I continued with the SEO for my tuition agency site, followed by blogging and went to bed at 6am.
I woke up after 7am and went off to meet Gilbert and Wanling at Chinese Garden MRT station. Since Gilbert was late, we left first and I was craving for the KFC twister breakfast, which could be located at the Jurong East Swimming Complex. However, the KFC started at 11am and we were too early for it. Wanling and I went to the hawker centre instead and suddenly Gilbert told me he had used his phone to go online and realised the pool did not open on Monday. I quickly called Wanling to return to the table to discuss before she got her food. George called me to keep me even busier as he was enquiring about the old MTRC cards that I was handling before I left ITE. Anyway, both Wanling and I took our breakfast there and Gilbert arrived soon.
We decided to go to Jurong West Swimming Complex instead. We took the train to Pioneer MRT station and walked over. I was all excited at first since it was the first time I had been there. Gilbert was amazed over the construction of it since the entire pool was built on above the ground rather than digging into it. However, the lazy pool’s depth was too shallow. Wanling had the least fun since she had some phobia with water and she had to grab my hands at times. Then, we went up to rent a float. Eventually, we went to the Jacuzzi. It was freezing. Grey clouds marched by but left soon before another platoon of them arrived. Gilbert and I tried the slide once before we left the pool.
We went to Jurong Point for lunch. We dined the Lai Lai restaurant, which Wanling had tried before. I did not like the curry sauce and that I could not finish my food for my bloated stomach and probably because I was too lack of sleep.
We went to walk around and I was stoning all along for I was totally exhausted. Wanling took the same route as me towards east for she was meeting her friend at Novena. I wanted to send her over but she was too nice that she asked me to go home straight, knowing that I was tired.
After reaching home at around 6pm, I dozed off almost immediately for hours.
I started work on the home tutor Singapore page to list the tutors using Ajax. It was a stressful morning. Seeing that Lucky was bored and nobody seemed to have taken him down for a walk, I took him down alone after 3am. He refused to dump his waste downstairs but luckily the poo ended up on target at home. Clearing the newspapers was much easier than clearing the poo on the floor directly. I blogged and went to sleep near 9am.
I woke up at noon and started packing up. I went to Mount Faber Safra to join Peh and Gilbert for our post-birthday celebration. My stomach was causing problems. Anyway, Gilbert made a Doraemon cake by himself. After celebrating by the pool, just outside the gym, we started swimming. Gilbert and I were too lazy that we only went for four laps before we started chatting at the Jacuzzi.
We went to Lock Road for dinner. It was Indonesian food and the sauce for the chicken was quite nice. However, we wasted a plate of mango salad.
After Peh sent me home in his new car, I continued working on my tuition agency site.
Other than working on my new website, I started blogging for my personal and other blogs to keep them updated. I slept at 5am. It was an unusual day for I slept on top of the double decker bed, swapping places with my younger brother. However, as I climbed up, Lucky woke up and made a din for he wanted to join me.
I woke up at 8am. When I was checking my email, I realised my Facebook account was live again. I was the first to arrive at Sengkang. Peh had just woke up while Gilbert was a few stations away. I even had the time to walk around and hesitate to have my KFC twister because I was worried that I might throw out inside the pool later. I went to the toilet before going to the control station to meet up with Gilbert. We went to Breadtalk and we set off to Farmway after I had my hotdog bun.
While we were purchasing the tickets to the swimming pools, Peh arrived just in time. I felt uneasy with the old swimming trunk for the rubber was loose already. We used the digital lockers before going down to the main pool. We stopped after each lap and completed only ten laps. Then we went to play the slides. It was very enjoyable and I was quite reluctant to leave but Peh was having something on.
We went to Compass Point for lunch. Dining at Yoshinoya was one of the worst terrors I had but I decided to go with the flow without telling them I did not like the restaurant. Peh had to leave right after the meal and I followed Gilbert to Ion to get his new Topshop member card. After walking around for a while, we went home.
I dozed off in the afternoon soon after reaching home. In the evening, my younger brother decided to bring my mum for massage as she was complaining about her shoulders after the long eyes check-up. We went to People’s Park Centre and my younger brother and I had foot massage while waiting for my mum. It was a good experience for the send time I had ever had foot massage. The massager held back whenever he saw that I was in extreme pain. The only flaw was that the two massagers kept talking and often paused.
