And then there were the numerous JC 'class' gatherings that attracted only the same faithful few, while the rest hemmed and hawed and gave lame excuses.

And then there are times when your friends genuinely want to attend, but luck simply isn't on your side.

I was reading E. H. Carr on the accidental event in history this morning, and after finishing about half of the chapter, I rushed downstairs to have a small lunch, because I was supposed to meet Minwei and Diana for our long-awaited gathering at Chocolate Factory in the afternoon. As I was gulping down my 2 slices of corn biscuits and a small mango, my handphone buzzed with an incoming message, and Carr flashed into my mind - what if a chance event were to disrupt the orderly, rational progress of my planned gathering and throw everything up into the air? But I brushed aside the unauspicious thought and went to wash my plates and utensils. Before I could finish washing up and check the sms I had received, Minwei called to tell me Diana had diarrhoea that morning and asked if I wanted to cancel the outing. So after having our theatre show cancelled because the actor accidentally broke his toe and postponing our gathering till the end of the holidays, and then changing the day from Fri to Thur and back to Fri and thus having no choice but to leave out PY because she wanted to go back to JB on Fri, a totally random bout of diarrhoea can appear out of the blue and derail all my plans?!

Well, it only goes to show you that the most perfect, meticulous plans human beings craft can crumble to ashes in the indifferent face of the explosion of the contingent.

So in the end, I cancelled the gathering. Because I had less than half a proper meal with no food in the house, and because my sister was moaning non-stop about the loss of the promised cake from Chocolate Factory, my dad went to buy some cake from the stall in the market. And so we had to make do with this: