As it seems to be a common trend in the past couple of years, En and I met up to celebrate our birthdays together - at least, only because she made me decide what I wanted for my 22nd, and I figured, why not a date? Of course, actually implying any romantic interest would most likely have killed off the friendship, so the word “date” was never ever used in conversation.

We met at Marina Square to watch the Terminal, which is the latest Tom Hanks-Steven Spielberg collaboration. While much has been said about the movie by critics, I found the movie to be relatively bland. Sure, there were funny parts and Tom Hanks is undoubtedly the best A-list actor in recent memory, but the whole movie just came off unfulfilling. I gave it a 7 out of 10 on imdb.com, which puts it in the company of other romantic comedies like Coyote Ugly and For Richer or Poorer as well as The Gospel of John and Passion of the Christ. Essentially, it was a movie that failed to instill anything into me - probably because the plot was drawn and quartered a little too much (Come on, a story about a man stuck in a transit lounge takes 129 minutes? Geez!)

Anyway, after the movie ended, I walked En from Marina Square all the way to the Fullerton Hotel, where they have the Chocolate Buffet in the Courtyard every Friday and Saturday night. I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting, but it was an interesting discovery to see so many chocolate confections. As I tend to do at buffets, I couldn’t remember a single thing I ate, nor can I recommend any particular dish by name. All I do know is, there’s enough of a variety to suit everyone’s taste, be it sweet or savoury.

Spending almost 5 hours with En seemed like a rare occasion, because most of our previous meetups have been shorter affairs (pun not intended). But it was nice to have decent conversation - something I’ve been desperately lacking in ages (ICQ conversations with Gwen notwithstanding) - and it was much nicer to know that there will always be people I can have those conversations with.

All in all, a great way to end my 21st year.