We had dinner at the hawker centre nearby. Since I had five pieces of “shui guo” before leaving house, we shared two plates of noodle. The shops that we wanted to visit were all closed. During the journey home, my elder brother called and we met up at Duxton Plain Park with Lucky. My younger brother went home to get the waveboard and scooter, while the rest of us crossed over to the 7-11 store below Icon to get slurpee.
I began the day engrossed in my Chinese show, which I caught at Tudou. I went to sleep at 6am with Lucky. He shared my mattress for the first time. I woke up eventually after 2pm.
My younger brother gave a last minute notice for a swim and luckily my stomach was in a better condition that despite having my meal a couple of hours before the swim, I did not feel as bad as in the past. After the swim, flu caught me again.
My brothers and I went down to walk the dog again. We spent most of the time at storey two, right opposite my mum’s workplace, where my younger brother played with his waveboard. I was busy sneezing.
I accelerated on my work. After having a game of Command and Conquer with my elder brother, I continued with the website until 6am.
I woke up at 2pm and lazed around for a while in front of the laptop to check my emails and watch funny videos in Facebook. My younger brother called me and asked me out for a swim. I quickly emptied the noodle on the table into my stomach and started packing up with my elder brother.
The very lonely old man who always smoked at the bus-stop in front of Amara hotel was sitting there again. He threw sweet wrapper on the ground and I really felt that he was a pest. My younger brother boarded the same bus at Harbourfront Centre and we went to Mount Faber Safra together. This time, the ticket machine was working but the entry gantry refused to open. We unlocked the gate ourselves and passed the two tickets to the lifeguard by the pool.
I took a rest after ten laps like the previous time. After the twentieth lap, I went to the Jacuzzi with my elder brother and my younger brother joined us soon. We stayed there to chat for quite long time. At 6pm, we went for shower. I caught a cold like the previous week but it was not as bad.
We waited for our mum at Harbourfront bus interchange and took our dinner at Seah Lm food centre. We bought food from a Muslim chicken rice stall with long queue but it was a regret to try the food for it tasted quite awful.
After dinner, we went to Vivocity’s Daiso where my mum bought her candy. Then, we went to the pet shop. There was a golden retriever moving about freely just behind the gate at the most inner section where the dogs were kept. My elder brother tried to touch it and the male staff stopped him with a very rude tone and words. The lady besides the unfriendly male staff explained to us that the dog was not vaccinated and could be infected easily. Even though it was a good explanation, we could not understand why the male staff would behave like as if we were going to play with his dick.
My elder brother told us that this guy had showed attitude earlier on. It would probably be a different case if he was attending to foreigners and it clearly displayed the very bad customer service and hypocrisy of Singaporeans. If I were his boss, I would have him sacked because even if the customers were smart enough not to purchase dogs at the overpriced shop, at least they might get the dogs’ food or accessories over there in future.
After reaching home, my brothers and I started playing game together. We played two games but restarted once for each.
I tried to sleep as early as before 5am and I woke up before 9am. I did not go back to sleep for I remembered my younger brother told me that he could go for a swim before his school. My mum bought breakfast for us from the coffee shop at the second level on its last day of business.
I went to the toilet twice before setting off. The noodle seemed to be a curse. Then, we took bus 145 to Mount Faber Safra and the ticket selling machine failed on us again. I hesitated for a while before visiting the toilet again. I joined my brother in the swim soon but my left shoulder caused me enough pain to slow down but I eventually got used to it. After taking down ten laps using my zip-zap swimming style to avoid the crowd, I stopped for my stomach to digest properly for a while before my chest was choked. It certainly described how bad the problem with my stomach had become. Anyway, I swam another ten laps before the problem relapsed and that summed up my day.
We went up to the second storey to look around after taking our bath, into the E-Mart and then bowling alley. Then, my brother set off to school while I went home alone with my wet nose. I regretted badly not bringing along tissue paper.
The running nose worsened soon and I started sneezing as well. I tried to rest but could not doze off. I posted question in Facebook to discuss about how to solve the problem to smoking in public housing and a smoker posted an idiotic comment to piss me off.
