It was This Man, my friend S, a couple of pitchers of Heineken, some new friends, a hot humid day and a lousy Singaporean cover band and that was how today went down.
But before we get to the cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama (and for the life of me, why does every sailor love that fucking song), let's start at the beginning and how some mysterious way, all of the pictures that I've taken on this cruise, specifically to post on this page ended up corrupted on the CD-RW that I was saving them to. Well, this morning when I ran into S, and we'd decided that we were going to head over to the other side of the island to Sembawang (pronounced sim-ba-wa) and do some shopping and have some drinks. I was still furious about the fact that my pictures had disappeared (I still think that JCA corrupted the disk, but I'm not going to confront him about it now).

So needless to say, no matter how the day turned out, I knew I was going to end up shit-faced if only just to take my mind off the fact that the pictures were gone.
Well, This Man and S ended up at the naval base in Sembawang, did a little shopping and from there it was cocktail hour. What initially started as one pitcher of Heineken (can you believe they didn't have any Budweiser) ended up turning into 7 pitchers and a couple of hours later.
While S and I sat drinking and discussing men and relationships, she ran into a guy that she'd networked with in the course of doing her job. He joined us and the next thing you know, 3 other guys (all from the carrier) approached our table.
It was pretty obvious that we weren't going anywhere for a while.
Throughout the evening, while we sat just talking about whatever and having a good time, there was this lousy local cover band playing on the catina. Thankfully, This Man was slowly becoming intoxicated otherwise I would have had to go and request that they call it an evening.
At any rate, This Man and S had a great time hanging out with the guys from the carrier and who knows if we'll ever see them again (maybe if they stop in San Diego, but I doubt it). Around 2100 we proceeded back to our fine warship to conclude the evening, seeing as tomorrow is expected to be a busy day.
Once back onboard, I ran into JCA (who'd went out and bought a new digital camera, ironically) and like I'd mentioned earlier, I didn't have it in me to confront him about the pictures.
But before I conclude this entry and submit myself into the Heineken-induced slumber that I'm so dearly looking forward to, This Man has to say especially to my dear friend, S...the discussion that you took part in on my honor was enough to send me off to the restroom on the brink of tears. I was so flattered and beyond words. I was well aware of the point that you were making and all I can say is there's no one who at this moment is more honored to have your friendship than I am.

Mahalo