AstroBanana Trilogy Part I

It all began with Omega, circa mid-2006.

A friend of Eric Banana's, Omega has *erm* just ended a long-standing exclusive arrangement with a preferred partner at that time. While she is a pretty and smart lass, she was quite disillusioned with the notion of love, quite understandably so. In his attempt to cheer her up and distract her a bit, Eric Banana told her that there are (probably) better guys out there and encouraged her to go out to meet new guys. For no particular reason, Eric Banana pointed her to a dating portal called gomoviedate.com.

(The operating concept behind gomoviedate.com is simple. Gals sign up for free, while guys have to pay to sign up. They are matched based on their profiles and their selection criteria. No photographs or contact information are posted. A guy can ask any girl on his match list out for a movie, or the girl can ask the guy out. The guy will always pay for the tickets, so it's probably win-win for the gal. He will pay online for the tickets, which will then be couriered to the guy and the gal. On the day of the movie, the guy and the gal will show up at the cinema, where they will get to meet each other.)

And so Omega *really* signed up and before long, a guy asked her out for a movie date. Not sure of what to do, she turned to Eric Banana for advice. Eric Banana was not particularly helpful actually - "I don't know - I am not a member of gomoviedate.com so I don't know how a typical movie date is like." Not unreasonably, Eric Banana was swiftly rebuked by Omega for introducing a dating portal that he has not personally experienced himself.

In an act of good faith, Eric Banana decided to sign up for a three-month membership at gomoviedate.com to get a feel of what it is all about. As it turned out, a gal did ask him out for a movie date. They tried to chat a bit after the movie but Eric Banana really could not sustain a proper conversation with her despite his best efforts. Okay, Eric Banana shall not comment any further on that particular harrowing experience except that he developed a really negative view of blind dates after that.

Everything deserves a second chance, so Eric Banana agreed to go for another movie date in September 2006. This time round, it did not materialise as the portal could not deliver the movie tickets on time after Eric Banana has made the payment. After that, Eric Banana got really busy with work and did not think about gomoviedate.com anymore...

On 8 January 2007, Eric Banana received an email from gomoviedate.com stating that a gal has invited him for a movie date. This was extremely weird because his membership should have expired more than three months ago. And since he had an unutilised movie credit which he could use, Eric Banana decided to go for it.

Movie Name : Pan's Labyrinth (NC16)
Date and Time : 1/14/2007 6:50P.M
Venue : GV Plaza

On 14 January 2007, Eric Banana arrived for the movie early. He generally likes to be on time, or if possible, early. The gal reached the cinema right on time. The gal is otherwise known on this blog as Astro Girl. And so this is the story of how Eric Banana and Astro Girl met!

Character Notes: "Omega" is obviously a fictional name, meant to protect the identity of the actual person. She describes herself as "the once-hopeful in love but is now a cynic who has managed to make Eric an uncynic in love".

Footnote: Eric Banana is eternally grateful to Omega and hopes to return the favour one day. Well, *ahem* Omega is still currently single...