I planned to set off early to for photography before meeting up my ex-colleagues but my weak body refused me. In the end, the bus 75 played trick on me and the bad traffic jam worsened the situation. I alighted a bus-stop earlier and finally reached Rail Mall half an hour late. My gang, consisting of Hirman, Christine, Joei and Eunice had finished their dinner and left a potato for me. I was surprisingly bloated after taking it. Since I was sick, they ordered a bowl of pumpkin soup for me. It was never a boring outing with Hirman around.
As they were calculating the bill of nearly $140, they excluded me for I took very little stuffs and that I was jobless. I felt like taking free lodging. Hirman dropped me at Keppel Road before he sent Joei for her next appointment at East Coast. I felt the urge to get my civilian driving license and car so that I could do friends favours as well.
After reaching home, my younger brother made a cup of tea for me upon knowing that I was having a bad flu.
Gilbert and I finally went out again on Wednesday morning. The main destination was Wild Wild Wet at Downtown East but he planned to go to Changi Point Boardwalk before that since Wild Wild Wet’s operation hours started in the afternoon.
I met him up at Cityhall MRT where he hopped onto the train to go to Tampiness MRT together. After which, we took bus 29 to Changi. The walk was quite nice except that some parts of it was not completed yet, especially the Kellong Walk. I had some problems using my old Olympus D-750 camera after abandoning it for some time. The torching sun almost burned me.
After the walk, which we ended at the Changi Ferry Terminal, we went to the hawker centre to have nasi lemak. We gave the most popular stall a miss since the queue was long. After which, we took bus 29 to a bus-stop near Tampiness Junior College, crossed over to transit to bus 3. We alighted at the bus-stop opposite Downtown East and quickly went to the MacDonald’s to find Gilbert’s friend, Rachel.
Soon, we proceeded to Wild Wild Wet with the two free tickets Gilbert was holding while Rachel had a discount voucher. It was a fun afternoon but I realised I had a bad sunburn after that.
Reaching home, I started checking my email and it took me a couple of hours to reply to those regarding my farewell message. I finished a blog entry before going down to the prata shop to join Kachua for supper.
Saturday morning, I woke up late. It was not long before I started dozing off again and a dream terrorized me. My elder brother brought many drunk friends home to house them in the middle of the night and I was furious. I woke up with my chest feeling uncomfortable.
I went to see the Chinese physician at around 2.30pm. I was amazed when she told me the details of my tongue was more visible and thus she could see that my stomach’s issue was recovering. She warned me not to take too much of the plum product even though it could help my stomach a lot, because it was too salty.
I went to Zaki’s place at Parc Emily, reaching there at 3.40pm. Nobody else had reached. Zaki vacuumed his place before we went down to set up the barbecue stuffs. I went for a swim with Elvin later but he was not ready for a long swim. I finished seventeen laps inside the very well maintained pool, and had to stop in the next lap due to the heavy meal I took before that.
Joy’s son, Jerome, was my delight of the night. Magdalene managed to heat up his enthusiasm. Weitat could have kidnapped him if only he was confident enough to carry little kids.
I went for a last dip into the pool, completing another two laps with Zaki before ending the party. Carrying the leftover stuffs up to the studio apartment strained myself more. The remaining of them had a few rounds of Wii game. The night ended earlier than I had expected. I was exhausted. I stay behind a little longer than the rest with Zaki and Siti. After that, Zaki sent me home on his way to his friend’s house.
My brothers and my elder brother’s girlfriend wanted to go for supper and I accompanied them without my mum since she had already taken some food. I had my usual two plain roti prata and 100plus to hydrate myself.
It was one of the chalets that I slept early. My brothers and my elder brother’s girlfriend were the only four persons inside the double storey chalet. My younger brother went up to sleep first and followed by the couple. I stayed at the ground floor to surf net using my younger brother’s laptop, network powered by the iPhone. It was still noisy after 1am and there was a sudden birthday song. I dozed off after 2am.
In the morning, the four of us went to the shopping mall to shop for some food at the NTUC. Then, we went to the food court for brunch. My younger brother and I took a set meal of eggs, bread and tea, and we also bought a plate of carrot cake to share.
