A friend invited us to a BBQ outing with his family and friends. We were delighted as we loved to go on group outings with friends.
Great, I thought. Finally, I get to eat burnt hot dogs! I know it's weird, but I've been hungering for burnt BBQed hot dogs for a LONG LONG time. Yum! (Fred: That was from Mich, BTW... ^.^)
We headed to Carrefour after our morning outing as we had volunteered to get drinks. But, we didn't have any cooler box! So we had to go get one. Fred had always wanted to get a cooler box to keep the drinks cold when we're out in the field. It was about time too... for our future Jarjar. We walked around for a while and chose the different combinations of drinks. We had to make sure that the kids had their favourite drinks, and the adults had theirs too.
Carrefour is way too HUGE! And we lost our way for a moment before managing to locate the Coleman cooler box section. We packed everything in the car and then headed home to place our gears. Upon reaching home, I fell asleep on the floor and Fred, infront of his computer! :-P
We awoke on time for the meetup and proceeded to get a few packs of ice from the convenient store. We were debating whether to buy the ice cream now and later until our friend arrived. We decided on the latter as we didn't want milkshake lah. We wanted ICE CREAM. :P (Which we didn't buy in the end...)
Soon 3.30pm came and went. And it was 3.50pm. Fred was excited about something, and he told me that he saw a Defender in a carpark nearby. It was only then that I realised that the BBQ didn't consist of just both of us and our friend, Eric's family but a few other Land Rover owners too! I was excited but panicked abit because I felt we didn't get enough drinks for everyone. Fred soon convinced me that everything was fine. Ok, so no panicking. Until...
4.00pm came and left, and it was soon 4.15pm. No other Landys and we were supposed to meet him at Changi Point. Then I asked Fred whether there was a difference between Changi Point and Village as we were at the latter. It was really funny because Fred started panicking too! Haha.. He said, "Cannot be lah. Changi Village = Changi Point." Then after 2 mins, he said, "Or are they different? Eh, you know where is Changi Point or not?"
Both of us were terribly confused. So we ended up messaging Eric. But, he didn't answer his phone (we realised later that he was busy) and we panicked again. We started to question if we had heard the dates wrongly (was it next Sunday?) or was it later (5/6pm) or something else. Suddenly, the phone rang! It was him! We were elated and relieved! :P He told us to meet him and the gang at "the washing machine" instead, so off we went (forgetting about the ice-cream).
When we arrived, we had the surprise of our lives! Right before our eyes, there were 3 Landys. A 90, a 110 and a classic Series II/III (Sorry, can't remember.. :( ). Eric arrived in Lara and we met everyone. Ray and Marianne and their kids, Shamas, Liam, Declan in Big Blue. Stephanie and her friend in Aurra Sing (aka Elmo). Last but not least, Gary and his classic series LR. Eric's parents were present too! It was great meeting everyone!
We were given a brief introduction to offroading and told we're going to do that later! Both Fred and I were EXCITED. Excited was an understatement actually. We got on top of the vehicles, yes on top!!! And were soon on our way. We conquered lots of muddy and sandy spots which had along the way which has bogged us down before. It was a blast!
Nothing could prepare us for this experience! The feeling of being on top of the Lara can't be described. Cos it simply takes your breath away! THE DEFENDER ROCKS! Ah hem.. OK.. *straightens up and back to serious tone* On the other hand, we were sad to see what had happened to the playground. Roads were widened and areas were bulldozed over. The abundant nature that had once existed in the area has also disappeared. Oh well, the story goes.....
It was an exhilarating ride, and many things happened on the trip. Eric's mum felt nauseous from all the bumps and decided to take over the wheels of his Lara. Elmo's snorkel came undone as the rivets were loose, nearly went for a refueling stop as peoples' fuel were running low and even sighted avian friends along the way too, it was fantastic!
As evening approached, we moved to the BBQ site and everyone began setting up the tables, chairs and whatever that were needed for the BBQs. We went to search for firewood, but all the woods were still wet from the rain to serve as firewood. :( Eric gave a step-by-step guide to offroading. He even coached Fred on off-roading while Fred was behind the wheel. Both of us were enjoying ourselves and we had Eric and his friends to thank. :)
Soon, Eric's wife, Josephine arrived with their kids in their Agent Orange. She brought along otah-otah, fried bee-hoon, fried squid and lots of finger food. Marianne and Stephanie made some mean BBQed hotdogs and Eric's mum boiled Chinese tea.
We were glad that the drink we brought along were well-liked by the kids. Some of us drank Coke Lite, green tea and Beer. Coupled with wonderful friends, great ambience and delicious food, what more could we ask for?
We had a great evening and the BBQ stretched well into the night. We talked about everything under the moonlight, nature, Landys, kids, food, EVERYTHING! ;)
Thank you for everything and it was great meeting everyone. Hope to catch up with you soon!