September 24, 2008
Birthmates
Last weekend, 
I got dragged off to a kelong somewhere off the eastern shores of West Malaysia.
The kelong experience, summarised in a word, was grim. Communal living with about 100 other people in a large room - the entire kelong was one large room - with double bunk beds. Beds near the doors and windows got taken up in a flash, and if you were unlikely enough you could end up on a top bunk right below an overhead light that was not turned off during the night. The rickety wooden planks creaked whenever anyone walked on them, so throughout the night I kept getting woken up by people stomping to and fro, sending up vibrations to my bed. The toilets, while clean, were basically holes that went straight into the sea, and if you wanted to bath you had to scoop water out of jerry cans.
So the first hour on the kelong I spent in a state of suspended disbelief really. The next two hours I spent counting down to our departure (thankfully only a one-night stay). Then, someone broke out the beer, the fish started biting a bit and playing cards made an appearance and it wasn't that bad after all. I got a tan, I relaxed and did some reading, I played cards.
The unexpected surprise was that I met a birthmate. A birthmate, by my definition, is someone who is born on the exact same day as you. I had a birthmate in my class during most of my primary and secondary school years. Eric Chavez (3rd baseman for the Oakland Athletics) and Luke Donald (English golfer) are another 2 birthmates. And now, my fellow kelong-sufferer from Holland is my birthmate :)
We found out in the funniest way. 4 of us, playing dai dee; 2 guailos being schooled by 2 Singaporeans.
J: Oh, apparently I should not gamble according to my Chinese horoscope. My animal sign is not good... (lame excuse for poor play)
Me: Oh, what animal sign is that?
J: I'm a Snake.
Me: But I'm a Snake too!
J: Hmm then maybe it's my astrological sign. I'm Sagitarrius.
Me: Hey, no kidding, me too!
J: Haha. Must be 7th December then.
Me: YES!
Hehehe. That was the highlight of the weekend. And some interesting math: according to Wikipedia, in a group of 23 randomly chosen people there is more than a 50% chance that some pair will have the same birthday. For someone to have the same birthday as you though, the chance is less than 1 in 16 or about 6.1%.
Have you found a birthmate yet? :)