Since we were entitled four tickets to the Escape Theme Park and I made my virgin trip there. We tried both the Go Kart courses before going into the haunted house. We decided to go back later in the day for other games.
My younger brother and I dipped into the pool under the hot sun. The stamp for re-entering the Escape Theme Park was washed off by the water soon. Even though we tried to stay under the small shaded area, I felt the pain of sunburnt by the end of the day.
My mum arrived with my elder brother’s friends, with the fried mee hoon and curry. In the evening, my younger brother asked my mum and I out to the seaside for a walk and I regretted not bringing the camera along. We went back in around half an hour’s time and camped at storey two, where my younger brother and I had a game of Command and Conquer again.
The guests were impressed with the frame made by my brother to place the cupcakes. The cupcakes were quite disappointing in terms of the size, the holder and taste.
Since I did not know most of the guests, it was quite boring until I started playing with a baby together with my mum and younger brother.
On Sunday morning, I went to meet Gilbert and Peh for a swim at Ang Mo Kio. We were supposed to meet at 10am but I was late for half an hour. Nevertheless, I was still earlier than Peh, who arrived in his girlfriend’s van.
We started off chatting by the corner of the pool. It was crowded like usual and we went to the middle lap and slowly, shifted towards the other end. I stopped after the first lap to adjust my swimming trunk and proceeded on a non-stop swim for the next twenty-one laps. The two of them claimed that they took only ten laps.
Swimming was never as easy in the past for I was never able to keep my mind calm, dashing towards the end of the lane every lap; by the second lap, I would have drained myself like during competition. It was ever since I went swimming with my younger brother, I managed to give up every thought of trying to impress all the other swimmers around - his non-stop swim forced me to do it. By relaxing myself, saving strength for the next stroke after each pull, I was able to sustain my strength to swim at constant speed for uncountable laps.
Perhaps, I had been acting like a bull over certain jobs and tasks since young. I pushed myself without proper planning and I did not know my limit. Regardless of my own stuffs such as web building and playing sports, or helping of others, there were always times I took actions more than I used my brain.
Nonetheless, working beyond my limit was not totally disastrous, for at least it kept me fitter than many other people, except that I was plagued with injuries.
I was lucky to have a driver around for it saved me from quite a distance of walk. Peh sent Gilbert home to get changed before the three of us went to Ang Mo Kio Hub for our lunch. We went to “My Desert House” where we filled our stomachs while taking photos.
Peh could not join us for the walk in town for he had to meet his client, which was a letdown. He reminded me of the days when I worked as a property agent, which I considered “no life”. He was much luckier as a financial advisor now for at least he had his transportation somehow.
Gilbert rushed to Takashimaya to meet his friend before we started walking around, looking at expensive leather shoes that turned me off. We proceeded to Ion soon to shop for my jeans. I got him a pant as his belated birthday present at Uniqlo. He got me a polo tee at Topman and the cost was shared between him and Peh. Eventually, I still owed Peh two birthday presents, which was so pathetic of me.
I was completely destroyed soon for the lack of sleep, water and rest. Gilbert continued his journey to Cityhall to get his stuffs before going for Chingay rehearsal while I made my way home directly from Orchard MRT. I was thinking of going to Marina Barrage for a jog but I dropped onto the mattress soon after I cleared my email.
On the eve of the new year, it was all quiet. Everyone seemed to have their own plans and thus, there was no outing. The only significant thing was the dinner with Jasmine at Farrar Park. She told me she was alone but lying was certainly part of Singaporeans’ lives. It was probably the first time I heard vulgarities throughout the night. After she went home to dismount her ladylike clothes, she turned from a tomboyish girl to much more mature and refined lady. I was finally entertained after the dinner for a while before they went to find their friend. My stomach was not well and that since it was late, I left after waiting for some time.
On the first day of the new year, I delegated most of my time on the “quit smoking” website.
The second day saw me struggle with debugging; I was quite frustrated since the codes were written more than two years ago and somehow the way I programmed was too unique. In the late afternoon, I played Command and Conquer with my younger brother to avenge our defeat a day ago.
