Mosquito

"I parked quite far away so you'll have to carry me to my car", she said.

By carry, she meant to give her a lift in my car, of course. Just as we reached her parked car, as she was getting ready to get out of mine, by some weird, crazy, unexplained force I was driven to burst into the high-pitched, nasal refrain that we were singing earlier:

"Nyaaa... nya-nya-nya... nya-nya-nya.... nya-nya-nya-nya-nyaaaaa..."

"Stop, it!" she cried, "What are you, a mosquito?"

That reminded me of the time we went for a 3-day camp at FRIM.

On the first morning, right after we arrived, we were placed into groups of 9 or 10 persons, and were asked to choose a name for our respective groups. We must name our group after an animal, said the camp facilitator. Some idiot (I think it was me) came up with Mosquito, and everyone else agreed. In fact, we were very proud that our group was named so differently from the usual Cats, Dogs, Tigers and Elephants.

For the first activity, the facilitator announced, everyone except the group leaders would be blindfolded and spread around in a large area a certain distance away. Each group's leader, at one end of the clearing, must then gather all the group's members together again. This would be achieved by the group leader making the sound of the animal the group was named after, really loudly - the facilitator emphasized - so the members could hear and could follow the sound back to their leaders.

My friends and I stared at each other, and then at the facilitator - but we're Mosquito! I can't remember what his reaction to our dismay was, but it was probably a sneer or a smirk. So, okay, mosquitos do make noises - they make that irritating high-pitched "eeeeeeee.............."

And with that irritating high-pitched "eeeeeeee.............." which struggled really hard past the high-decibel meowing, barking, roaring and trumpeting to the ears of the Mosquitos, we managed to gather ourselves back into a group. Now, the next time someone said to name the group after an animal, choose an animal! Mosquito is an insect - know the difference, please!

But what a lovely camp that was! :)