Each room, as stated, could only fit 3 persons, so we needed six people, including mom, Grace and me. Poh poh and Danushya (yeap, she's still here and she follows everywhere poh poh goes) has filled another two places, leaving us with one blank. After Carina refused to go, mom brought akak along. Later that night, mom called sam yi up too, see if she wanted to join us for the night, and on the way, bring a cake for poh poh. They're also just a 2 hours drive away. Ah Chiu also made a trip to BMLR and stayed for the night, all crammed in two rooms.