Then we went for a jog towards Labrador Park. It was a grave choice to choose to cross over the road at the T-Junction joining Bukit Purmei, where the traffic lights almost killed me; I was frustrated. It was my second visit to the park but I did not go towards the fishing area. The place looked ordinary to me except that the stretch of path along the water was an ideal background for portrait photography. As we walked further away, I was deeply attracted by the picture of natural beauty, such as the coral. The sunset built lighting too magnificent for the most romantic evening. I never knew Singapore could be so fantastic. We took bus 408 to Harbourfront bus interchange to wait for mum for dinner.
On the third day of the year, I woke up late after sleep for around eight hours, missing my favourite show “Plan A” for the third time. Before I could do much, my younger brother tempted me for a game before we set off for a swim at Mount Faber Safra. The pool was quite packed and we had to swim zip-zag directions. It was the first time I swam slowly and thus could eventually complete thirty-five laps. I realised I had been racing too much with Gilbert in the past.
After reaching home, I continued with the packing of the cupboard and finally, one slot was free, but I put some unused ring files inside temporary before I could clear my wardrobe. There were actually many things that could be thrown away, but I was too sentimental somehow. We went to my mum’s friend house to pass the old lady something at International Plaza. Once the door was opened, the air gasp towards us and it was a heavenly place in the humid Singapore island. The scenery was great as well for it was facing the office buildings, at the Lao Pa Sat direction. Then, we went for dinner at the small food court besides the MRT station. We proceeded to the “Once upon a milkshake” shop to purchase a heavenly ice-cream milkshake, which was times better than MacDonald’s.
My elder brother returned from Malaysia to sum up the weekend.
Sunday was family day again. My auntie came over in the morning and the whole family went to Jurong East Swimming Complex for a swim. We had fun. It was supposed to be a heavenly place for couples though.
The place was dark as expected with some China people. I only managed to see a couple of babes from far. The best thing was that all the visitors and lifesavers were all friendly.
We rented two floats and I was proud of my own judgement. We went for a few rounds of the lazy pool and eventually started trying on the slides. My face almost went pale when my younger brother pressed my mum to try the top slide and she actually gave it a go given her timid character. It was great to see her coming down without any problem.
It started raining after my mum went to wash up while we were waiting for the waves at the waves pool. It was an empty threat though. My brothers and I enjoyed the waves for almost fifteen minutes before we went to wash up. After that, it started pouring and we crossed over to the market for lunch.
My elder brother left us for his girlfriend. The nasi lemak I bought was a letdown. However, we had cheap fruit juices. After that, we went shopping at the provision shops nearby, almost finishing the last few dollar notes of my wallet.
My younger brother insisted to take bus again since he was using concession pass but he did not realise that we actually paid more overall for transiting instead of taking the train directly. The worst thing was to waste uncountable time in our exhausted bodies.
At night, we called for delivery, and luckily I had enough coins to foot the bill.
On Sunday, I woke up early despite sleeping late. My younger brother asked me to go for a swim together but I was too lazy to give a definite answer. It started pouring and I dozed off after catching my favourite show on channel 8. We finally set off together after 2pm for Mount Faber SAFRA.
It was super costly at $3.20 for my entry ticket. My right wrist and middle finger were giving me problems. There was lots of phlegm once my head went into the water and it was very uncomfortable. After swimming for six laps, it started pouring and we got up and camped under the big umbrella to chit-chat. I was frozen to continue the swim after the lifeguard gave the signal for clearance. I stayed at the Jacuzzi and my fingers were numbed. I enjoyed the heated water inside the shower and they even provided us with the body lotion.
My brother had a buyer for his phone and thus we called off our plan to go to Vivocity’s Daiso, and instead, made our way home directly.
My whole family went to Chinatown in the evening. We shopped at the Swanston shop and it burnt my pocket a hole. Next, we continued to shop towards Chinatown Complex and dined over there. Each dish cost $8 and we had three of them, which I felt was quite a reasonable price.
It was the rarest long weekend ever for I spent three continuous days with my younger brother.
The biggest problem was that I was supposed to get kicking with my websites to start my career.
I had one of the greatest weekends ever. Good Friday prolonged the happiness.
