What a full Sunday...by my standards!

Went out at 9-ish am for a brunch at a famous pork-soup outlet with my parents' church friends, some of whom I've known for some time already, and a Canadian-Indonesian couple who have resettled here for their retirement.

After the meal, we headed out to the latter's new as-yet-unfinished house amidst the scenic Ipoh limestone peaks.

Had fun drying my rotund Chihuahua, Sugar, after her bath after I returned.

Then I carried out my usual tutoring commitments from 1:30 to 3:00 pm, and then from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.

Was invited to attend a Catholic church's get-together a few days back and I took up the offer & so I arrived with my uncle at 7:20 pm, to find that the hall where the dinner was held was already 70% occupied.

At first I resigned myself to awkward silence at our table number 32 for the couple of hours or so during the 10-course meal.

However, an unusual thing happened contrary to my initial expectations: we gradually warmed up to each other through intermittent smiling and almost everyone taking turns to serve the food and pour the tea.

When I left at around 10 pm, I was smiling and shaking the hands of those at my table, and it almost felt as if we were never ever strangers!

My usually aloofness and dismal ability to interact with strangers did not gain the upper hand this time!

And this episode left me encouraged that, even at the ripe 'old' age of 36, I can still go out to make friends out of total strangers, while casting aside my instinctive suspicion of people unknown.