Enough is enough.

I’ve reached the end of the line with all the partying.

My lil brother who never gets out because my daddy’s super strict will kill me for saying this, but too much partying is truly bad for your health.

As I was walking home alone once again last night after a night of drinking, dancing and debauchery, I’ve realized how lonesome partying is. And I found it strangely ironic that in a roomful of people, so jampacked that one’s sweat mixes with yours, you feel so alone. Somehow you ask yourself, “Is this all there is?”

And you wished you were somewhere else.

At this time, you realize that you’ve reached the end of the line — of late nights, of boring acquaintances who don’t really give a f*ck about you, and of drinking yourself to a stupor till you’re too drunk to walk home.

Yes ladies and gentlemen. I’ve reached this point last night.

Don’t get me wrong: the weekend was super fun.

To sum it all up: There was a delicious and full shabu-shabu dinner with Rache and friends, followed by some joyous KTV at Hsimenting Partyworld last Friday. A training, a wedding, ANOTHER KTV, and a night of dancing till the wee hours of the morning at Room 18 yesterday.

How much more can you pack in a weekend, yeah?

So now, I follow through my new new year’s resolution — minimize the partying, and maximize the studying. From now on, aside from the business functions, I vow to party only once a week MAX.

Let’s see how I can hold on in the next coming of weeks.

So anyway, enough with the ranting, here are some pics of my weekend:

Last Friday, I met up with some Pinoy and not-so-Pinoy friend for a very worthy Shabu-Shabu dinner at Hsimenting:

It’s at this place called Fu He Shabu-Shabu (#65, Xining South Road, Wanhua Distrcit, Taipei; Tel: (02) 2388-8939). To get there, you have to get out of Exit 6 of the Shimen MRT Station, walk past Sony and turn left on the street with Holiday KTV on your left and right on that corner and walk straight — around 10 mins walk away).

For only NT$230 for the shala-niurou pan (sirloin beef plate), we indulged ourselves with some shabu-shabu and eat-all-you-can ice cream, passion fruit ice and red bean soup:

Check out my friend Ilon and to really imagine the heaps of food that we all had to eat:

I think his meal is even cheaper because he ordered the chicken. But seriously, this place gives you your bang for your buck as we were oh so full after the meal!

The ice-cream itself was noteworthy as it featured exotic flavors such as jackfruit, coconut and taro (ube), all of which are creamy delicious and very unique especially in Taiwan.

Lyn was so enamored with the ice cream that he had more than 2 generous helpings. Yum!

After which, we went to Hsimenting’s gigantic Partyworld (JienGui) and indulged even more for 3-hours singing. As there were only 6 of us and the KTV-loving Lyn had discounts, we only paid around NT$600 each for 3 hours of KTV fun!

So we sang the old, the new and the sexy till our voice was hoarse!

Of course, woke up late on Saturday but was kinda on time for the Toastmasters leadership training near HouShanPi from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

All the leaders of 3 districts were there, and boy, for a group that values themselves on time management, people did really talk a lot. They talked about the new tract (which in summary was merely a change in the term itself):

In general, I felt that each speaker could’ve talked for 10 minutes instead of 20. And since I had to study, I made a quick getaway during intermission and went home to study for my CFA. For some reason, theories on DCF and NPV seemed more interesting…

At 6:30 pm though, I rushed to the Splendor Hotel at DaPingLin to attend the wedding of my beautiful friend Ann:

My gosh, the feast could’ve fed all the poor people in India:

First, there was the appetizers which is a host of jellyfish, white chicken, duck and sausages. Yummy:

Then it was followed by the lobster salad and the Taiwanese style egg roe which is chewy to eat and goes straight to the fats on your belly!

Followed by the sweet potato chewables in syrup to clean off your palate:

Tasty chicken soup with small bits of shark’s fin that gives TingTaiFong a run for their money:

Barbecued abalone in sweet potato mix:

Seafood atop hard noodles and one of the best taro beef rolls I’ve eaten in a long, long time:

Chicken bits in tofu and vegetables:

Fresh crab on oily rice:

Shrimps cooked in wine and Chinese vegetables:

And the only disappointment of the evening, XiMiLu (White tapioca balls in coconut milk) which unfortunately was so soft it just went easily through your mouth:

Anyway, I am so happy for Ann. She’s been a good friend of mine ever since my previous job and frankly, she was one of the most sincere people I know. At her mid-30s (yes, she’s that old, though she still looks very young and beautiful), she’s one of the few people I know who’s held strongly to her values and I respect her for it.

Her now-husband Alex is a very lucky man.

Here’s the obligatory toast, and the change of clothes.

When I first knew her, she didn’t have a boyfriend and felt she was going to be single forever. But Alex snagged her when she least expected it, and I look forward to seeing them grow old together. 🙂

Congrats to Ann and Alex!

After the wedding, around 10-ish, I then went to K9 KTV at the Living Mall for my friend CW’s birthday. The place was huge and there were tons of peeps I didn’t know who attended:

The great thing about this party was that it was my friend’s birthday and the booze just kept on flowing. CW had everything he wanted on the party: Food (my gift to him), booze (HC’s gift to him) and tons and tons of gurls:

He was such a happy man last night although am sure, after all that booze, did not a very happy morning.

Unfortunately, unlike the other night, people in the party were in general people bad singers, especially the group of Taiwanese peeps sitting on the side who just kept on bastardizing the songs! Grrrrrrr…. I felt they should’ve just paid us the money just to hear them sing. Some of the most awful singers in Taipei were there!

The winner of the worst singers of Taipei:

Simon Caldwell of the American Idol would’ve creamed their singing abilities. Truly awful! And what’s worse, they kept on hogging the mike too! Oh, the nerve!

Fortunately, after some time, some of us decided to Room 18, which as usual, was jumpacked:

With the usual hot girls wearing the weirdest outfits dancing up on stage:

We danced till around 4 and I met my friends Ann, Jeff, Ed and a couple of others. It was okay, but like I said earlier, I felt strangely empty and after 2 whole nights of staying out late, just wanted to go home.

Overall, it was a fun weekend, but I was more than happy to spend time alone today, studying for the CFA. I felt that that was more productive than spending your evenings with a bunch of acquaintances you’d prolly never see again, in a smoky room.

Anyway, enough with the ranting. It was nonetheless a fun weekend and gotta go wallclimbing now. So how was your weekends then?

Be good and behave then! :0)