Shopping at Anchor Point, Queensway Shopping Centre and IKEA was great, followed by a “midnight movie”.
I had my new spectacle made at People’s Park Complex and after more than a year, the degree was the same.
On the last day, I had late breakfast at Seng Kang Ya Kun Kaya Toast, late lunch at Tampiness Burger King and followed by a little swim at Seng Kang Swimming Complex with a MacDonald’s meal in the end.
I had a slimming session with Gilbert and Peh on last Saturday morning. Having to wake up early on weekends was certainly a torture.
We met up at Ang Mo Kio to the usual swimming complex. Initially we spent a long time chatting before we started working out. Being the usual bull-headed person, I tried too hard to kick and it agitated my old injury; my right knee cap seemed to be detaching. For more than half of the twenty laps we persisted on, I did not use much of my legs' strength.
Our lunch was at KFC and it was quite a long walk away from Ang Mo Kio Hub. Gilbert and I shared a buddy meal and we bought some extra finger food and my stomach was bloated badly.
We took a little walk in Ang Mo Kio Hub after that and the lack of sleep and the exhaustion of the swim threatened to concuss me. Gilbert insisted to visit Velocity and both Peh and I had to give it a miss.
I made my second trip down to Southern Ridges for the second time on last Saturday morning. It was a trip organised by Gilbert since more than a month ago. Initially I felt the stress of works piling up and thus, quite regretting promising him to go.
It started raining while I was waiting for them at the starting point. It was good to see Yong, June and Sherlyn once again. We started sitting at the top of the stairs until a SMRT staff came over to ask us to go further down to get out of the camera's sight, which was quite weird.
As the rain stopped, we began our journey and this time, Gilbert and I made sure that we would not make any unnecessary detour like the previous time. I was extremely tired after the previous night's volleyball and I my legs were weak upon the start. Since we were walking at a much faster pace, I was quite worried for the other three of them not able to fully enjoy the sceneries.
We met up with another Gilbert's friend, Charles, at the Henderson Waves, and together, we proceeded on the same track like the previous time. At the moment we reached Hort Park, Gilbert was not feeling well and we took a little rest. Gilbert insisted to proceed on with his plan and thus we pushed westward, over Canopy Walk before making a final rest. Then, we made sure we took the correct path down the end of the Science Park where we took the bus to Buona Vista. We took only three hours to conquer the Southern Ridges this time.
We transited to bus 100 back to Vivocity, where we had a concussion one by one, and as usual, I took the lead. Sherlyn was wide awake throughout though and Charles got alighted somewhere to go home. The rest of us had our lunch at Seah Lm Food Centre and I had the usual chicken rice. Yong ordered a drinks from the fruit stall called "Power" for me. It was secret recipe and I could only taste mango but it was not bad.
After lunch, we walked towards Vivocity and soon, took Yong's car back to his condominium at Geylang. We slacked at his place for quite some time before going down to the pool. The girls played PSP by the poolside. I was too weak to swim and the water started to freeze me. In a while, I was found enjoying at the Jacuzzi, which failed to satisfy me.
We moved over to the standalone Jacuzzi further away which seemed to be boiling. We had to lower down our body bit by bit to get used to the temperature. It was all comfort after we succeeded in submerging the entire body under neck. The next challenge was to enter the normal pool to taste the freezing water. My legs gave ways before reaching the destination and put my butts on the floor; the expanding and contracting of muscle in the process could have caused the weakness. Next, I enjoyed the feeling of dipping myself entirely into iced water. I made my last dip into the warm Jacuzzi before they called it off the day.
Back to the house, we called Rite Pizza to make orders for dinner. It was a splendid meal. Then, we continued to play PSP until around ten PM and Charles started sending Sherlyn, Gilbert and I home. I had some good chat with him on the way.
I finally got to swim again with Gilbert once again.
I seemed to have gotten back to the old bad habit of sleeping early that I almost got to see daylight before I kissed the bed. Thus, I could not get up in time and Gilbert’s morning call was half an hour late.
I was near to lose memory and eventually forgot to bring my swimming goggle along. I actually had experience of forgetting to bring swimming trunk along. Anyway, I called Gilbert for help when I was at the MRT station.
