Zaki Gave Me a Ride Home

I was a little stressed up on Wednesday morning while doing the design work for George. I had some good ideas but it was not easy to get everything done on PhotoShop; perhaps, my skill was far too shallow.

During lunchtime, Jingkun, Weitat and I were going to the canteen and suddenly Meihoe dragged us away and insisted us to go out. She refused to tell us what was happening but we could sense she was trying to avoid some people in the canteen.

I had chicken rice and sugarcane juice; the food was quite nice but I did not like the drinks. It was a special day, which marked the first time Meihoe dined together with us.

I did not like the afternoon until the badminton session began. We had Alex, Alfni, Dorothy, Weiming, Bernard, Vivian, Mr Neo, Mr Baey and Zaki with us. Alfni’s skill was impressive. We had a long afternoon and the last survivors were Dorothy, Mr Neo, Zaki and I. I was quite lost when Weiming and Bernard decided to leave suddenly since I thought Weiming could at least accompany me for half of my journey home.

In the end, Zaki was nice enough to give me a ride and I was extremely lucky that he was passing by Keppel Road. It was a comfortable trip without having to walk to the MRT station or standing and squeezing with the crowd with my heavy bags. He gave me advices while driving, and I was glad to befriend such a friendly guy.

Anyway, my calf muscles were giving me problems since before the game and it worsened after that despite the fact that I had done minimal running. It could be due to standing for too long in the class or because I was quite pissed off in the afternoon.

He Left Right in Front of Me

On Tuesday, lunch was at Clementi. Jingkun took us to a duck rice stall and the amount of cucumbers at the bottom of the meat made the entire plate looked so big in proportion; nevertheless, everything tasted quite okay.

The greatest disappointment was seemed when George bid me goodbye once I got into the office. It was probably a good training for everyone to learn to appreciate him more upon his return, or perhaps, realise that the problems lay in themselves.

Alas, I learnt to ignore arrogant bitches in the afternoon.

Jingkun sent Desiree and I to Jurong East MRT station and I fainted on the bed soon despite telling myself not to take any nap in the evening.

Not Going to Care Too Much

On Monday morning, the sudden news of George on leave wrecked my entire plan. I wanted to spend my time concentrating on the design work for Faris and his website but I ended up spending the time on catching up with the assignments instead.

It was the first time I took over from George to stand in front of the kids even though I was given quite a number of times earlier on. The old disappointment seemed to return to cling on me once again with the lack of appreciation.

If you did not even try to listen, how would you understand? If you had a thousand excuses not to do something, nobody could help you.

I saw faces of people who were full of themselves; I saw ostriches who buried their heads to pretend nothing was happening; I saw arrogance which was the result of why some people were positioned at.

One of the things I hated most was to be insulted. If you had done any insulting thing and yet you did not realise it at all, that proved your brain was not really functioning properly.

If I had taken control of everything since the beginning, things would be different and I could become a devil who tries to push everyone to heaven.

Confucius was right that it was pointless to preach people who did not want to listen.

My blood was boiled in the afternoon. The weird guy told me, “Got work to do” like as if I was slacking and getting paid for nothing. He would only approach me whenever he need or want to get helps since I was being too kind to him since my first day of working there. Nevertheless, I could never ever forget how he had almost destroyed my friendship with my buddies more than half a year ago. The existence of such man was the massacre of kind souls, driving human race to the epidemic of selfishness.

I had totally lost trust in him and thus, I asked my boss directly over the task and somehow it was true. I did not want to put my boss into tight situation and thus I chose to hide the fact on how this asshole had been taking my kindness for granted, and thus I did not question if it was him who initially decided to put me on this task.

Office boy’s job

Somehow, for the one-man photocopying job, this creep was kind of using me while chatting with the administration staff. I had to agree that one person’s strength alone to finish up the stapling of 320 sets of papers was quite insufficient, but I was paid to do more important jobs and that working with him was a total turn-off.

Weiming was right that I had to “choose the face to work for” but I was totally proud of myself since I would choose everyone to work for, except for creeps who had betrayed my trust.

Weiming and I took a lift from Bernard to Dover MRT station and it was an enjoyable journey. I loved leaving work together with Weiming because he could at least accompany me until Commonwealth, so that I would not doze off while standing and putting embarrassments into myself.

Updated Some Pictures

Last weekend was spent like usual. I stayed at home for the two days to buck up on my own work like blogging. The main achievement was that I managed to upload some pictures to the older blog entries. I probably had to give up on many older entries.

I did some tidy up of my desk and it looked more presentable after that.

The usual television shows accompanied me. Other than that, I was kept occupied by online chatting and little naps.

Confident Boost

I woke up early like the previous Fridays. The only difference was that the two hours before lunch time was occupied by extra workload. I managed to chat with Hirman as we worked together and at the end of the session, Jingkun came over to help out with the mess.

We had lunch at West Coast temporary market and both Jennifer and Kevin joined us. The usual plate of duck rice filled my stomach and we had a little shopping session at Sheng Siong supermarket after that.

Jingkun sent Desiree and I to Jurong East MRT station and both of us managed to grab seats. Since she was going to Cityhall, my journey was never as sleepy as usual.

I went straight to get my old watch fixed with new battery. The auntie was quite embarrassed to make me wait for long for she had many customers. While standing and waiting there, I spotted a cockroach and she praised me for my sharp observation. As I chatted with her about the messiness of the shop and lost of business opportunity, she was very impressed with me.

Her praises almost made me hang in the air but it was certainly a morale boost. Suddenly, she remembered me and she returned me a dollar as a discount.

As I was walking home, Cecilia saw me and she signalled to me that the bitch was not around and thus I went over to talk to her and followed by Uncle Sam. The past had made me a grown up, and the experiences gave me confidence.

