Reunion

My Army buddy Tat Kai (the one who slapped his own balls try­ing to kill a mos­quito) called today to say the on again off again reunion of mates could be on again if he could get hold of Foong and Ho Yeo.

Foong had to have din­ner at his in-laws and Ho Yeo wasn’t answer­ing his phone till about 7pm, but Tat Kai man­aged to arrange for all of us to meet at Ho Yeo’s office at 8pm.

Foong, Ho Yeo, Tat Kai and I were bunk­mates and crew­mates at 46th. Ho Yeo was the big bully that ini­ti­ated every­one trans­ferred into the pla­toon by beat­ing them up. Foong was the most unlikely look­ing com­bat trooper. Looked like a 9 year old when he was 19, but won all the awards there were to win in the Army. Tat Kai, well, he slapped his own balls try­ing to kill a mosquito.

I got to Marina South at about 8.15pm, and couldn’t fig­ure out where exactly we were to meet, as I had never been to Ho Yeo’s office, and only know vaguely that he works for his father’s com­pany, which owns the Super­bowl and Super Fun­world chain of enter­tain­ment out­lets (bowl­ing and video games).

Tat Kai and Foong were stand­ing at the bus stop out­side Super Fun­world, and the food out­lets out­side there were packed to the brim full of Sun­day night din­ers tak­ing advan­tage of the Sun­day night steam­boat and bar­be­cue spe­cial for $12 per per­son. It was so bustling I thought it was the Fes­ti­val of the Gas Can­is­ters or some­thing.

Ho Yeo met us out­side Super Fun­world and brought us into his office. Unlike most of my for­mer Army mates, he looked trim and fit, prompt­ing Tat Kai to com­ment that we could no longer call him Tua Bui (Big Fat) Yeo Yeo, his nick­name then, but San Por (Skinny) Yeo Yeo.

Ho Yeo’s office at the back of the video games arcade was much like the gang­ster back office you see in movies. Glass win­dows to watch over the arcade, and desks and shelves stacked high with mag­a­zines and tapes and an ancient VCR and TV for which to play them on. Ho Yeo him­self was still very much the thug, and it was strangely nice to hear him put so many swear words into every sen­tence. I kept being half afraid every­thing I said would be taken badly and I’d get my head smashed into a video game machine, but thank­fully, he’s become more con­cil­ia­tory these days.

The gist of the catch up ses­sion was the usual amongst my peers these days: Mar­ried? Kids? House? And as usual, for me, no, your hon­our, none of the above, not even close.

“You have a lot to do to catch up to where we are, but take your time”, is what Tat Kai and Foong said. And I feel like I’ve been left out of the race, still using the old marker flags from ten years ago as guides.