We met up at Ang Mo Kio Central. There was Mediacorp’s filming going on. It took us some time to figure out Zheng Ge Ping and Zhen Shi Mei were the stars. Just as I was hoping to see some familiar faces, I saw the cute PA who helped out in 手足 (Shou Zu) part one and two. I did not know her name since I got it confused with the AP. I did not go over since she probably could not remember me.
After Gilbert got a new goggle from Sportslink, we went back to the spot and practised the Singaporeans’ “kay poh” hobby again for a while before we left for the swimming pool. The sky turned grey slowly and until we finished the eighteenth lap with lots of pauses in between, we saw lightning and gave up the last two laps.
Lunch was at the Ang Mo Kio Hub’s food court. It was the first time I took chicken chop with spaghetti instead of my favourite French fries because Gilbert insisted it was healthier this way. After a short tour inside the AMK Hub, We got some cheap cute stuff at the Central and went to the Popular Book Shop. I was amazed over some home decoration books, which I would definitely get if I ever got financial stability.
The final destination was the MacDonald’s where I started dozing off.
I did an impressive improvement of sleeping at 3am and waking up at 8am. It took me some sweat to finally meet up with Irwin.
We had breakfast at MacDonald’s and proceeded to Telok Blangah Drive to chat. As it was pouring upon reaching the bus-stop, we sat there to chill up and the oncoming buses put in dizziness each time they braked. We crossed over the overhead bridge and camped under a shelter where it was cosy enough for both of us.
Irwin did his reflection on my current situation and also implanted some good logics into my brain. From then on, I started thinking about income, expense, asset and liability. I needed the drive from him, which might bring me out of my poverty and foolish life. Girls were considered as liability as well.
Jingkun finally called me in the mid afternoon. I supposed I was the last person to be informed again. By the time I reached Stephen’s condominium at Anchor Rage, most of them had already arrived and playing inside the pool. I only got to soak myself inside the water for a while and had to get changed.
We went to Queensway Shopping Centre before going to Ikea for dinner. The roasted chicken with mashed potato and vegetable seemed small but did actually quite fill my stomach with the small cup of drinks. One bitch refused to open her eyes and decided to sashay backwards and knocked into me. My drink was spilled and she didn’t even apologise, luckily for I was strong enough to resist the full impact of her elephant mass.
I dozed off for a while and they were playing card games and I agreed to join in without knowing they were playing with money. We went down to the petrol station’s 7-11 store to get drinks and titbits. Kachua and his girlfriend joined us before we proceeded back to the swimming pool where a couple were sitting by. The girl was so sweet and the guy was the luckiest guy on earth after we went up.
I got disappointed when everyone started to leave one by one and with the announcement of the beach outing being cancelled, thus wasting my effort to bring along extra clothes.
I played Playstation2 with them and got so engrossed with the volleyball game. We ended the day by watching VCD and all of them dozed off except Jingkun. I stayed up until 7am and woke up at 9am, hence, resuming my “sleep early and wake up early” plan for the second day.
In order to compensate for the earlier wastage of time due to my slowness, I worked hard and only went to sleep at 5.30am. It was difficult to drag myself up at 9am and I was almost late. I reached Ang Mo Kio MRT station by 11am to meet up with Gilbert.
We went to the swimming pool and swam eleven laps with long intervals. Jesslin finally arrived and she continued to swim twelve laps and each time, only stopped to exchange a few sentences with us; she showed no sign of panting. Upon seeing Jesslin’s effort, I was so motivated but the long rest and cold weather caused a cramp on my toe that I did not dare to exert strength. However, Gilbert and I managed to cover another nine laps before we rested and left the pool.
Just as I checked my phone, I saw the message from Mingfa telling me that the volleyball game at night was cancelled due to insufficient players and I was quite disappointed for I had brought along all my gears, causing the heaviness. I took two slices of bread while waiting for Jesslin, which I regretted but I did not want to waste the food that my mum had prepared for me for the previous day.
Gilberto enjoying his food at "Wow! Noodle" at AMK Hub
We went to Ang Mo Kio Hub and had our lunch at “Wow! Noodle”. I stupidly ordered the chicken chop with fried rice and I hated the gravy. However, the chicken chop slices, looked more like chicken cutlet, tasted like twisties, which was kind of special. Gilbert had noodle and burger and he was very satisfied. I could not finish my share of food and felt very guilty. I felt so bloated the entire day and I suspected something was wrong with my digestive system.