Gave Volleyball a Missed

Birthday boy

Birthday boy

The females

The males

Cake

Birthday boy

My created scandal

This Thursday, George was on course and thus I worked alone. The class had a celebration for Liangquan’s twenty-first birthday and it was pretty cute for the rest of them to organise it for him.

After work, we started playing badminton again. Mingfa came down to join us. Since the previous days’ workout had totally drained my energy off, my body could not carry out my brain’s instructions. I started playing with the HPO colleagues since the other two courts were occupied and those tiring games further exhausted me.

There was volleyball session in the evening but I had to give it a miss since it was a last-minute one and the cramps on my legs earlier had advised me to give up. I waited for Daniel to take his bath before strolling to the MRT station together.

Badminton in Muscle Ache

On Wednesday morning, the aching from Monday evening’s jog seemed to have worsened. I felt like my legs were giving ways at times and it was irritating.

I resumed my marking work and almost completed it before lunch, except with some doubts. Lunch was at canteen.

The highlight of the day was the badminton session for the sweating out and laughers. I applied the muscle rub so much and the massaging did help a lot in relieving the pains on my entire legs.

I started off playing with Mr Baey’s students and when Vivian paired up with me, the guys made me run so much to cover the entire court. Playing with Mr Neo was quite weird since his skill was good and I kept helping him to lose points.

After the game, Dorothy sent both Weiming and I to Clementi MRT station, and thus saving us time and strength.

Lunch at Tradehub 21

I was able to concentrate on my work in the peaceful morning on Tuesday. It was one of the more memorable days for we managed to get out for lunch together with more colleagues.

My first instinct when I stepped into the office was the schedule Hasnah tasked to me. I had totally forgotten about it and was not sure of the date and time. Luckily, it was not over yet.

We went to Tradehub 21 and gathered at one of the coffee shops. It was a pity that we did not sit together with the rest of our colleagues since spaces were limited. I was simply too overwhelmed with the relationship of colleagues in my ex company. Meihoe and Dorothy joined in to increase the volume.

It was a boring afternoon having to do things which I was quite sick of. We left earlier and Jingkun dropped both Weitat and I at the first bus-stop at the expressway. Bus 196 came very soon and I started dozing off inside.

First Jog to Marina Barrage

The urge to see the Marina Barrage, the reservoir in the city, forced me down for a jog on Monday evening. My laziness dragged for an hour and after which, I took off at six PM.

It was a fine day for jogging due to the cool weather but the grey sky was threatening. I walked briskly towards Shenton Way and did a couple of minutes of warm-up next to the Singapore Conference Hall, opposite the Party World.

Taking the first step was difficult after stopping the sport for so long and my timing was basically wrong. There was construction work near the Marina Bay MRT and by then I had begun to slow down. The remaining of the journey was tough especially after I turned left and away from the Marina South Pier, since I had not tried any further than the nearest bus-stop and therefore felt a bit lost. Luckily there were road signs and I roughly knew I was on the right track.

The soil and paddles of water after the rain made my trip more exciting, but I had never thought of giving up even though I seemed to be dragging my feet along. Around twenty-six minutes after I put strain on my legs, I finally saw the back of a building and I knew I had arrived. It took me almost ten minutes longer than to jog towards the pier.

Marina Barrage’s car park. It’s where the shuttle bus stops at.

View of the building from near Marina Bridge

The current between the Marina Bridge and Viewing Pad

Nearer to Marina Bridge

And closer.. Just below Marina Bridge.. The Dam

Marina Bridge

View of the calm reservoir from the Marina Bridge

One of the shelters at the Marina Bridge

View of the main building from Marina Bridge

From the Marina Bridge again, slightly towards right at the Singapore Flyer’s side

View of the Viewing Pad from Marina Bridge

Stairs at the Marina Bridge, which is not accessible

The only lift which leads to the Green Roof

Into the inner of the building from the Marina Bridge’s entrance

Water decoration

Fountain surrounded with glass

The calm fountain

Water display started

Up the slope at the water decoration’s side

Further up and able to see the Singapore Flyer

View of the fountain from mid of the slope

Reaching the top

View of the Water Playground from the top

View of the Singapore Flyer from the top

View of the Boat Hoist from the top

The lift from far

The calm water behind the Marina Bridge

View of Marina Bridge from top of the building

The middle of the Green Roof where the lift and stairs are located at

The shelter

Skai near the middle of the Green Roof

View of the Viewing Pad from the top

Seats

Solar Park

Solar Park

Green Roof

Stairs

Under the shelter

Rubbish bin with “Marina Barrage” label

Gallery Cafe at the second storey

View of the Fountain from the second storey

View of Marina Bridge from second storey, besides Gallery Cafe

Under the stairs just next to the lift at storey one

At the side of the fountain

Statue besides the fountain

Fountain

When it’s calm

And they splashed out!

Take off your shoes and walk in the middle of the water

Boat Hoist 1

Boat Hoist 2

Boat Hoist nearer to the Pump House

At the end of the Water Playground nearest to th
e Singapore Flyer side

The Pump House is at the left

Side of the fountain. It’s colourful at human’s vision

Side of the fountain

The inner of the building next to the Car Park’s entrance

Signboard just next to the car park

I took out my camera phone and started snapping around even though I knew the quality of the pictures would be very poor under the dim sunlight. My pace was fast for I knew there was no time to waste anymore before it turned darker.

The beautiful place was occupied by couples, families and photographers, putting me on the verge of being an outcast.

As it the darkness covered the entire sky, I hesitated to take the shuttle bus back and alas, I made my dangerous decision of staggering back in the darkness and not knowing if I could complete the journey.

My slow pace marked a record of around thirty minutes and that was how I missed the entire episode of the “ten brothers” show on channel 8.