and of course, where's the fun in having a prom when there's no means of celebrating the end of IB without the parents, teachers, speeches and unfortunately, the damn good food? the real after-party happens in the hotel rooms! i booked a room with Rory, Zan, Alvin and Shaun. Raushan and Lukman joined as well, the former needing a place to get ready for prom, and the latter needing a place to party after prom.
1:40pm, i was the first of the roomies to arrive. the room cost $160 with ISB's corporate rate, so obviously i'd like to get my money's worth. after waiting in the lobby on the nice comfy chairs (which later got replaced by one of the Mercs on display, no wonder the bellboys were looking at me funny), listening to my ePood and checking the phone, Alvin finally came. after much hassle with having to pay a $200 deposit for a room that's worth much less and getting ticked off at the fact that the name of the person who reserved the room was 'Nicholas Alberez', we both proceeded into the wrong part of the hotel in hopes of finding our room. obviously, no such luck; looking for room 5114 in the 2xxx area yielded nothing but an unwanted walk. finding out we're staying in the Lagoon area (yes!) on the first floor (no!), we buggied our bums over. flashbacks of my year 11 prom took me over, and Alvin was just worried-looking.
what i forever find funny about hotel rooms and booking in with friends is that at least one of us has to take off their shoes and jump on one of the beds the moment we enter the room. not this time, though. hmm, guess we're past that. or maybe because the 'balcony' outside was right next to the fish-filled water and was obviously much more interesting than jumping on comfy cushions. we were unable to get the damn slide door open though, despite the 'simple' 3-step instructions provided so blatantly, like it was taunting us. it wouldn't budge. that is, until Zan came. a simple bam and swoosh and poof, he was outside wishing he brought a fishing rod if he had one. i blame Alvin. i only wanted to make fun of MCR on the telly.
4:45-ish, Rory came with excess baggage by the name of Raushan Yuzer, blaming his tardiness on the clerk telling him our room was 5414, amongst other things. like a stray pup, we got Raush to stay with us. after watching Avril Lavigne being Canadian on Punk'd, we all started getting ready for the big night. not together, of course, the shower has its limits. our inhibitions (or lack thereof) too.
6:00pm, looking as sharp as knives, we made our way back to the lobby via buggy-bum, then down to the area in front of the Indera Kayangan Ballroom, and after realizing what the office folk at school meant by 'free seating', we all quickly wrote down our names along with those who will be sitting with us. eventually, people: fellow graduates, parents, (ex) teachers started to arrive, and the photoshooting session hence began. took some group photos, individual subject photos, family photos, and one where we pretended to be the Mafia and Josie was the Don (only because it was his birthday and he likes Godfather. the only two reasons).
and then there was Chancey, who looked so beautiful in a dress that, despite the fact that it wasn't hers, definitely suits her much much more than, say, oh i dunno, the dress' owner, whose name i shall not mention. she looked really great, i cannot stress that enough. i was honored to have her as my prom date, and i can say for sure that because of her, prom was the best night of my life, if not one of them. haha okay, i'll stop with the cheesiness.
from what i know, the folks who actually read my blog were there at prom too, so we all know what happened: the not-so-boring speeches, the cool music items, the awards (and sore hands from excessive clapping), seeing our generation's Student Council Pres and VP up there in front for one last time, and of course, the excellent Empire food. the main course was all good and tasty and everyone ate heartily, or as Zan put it, "getting my money's worth". when we got to dessert, Chancey was a bit iffy about eating this white chocolate thingumy that seemed to represent a tear, with a metallic-looking substance all over its surface. i say it tasted good.
on my table, there was one empty chair, along with the unused cutlery and plates that would have been meant for the occupant. when we were about to eat, some waiter decided to pack it all away and unwrap the napkin to place on Chancey's lap, even though she had one already. haha, dumbass, but what else was there to do but relieve her of it and hand it back to the very distracted-looking fellow.
there's always that agenda-less space of time between eating the food and the disco, and i whiled it away taking pictures here and there, having some small-talk conversation, as well as walking with Chancey back out to the entrance to wait for her ride home. i soon found out that there was a disco going on all along, it just wasn't as 'alive' as i anticipated it to be, what with Min on the floor all on his own. not that he wasn't enjoying himself or anything, he is, was and always will be the life of our parties. i got onto the floor and swayed to and fro for a bit, but that died down too. quite sad, really, it looks like Bruneian DJs have as much taste as a piece of cardboard. so what else was there to do but to go back to our rooms and continue to celebrate?
unfortunately for me and my temporary roommates, we had nothing much of a questionable sort to celebrate with. just the good ol' provided telly, the spacy bathroom, Rory's Rubik's, Zan's PS2 (and one of my controllers) and not to mention the complimentary water. oh, we actually had 5-ish cans of Tiger as well, kudos to whom, i shall not mention; enough to satisfy, but not enough to get wasted. not that i wanted to, of course. i took a 2:00am stroll with Zan to the lobby (and hence the Indera Kayangan Ballroom) to reminisce (and hence bring on the Post-Prom Blues) , and on the way there and back, we encountered fellow graduates who claimed to be 'drite qwunk' or were so red-faced that anything short of a place to crash (and hence pass out) meant nothing to them. hellooo sobriety!
so for the rest of the night and early morning, we whiled the night away through a variety of means: of course, there's the PS2, playing games like Guitar Hero, some football game, Burnout and that strange-ass Naruto game which, i absolutely cannot believe i am saying, was quite addictive, most probably because i keep winning. then again, i played against Shaun for the most part, so there was obviously bias. then there was that previously mentioned stroll i had with Zan, which was refreshing and something i will miss dearly; i don't think i'll be having conversations of that calibre in that particular atmosphere ever again. our room also got raided from time to time. not security raid of course, fellow hotel-ers that we're absolutely sure were at the prom with us. there was Brian who came along and played PS2 for a bit, Stan too, and then someone who came crashing through our door (after we opened it), smelling very strongly of alcohol. he confessed his love to a select few of us (he kissed me on/in the ear twice, so i guess i was selected), then left. when he came back a second time, he confessed again, then lost to me once in GH, and he instantly declared that he will individually kick each of our asses. haha, no wonder my mom used to call alcoholic drinks the "devil's pee". doesn't stop me when i don't have to be stopped, though.
i was hoping to watch that Empire post-prom sunrise, but it was raining and cloudy, so obviously, no bright morning stars for me. Shaun left around 7:15.
i do painfully regret the fact that i carelessly fell asleep for 4 hours, hence missing breakfast and a kayaking session. boo.
but oh, the Empire beds and pillows.. it'd be like saying no to a bag full of dosh: purely immoral and unethical! (and a bit creepy. who talks to bags?)
after checking out at 11:45am and getting the refund they promised, we spent the last few hours together at Empire playing golf and bowling. funfun. then we went our separate ways to go home, and them post-prom blues continued to surface and grow as each xkm to Muara sign passed my car by.
as promised, here are the pics:
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