[Tuesday, 27 March, 2007]

I was really trying to sleep early but the never ending work kept me occupied till 4.30am again. I was not even eighty per cent efficient but at least I was really doing work.

I set my alarm clocks to sound at 8am to start working but I could not get up until Gilbert sent me a message at around 10am that he would be late. I quickly packed up and even went for toilet meeting before leaving my house. I saw babe on the train, which I should not elaborate more since Ou Xiang told me not to.

I was late for nearly half an hour while Gilbert was actually on time, which was at 1051h. The weird timing was entirely Gilbert’s fault. We were supposed to meet at 1030h, which I thought was very early and thus I told him 11am; besides, it was easier to remember as well. Since the actual plan was to go to the library and I suggested swimming as well and that we decided to swim first, we did not want to meet up too late. Gilbert then suggested 1052h on purpose, such that it was more difficult to be remembered and I played on with him to set it at 1051h.

It was the first time I went to Bukit Batok swimming complex, though I had seen it during the previous trip with Kaven to view the flats nearby. It was for my convenience as I had volleyball at Bukit Batok ITE during evening. Anyway, the pool looked new and nice. There were many children having lessons at the baby pool and the Olympic pool’s lanes were all taken up. We managed to squeeze some spaces at the extreme side of the pool.

There were two girls who came almost same time as us and it was not my fault for paying attention to them because one of the girls wore red swimming suit, which was far too striking. I was too busy chatting with Gilbert to look at them though. Actually I could not even see them clearly without spectacle. Ou Xiang told me I should not say these things out and indeed I should keep everything as secrets like all the other “super decent” guys had been doing.

Frankly speaking, which guy does not look at pretty babes and which girl does not look at cute guys? The differences between other guys and me are that I glance with respect and to kill boredom, but I never approach the babes; whereas other guys stare with fantasizing scenes in their imaginative brains and go for the girls without hesitation. Another difference is that I dare to admit.

It was not a very physically swim this time for Gilbert was busy chatting with me. Sometimes it was impossible for me to open my mouth when he was too engrossed into telling his stories. He kept complaining about tiredness whenever we finished a lane. Since I did not want to drain myself up, we swam only around ten lanes and got up at 1315h. After washing up, Gilbert told me to try putting some jar, which I regretted later.

We went to the foodcourt for our lunch and my dearest sister did not reply my SMS nor pick up my call, and I knew she was still asleep. Kailin had taken her lunch as well and not going to join us anymore.

After lunch, we went to the community library and camped there for quite some time. I was looking at a digital photography magazine but started nodding my head. I was probably lacked of sleep, exhausted and maybe dehydrated that I felt so sleepy. Gilbert had a fruitful trip there for he finished reading a photography magazine, together with one which taught him how to exercise to slim down.

Since Mingfa had called me earlier to inform me about changing of venue back to Clementi ITE for volleyball, I took bus 106 to Clementi directly. A couple took the seats in front of me and started to behave a bit intimately, which was a flaw to the peaceful journey. When I reached there, I was quite turned off to see many cars in the carpark. I took a peep into the hall and realised the event was still on and that I knew I was going to be alone for the next few hours from 4.30pm to 7pm. I camped at the canteen and met a taxi driver who was extremely noisy. He started telling me stories about Milo and Ovaltine, and Pepsi and Coca Cola, which left question marks in my mind.

When peace regained, I continued with my writing of “Lonestar” at a corner where the only switched fan was located at. My back was aching since sitting down at the library and by then, I was so exhausted and dozed off on the table. A lady walked past me and since I was very sensitive to movement around me, I woke up immediately. After hearing her chat with some other ITE students of the older ages, I went to the carpark and realised Weitat had arrived with Mingfa, Jingkun and Junyang.

We went into the hall and were quite lazy about moving the tables and computers to the sides since we had to arrange them back at the end of the day. We started moving after some discussion and made the hall ready in no time.

We had a little training among ourselves before the matches started. Since Wilson was late and had not warmed up, I needed not play as libero for the first game. I did not treasure my chances to spike properly given the bad luck that Mingfa did not give me balls to my liking. However, we did thrash the opponents.

