Went for a BBQ gathering yesterday night at Toby's residence - the used-to-be posh and exclusive Mandarin Gardens. I said used-to-be cos in the good old days when I was studying in that area, this condo was like so atas atas type one...so different from the old and a bit dilapidated Neptune Court beside it. And anyway, Neptune Ct still pretty much looks the same - old and dilapidated, but sadly, Mandarin Gardens is also becoming a bit retro liao. We could even spot those old fashioned public telephone booths in the condo, and I must say some of the current HDB void decks look even better than the ones in Mandarin Gardens.

But the facilities, wah....got only one word to describe....absolutely top notch and well maintained ok! This is actually a pretty big condo...cos it consists of quite a number of blocks...machem like a mini HDB estate, I tell you. But hor, their facilities inside comprise of:

1) 3 tennis courts (which condo got so many courts one?)
2) Not 1, 2 or 3, but 4 squash courts!!
3) Suitably big-sized pool
4) Suana rooms
5) 4 pavilions with 2 BBQ pits each
6) Supermarket
7) Learning centre
8) Gift shop
9) Thai restaurant (!!)
10) Hair salon
11) Gym

Impressive right? Its like the size of Shunfu estate, with all the 'essential' facilities built in. No need to even step out of the condo to buy anything liao. Guess the units there must be freaking pricey also lor. But yar lar, Toby is rich one...so it makes sense.

Anyway, Toby is part of my choir kaki group lar and yesterday's BBQ dinner was like a gathering for us, as well as a farewell party for Toby since he's leaving Sg for Vietnam to teach English. This boy har, didn't know he can cook so well one. He was the one who marinated the raw food, and plus was also the one behind all the cooked food like potato salad, spaghetti, garlic butter, and his 招牌chilli paste. Absolutely smacking licking good, I tell you...especially the potato salad. Me hor, I usually skip the salad part of any meal one cos I hate eating raw veggies with those dressing on it. But Toby's potato salad was one of the rare salad dishes which happened to agree with my tastes....hahaha.

But I guess what we all enjoyed most yesterday, besides the super duper good food, was the good conversation we had with one another, as a group. Its quite funny actually..cos we see each other almost every week during our choir practices. But we still have so much to talk and joke about leh...after knowing everyone for more than 2 years. Sometimes hor, what really motivates me to attend the choir sessions, is not really my love for singing leh...but more because I get the chance to meet up with my choir kakis and spend time pursuing a common passion and interest. Sigh....I know this is what I'm going to miss most of all, if I were to ever quit choir, if if lah!

And yesterday, we were all so 不舍得Toby, when we took our leave from his condo. I'm already missing him liao...Toby, one of our rare tenors (we are PERPETUALLY in need of tenors), the one who's always wearing t-shirts with quirky messages on it, who's always voicing out his disgust when I don't sit properly on the piano bench to play the piano (haha!), who wears a sarong to sleep (we peeped on him while in Brunei), who's from my brother school (came as a shock to me though), and who can cook so much better than me (only knew yesterday). Toby's life story also quite drama one....but cannot reveal the juicy details here lah....suffice to say that he used to be a 富家子 (those 少爷少爷type one), but after falling out with his father, he decided to strike it out on his own and not depend on his dad anymore. Drama can? Think he took up a couple of jobs after his NS to support himself lah....teaching bangaras English, and working as a waiter. Oh yar, must add in this small but funny anecdote which occurred during his waiter days.

Apparently one afternoon, the famous singer 杜德为 patronised the restaurant which Toby was working in (think he was in Sg to film some TCS drama....probably the one with Jacelyn Tay and Fiona Xie) . So we all know that 杜德为's angmo name is Alex To right....but Toby, who's absolutely rubbish with the Mandarin music scene...did not know that. So he kay kiang proceeded to anyhow-ly translate 杜德为's name to David To, because he says 德为=David. And with that, he approached our singer and asked "Hi Mr. David To, what would you like to order?".

Toby later told me he was so so so malu....that he didn't even dare to approach Alex To again to ask for his signature, which he had intended to do so at first.

Tsk tsk......crap right, this boy?? But must admit he's got some creativity lar.......