Ceiling of the G2000 Shop
Shopping
We went on to shop around but Gilbert was more interested to find a G2000 shop and thus we went to Orchard soon. We began walking around Wisma, Takashimaya and followed by Robinson. There were a number of clothes which I quite adored but I knew my wardrobe was still in a mess with quite a number of new clothes wrapped. I was unfortunate overwhelmed with the tiredness and sleepiness that wherever we went, I would ask for the shoes department – available seats. I even suggested going to the furniture shop – to try out their beds.
At Plaza Singapura
At Dhoby Ghaut MRT station
Our last stop was Plaza Singapura and I was quite impressed with myself that I could walk so far in my condition. A stop-by at the MacDonald’s almost ended our day but I was unable to take in food. Gilbert was kind enough to help me get a cup of tea but there was no steam coming out of the water and the packets of sugar and cream obviously could not be melted. Both of us were okay with it but Jesslin was so nice that she immediately took it and got it changed, but sadly, the replaced one was not really hot enough as well. I was craving for the double filet-o-fish, felt so disappointed that I could not eat any food until they told me there was no double filet-o-fish anymore. We did a short final shopping before going home.
I tried to register for the beach competition but I was stunned to realise they would only allow cheque or credit card payment. I was not sure if they would allow me to register using my mum’s name since she was a NTUC member.
Keyi and Weiwen messaged me to chat in MSN, which was very rare. Alas, I dozed off but managed to wake up before 10.30pm.
I remembered I had not had my dinner and started to cook instant noodle. When the water was almost boiled and the noodle was almost cooked, I realised I could have added in sausage and crab meat. However, I did not defrost them and threw them into the same bowl without even washing them. I had to let the noodle continue to be heated up with the new ingredients. Finally, I made a little mess while breaking the egg.
I dozed off before 1am for the lack of sleep and weariness; it was a new record after so many months. I waked up after 7am and started working for my shares price.
I was totally disappointed when I received the news that only Yongcai and Gilbert would be going for the swim. Gilbert suggested going to Clementi instead of Jurong East since Jurong East would be more crowded.
I was late after rushing through my work. Gilbert and I met Yongcai at the entrance of the swimming complex. We got changed soon and went to the Olympic pool. There were two ropes dividing the pool into three parts and there were children at both the sides. We were chatting away for we did not know which side we could swim at and there was no signboard saying which laps were booked. When we started to swim at the lanes nearest to the audience seats, we were chased off. Basically, the three lanes were occupied by the test, two lanes were occupied by some elderly and the last three lanes were occupied by children, which somehow indirectly told us to leave. The people in charge of the pool could at least label which lanes were officially booked. We only got to finish ten laps, swimming in zip zap directions.
The hero
Yongcai and Gilberto
Gilberto
It started to rain and we got up to take our bath. We camped at the audience seats to wait for approval of the rain to allow us to leave. I started taking photos. It was pouring so heavily but there were still two people swimming inside and nobody chased them up.
We went to the market and I took the $4 chicken chop. I had a cup of water melon mixed with papaya but somehow it was not as satisfying as what I expected. We went to Bugis after that. I did not really want to go because I was very tired since I had spent a long time at beach the day before, however, continued to follow them since I did not want to disappoint them. In fact, I had told Gilbert earlier that I wanted to go home straight after the swim. I was so tired that I had to squat down and almost dozed off many times.
We ended up at Bugis. When Gilbert was trying out his clothes at S&K shop, Tze Siang finally arrived. We went to Bugis Street later but soon lost contact with each other. There were some babes walking around but I was too sleepy to enjoy the scenery.
During evening, I called my mum many times but she did not pick up and thus I joined them for dinner at the Burger King. It was Mother’s Day but since my mum’s birthday was close, we did not really celebrate it except for a meal together, which was very meaningless to me. I started dozing off on my wrists and they continued to chat. After waking up at seven plus, I realised we had sat there for around two hours.
I took the train home and started working. Television was good companion.
