Here we go

20120725 1100h

I arrive at the sports complex very nearly late after getting lost along the way. I am halted at the door by a pair of not-so-bulky bouncers in black shirts with clipboards, who mistake my late arrival at the end of my scheduled time slot for an early one at the start of the next.

They check that I have the requisite paperwork with me (forms that have special clauses for adult signatories, but require parental consent anyway). I head on in and turn left, and there before me is a Desk. The Desk.

On it lie matriculation cards. To be precise, everyone's matriculation cards. An attendant asks me for identification and begins hunting around the apparently unsorted mess for mine. My picture on it was taken with a low-quality camera that makes it look quite unlike anything I'd actually want to put on a passport and show to airport security. It is also significantly more bendy than any other photo ID card I possess.

I take it and hide it in my wallet, only to rummage around for my wallet at the next few stations.

20120726 1400h

I have mounted my matriculation card on a lanyard, which I keep in my bag out of sight.

Ming Yang and I return to NUS after lunch with Pan, and attempt to track down the source of all our pain for long enough that we can recite our case reference number without hesitating. Our quest will take us on a wild goose chase that will terminate with us being told that the inept buffoon ("case engineer") we've been chasing reassigned our case to someone else entirely, and to please come back tomorrow morning because he's off-site now. But first stop: the demo lab.

Mr. Lim's not in, but the lab is full of people. I retrieve my card, tap it superfluously at the door scanner, and stow it away in one fluid motion. The door says “UNLOCKED”. Ming Yang pretends not to notice.

(Later on, I will try to scan the card at UTown, whereat each door will return “ACCESS DENIED”, as will all the doors at the School of Computing in the same building where I went for IOI training.)

20120727 1930h

There are insufficient contiguous tables at the S6K reunion outing. We, the senior class, decide to split between two tables, but once the food has vanished we gravitate into a single cluster again.

All of a sudden, Yuqun goes: “Hmm! I just realised something about our class; notice that all the GEPers: Joel, Wei Zhong, Zhe Wei, Jia Jun, Sean - you're all staying in Singapore. And except for Jia Guang here, and Daniel, everyone here going overseas isn't a GEP. Isn't that interesting?” He grins one of those broad grins that make him him. But he's right. It is uncanny.

Something inside me twitches and dies.

Here we go.