I played as libero in the second game and we managed to thrash them once again. Nevertheless, we had to give up the court because they had ladies with them and we had to give them the chance to play among themselves.

Our third game stirred up my aggressiveness when one of the tall opponents, a guy wearing spectacle and stripped shirt, continued to kick the ball back to us whenever we gained any point. The ex national player played like shit somehow and soon, followed the bastard’s style of passing us the ball. Another tattooed asshole joined in their unsportsmanship treating of opponents. There were times when they kicked or threw the ball over, which almost hit our heads and they did not seem to care at all. When they were playing against themselves, they showed different attitude. It was such a shame on them for they obviously played volleyball much longer than us but they did not even show themselves respect by simply rolling the ball over. no matter how much glory the ex national player had achieved in the past, it reflected so badly on him this day, so surprisingly, and he certainly had dumped my respect for him.

In the last game, Jingkun gave me a chance to play as spiker again since he knew I would be bored to play libero all the while. Weitat jolly well exchanged roles with me. I was so furious with the three monkeys’ ungentlemanly attitude that given a chance at number four, when the ball was near the net and I was too short to make a normal good spike, I slammed my knuckles down and the impact on the ex national player was marvellous. It was a skill I learnt when I sprained my finger so badly at CCHSM years ago that I realised I was better at using knuckles for spiking instead of palm. Afterwards, Mingfa gave me a short ball at the centre and the ex national player was blocking right in front of me but I purposely hit the ball sideway, which gave a touch out. We won the match by close margin due to careless mistakes but everyone’s spiking was very impressive especially Wilson’s.

After rearranging all the furniture and computers, we went to take our bath. Weitat drove Junyang home and Jingkun followed him. Jianhao had his girlfriend to accompany while I took Wilson’s RX8 together with Mingfa. Just as Mingfa was locking the main gate, Wilson and I saw Jianhao stopping in front of the green light with a Mercedes cab behind waiting to do the right turn. Surprisingly, the cab’s driver did not horn Jianhao. We joined in the queue but the next green light put Wilson into shame for Jianhao stopped in the middle of the road with the cab behind, leaving no space for the RX8 which almost banged into the tail of the cab. Half of the expensive sports car was exposed to the extreme right lane of the left direction moving vehicles, such that oncoming vehicles had to slow down to switch from the right lan
e to the middle lane. We were at the same time feeling very impressive with the patience of the cab driver and suddenly Jianhao took off and both the cab and RX8 jolly well followed. Mingfa made a call to Jianhao and he explained that it was red light and that was why he stopped the car just now. However, his taking off before the green light appeared confused us. In fact, the traffic light there was quite weirdly designed.

We went to Bukit Timah for dinner. This time, we went to the Hong Kong shop, which was named Café 13. Weitat soon arrived with Jingkun while we were taking our orders. I ordered fish and chips and the serving was pathetically small and worse than Ngee Ann Polytechnic canteen 3’s one; the taste was very unsatisfying, with the tasteless French fries. I had to shake so much to get the bottle of almost finished chilli sauce to land on part of the plate. The milk tea was not as good as Ah Mei Kaya Toast’s one.

Jingkun realised he had ordered a bowl of instant noodle. Wilson’s curry rice was a small serving. The rest of the dishes did not look appetizing. Both cups of barley drinks were full of coffee’s smell. It was definitely our first and last visit to the shop.

Luckily for Wilson was dropping by my house that Weitat did not need to take the trouble to send me all the way home. I enjoyed chatting with Wilson for the intelligence talks. He remembered the way to my house so well, which was also very impressive.

Though Wilson’s buying of the car is a wrong move for he has restricted his life so much with the monthly instalments, at least he has a baby for himself. Weitat, using his dad’s car, is always sending people home despite at late hours when he is already tired. Mingfa is already planning to buy a car by this year if he were to pass his driving test, whereas Jingkun is going to get a van after ORD. All of them are moving on so well with their lives and I am or would owe them favour now or in future. I wonder when would be the day I own a car and send them home after a tiring night. There is just too little that I can offer to them.