I Feel Pretty

Today was the Welcome and Commencement Dinner to kick off Acad Year 2006/07. Several of the graduated seniors came back *sniff* to get their awards and basically be celebrated. I was contemplating just wearing something vaguely conservative, after all no one actually checks to see how formal your outfit is. But then I had an attack of dressing up.

I went with my white spag tube with a pink ribbon, and was going to pair that with a black skirt. But the result was too severe and strangely aesthetically awful, despite the individual qualities of the items. I have no formal short skirt, and I can't wear the Miss Selfridge cheerleader skirt, so I went with my white corduroy skirt. To top off the pink-and-white, I wore my Nose shoes. They are tremendously comfortable, perhaps I should try to find another pair like that. Totally gorgeous and non-hurting on the feeties.

I didn't wear much makeup because I'm just going to have to take it all off again anyway, so it was just foundation, concealer, blush and mascara. I didn't even have lip gloss on. But the look requires a very clean, natural face anyway. It all came together very nicely.

On the way to the dining hall, I got like 3 compliments. Nips said I looked nice, Zongyin said I looked gorgeous (he always has to use a longer word) and Joe complimented my haircut. Which is strange, because it's not the first time he's seeing me. Perhaps he meant the recent trim.

I had no date this time. My "date" asked me only as a backup, and I couldn't find him anyway. I ate with the Audioworks people, and Andrew and Swee Wei actually managed to get dates. Bah. Nvm. My beauty is too much for one single person to behold, hence it's just as well that I was dateless. I certainly didn't feel like a loser or anything.

The losers on the night would have to be that girl who wore a tiara (erm, what?) and some other really strange fashion choices. By and large, the freshmen batch really dressed up - even the PRC girls had some sort of party dress in their wardrobe - while the seniors (and Flaggers in particular) tried to squeak past the dress code in jeans. Like, hello.

It was good to see the seniors again. Huai Zhi and Serene gave an impromptu performance of "Fire", and it was very good indeed. Solid gold performance. It's a shame we don't have anyone of their calibre left. They gave Khai Choon the "Long Service Award"... I don't know if that was a joke, or if it's a real, established award. Either way, it had the seniors in stitches.

The food was lovely - presented in a proper sit-down dinner style, and not out of plastic containers like the last time. Appetiser was a roast chicken with pineapple salad, garnished with coarse black pepper on a bed of lettuce. Yum. The soup was nothing to shout about, it was cream of corn, but we had double servings of the bread cos our table and the next were quite empty. The main course was chicken, I think it was roasted - not too sure. But the arresting piece was the acar that came with it. Pickled cucumber and carrots with sesame seeds. Lovely. It's definitely not something you expect to see on a western menu, and it was certainly very special. Dessert was ice cream, which the high table didn't have. I suppose it would be considered undignified for professors to be digging into paper cups of chocolate ice cream. Too bad!

All in all, I suppose it was rather a good event, except for the rowdy bits while Master was making his speech. While I admit that he does tend to go on too long for those people with short attention spans, I think it's not too much to ask them to behave like proper civilised adults instead of juveniles. I really think we should bring back the practice of discreetly providing marker pens at the tables so that people can doodle quietly instead of being loud and obsteperous. Thank goodness they quieted down for the Guest-of-Honour's speech.

It didn't drag on and on like previous ones did, but the last one we had went on for very long because of the Merit Awards. So it was rather a surprise to me to be told to rise for the Eusoff Anthem. And after that they were gone, hooray.

I took some pictures of myself when I got back to the room, because I still think I looked beautiful and I'll be hard-pressed to be this pretty again in the future. It's hard to wear white and walk with a regal manner when you have two kids in tow. Youth, thy name is Vanity.