so i have this 21 year old cousin who goes by the name of Alex Chua Ming Hao. We share a relationship that in my opinion would not have survived a week if not for the fact that we're blood-related; and that i allude to our differences which i shall be summarize within this post. (a complete list of differences will take more than a week to compile =\)

During our childhood days, our meetups consisted of weekly swimming classes on saturdays and after that, dinner gathering at the grandma's. That, and our annual christmas party at his mom's (my 2nd aunt) place.

I remember being the best swimmer in class, despite being only one of two girls in a group of bout 15 rowdy boys. Yep that was me back then, with that crazy competitive streak and all. i also recall how my aforementioned cousin, as well as my bro, would paddle in last and climb out of the water red-faced and gasping for breath.

So over at our grandma's, I'd woffle everything down super fast, and he'd be the last to finish dinner and the rest of us would cheer him on. When we played games together, I usually took the lead by choosing the games and forming the teams, while he sometimes didn't join as he preferred to engross himself in something else. Or he'd play some strategy game on the computer that I didn't enjoy. OR simply take a looonggg time in the bathroom and upon exit, realize that everyone was already done with dinner. He just took his own sweet time with everything, and was just.. so different.. almost like he was the king of his own planet o_O

I also remembered him having SO many toys that i'd turn green from envy. oh yea now that im typing this, i gotta admit that i was SUPER jealous of his crazy toy collection. grrr. Yea so anyway, we had SO many pre-existing differences and if that wasn't enough, the final straw came when he turned traitor on our exclusive Swan Club and formed his own independent one-man club. The traitor even coaxed my bro into being his vice-pres, and that earned him the eternal hatred of all the other cousins then. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

As we grew older and had several house relocations through the years, visits to my grandma's turned more infrequent and we'd go at different times of the week. From meeting up at weekly gatherings, we only saw one another during CNY and the aforementioned annual christmas party. The fact that I went off to Taylors' definitely didn't do much to help bonding. haha.

Hence passed 6 years.

Then one day my mom announced to me that he was taking two S papers, and nailed top position in SJI for three subjects, Physics, bio and chemistry - subjects that were completely alien to me as I was an arts student at nanyang girls'. So my first reaction was "WOAH thats amazing !! greatt!" .. followed by "ewwww.. why's he so into such weird stuff." The fact that I had plunged academically from being a psle-270 to a near retainee by secondary 3 didn't help at all. From my then sporty-rebel point of view, this dude had some serious issues o_O

Hence passed another 2 years.

i guess this should be the point where I should state a single life-changing incident that proved to be the turning point in our relationship. Well, boohah to YOU who's reading this, coz there was none. It just happened.

Today, im pleased to announce, that Mr Alex Chua has become one of my closest and most trusted confidantes. We go food-hunting, grandma-visiting, star-gazing, and lotsa other stuff together. He's game for almost anything. (but thats coz he's bored half and jobless too) When I was emo, dude walked over to my place with a tub of yoghurt at 2am, listened to me rant, and stayed over just to accompany me. On a separate occasion when i got even emo-er, i walked over to his place and we star-gazed with his $3000 (WTC) telescope, chatted till 5.30am, and k/o-ed side by side on his bed.

We are no less different from before. I dress up when heading out, and he'll forever be in his worn tshirt and jeans.. his excuse being that being rebelliously casual is the new in. yea wth right. hahaha. i eat almost everything, while he <3s atas food. He sleeps till 12pm while im usually up by 9am. When im out with girlfriends shopping or starbuck-ing, he's prolly at home gaming.

I think a very huge factor that has led to us casting aside (or rather closing one eye to) all those differences was God. like really. I remember telling him bout my experiences with finding God, and those were intimate details that i wouldn't just share with anyone. To put it in a really general way, God proved to be the first common platform that we had. thankew Lordy, we <3 you !

So anyway, a few months ago, he announced that he was gonna leave for melbourne in sept to take up a pilot course... ... ... .... *pindrop*

OMG a pilot ! He'd have on this really smart-looking cap and be surrounded by hot stewardesses, he'd arrive late for parties coz there were 'traffic jams in the air', and he'd be doing some major globe-trotting. The same slow, scrawny, brainy, einstein-esque cousin from a few zebronkey years ago!! GOODLORDY whats the world come toooo ??!!?!

But yea it has indeed happened, and its not hard to understand why. I see a different person today. The slow-mo character from before has given way to a confident, mature and calm personality. Credit goes to the training from years of fencing, as well as his lil bolster who has been offering silent and undying support all these years.

darn im jealous of that irreplaceable lil bolster. so anyway, to prove that he's a changed man, here's an excerpt from one of our daily msn conversations:

wanlyn: how'd old mcdonald get his farm? says: (11:26:26 PM)
haha dont emo lah

(F)Sometimes dreams do come true(F) says: (11:27:43 PM)
emo? what am i doing thats emo?

wanlyn: how'd old mcdonald get his farm? says: (11:28:42 PM)
haha ur nick

(F)Sometimes dreams do come true(F) says: (11:28:53 PM)
that's emo? i thought that's very optimistic haha..refers to my flying

wanlyn: how'd old mcdonald get his farm? says: (11:32:11 PM)
hahaha yea i know what that refers to

Sometimes dreams do come true(F) says: (11:33:35 PM)
hmmz why is it emo? it sounds really happy to me

(F)Sometimes dreams do come true(F) says: (11:34:46 PM)
its as close as i'll get to ammouncing to the whole world that i'm going flying and goodbye all you earthbound maggots

Yea not exactly confidence-inspiring, but i suppose u get the general idea.