Best Christmas Without Celebration

Posted on December 26, 2011 by S

Ten years ago, my festival celebration usually routed around with my volleyball team. We met up and celebrated via karaoke sessions or dinner. Sometimes, we even stayed overnight at public places like Merlion Park. It seemed that we could no longer return to the fun times when everyone started to have more commitments. I had strayed further away from them since the location of volleyball game shifted. I stayed furthest among them who were all in the west side. Moreover, they knew my interest quite well that I was not into most of the common entertainments – movie, pool, KTV and mahjong etc. The worst thing was that I was not even into appreciation of food. For the past few Christmas, I had been home alone, either spending my time working or being a little kind to myself by playing some games. My younger brother had many good friends while my elder brother stick closely with his girlfriend. My mum had some activities sometimes, otherwise, she would sleep at home. Christmas 2011’s night was a peaceful night for me like usual. I began rewarding myself by uploading some outdated photos into Facebook. I had a surprise when a net friend messaged me in Facebook regarding embedding copyright text on my photos. We began chatting and she suggested calling me through Skype. I was entirely melted by her sweet voice. The thing I enjoyed most was her appreciation for me. In fact, she sounded too nice to be true and I had perhaps met many weird people online to believe that I was lucky. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the one hour of Skype chat. “I wondered if that voice was real; no doubt it was the greatest present ever. The clock ticked as the countdown ended without me knowing for the best Christmas. There was no celebration, except for a wishing – a simple wishing that weighed more than anything and could melt anyone.”

Voluntary Work at Sarah Home Again

Posted on January 21, 2011 by S

[Saturday, 15 January, 2011]

I was working hard on SEO for the tuition agency site when Sae Yeoh messaged me in MSN regarding my 2011 Singapore Calendar Planner. I sent her the original copy so that she could make amendments. I was glad that she told me she was going to help out at Sarah Home as well because I was lazy to find out more from Huiting and that Baoyu did not reply my last SMS. I went to bed at 5.30am.

I woke up before 8am and knowing that the team would be late, I took my own sweet time and left my house at around 8.30am. I managed to reach Sarah Home very soon and got myself a small bao at the coffee shop nearby. While waiting downstairs, a cat fell from the second storey by the side and screamed as it ran off immediately. Eventually I decided to go upstairs to wait for them.

As Huiting and her gang arrived, we proceeded to work very quickly. I was stunned when I was told that we would be doing painting and not moving things like Baoyu had told me. I regretted not wearing shabbier clothes along. Baoyu arrived later and joined my team, and we started our usual debating. It was a tough but enjoyable moment. When the old paint started to peel off when it was wetted with the new paint, we saw a greater challenge to scrub them off. The owner of the house was very afraid that we might drag on till very late and told us not to do the extra work.

Lunch was at around 1pm. We went down to the Sarah Home centre for the chicken rice, which was quite dry and plain taste. I was quite amazed that there was another big group of volunteers and I believed they were merely doing spring cleaning for the elderly residents. However, when the leader started his religious preaching, I was disgusted. I would love to do voluntary work in an environment where everyone, regardless of religion, was giving off his best to the needy without any other agenda.

The auntie of the house bought bubble tea for us because she overheard Baoyu mentioning about rewarding herself with it after we finished the painting. As the hardship dragged on, I threw out more craps in order to entertain them. In the end, Huiting and Baoyu took their revenge by making me the cameraman for the group photos. Sae Yeoh thought I was upset over it.

We left the place at around 5pm in the rain. We took bus to Tiong Bahru Plaza and then transit to train. After showering, I dozed off almost immediately and woke up near 8pm. I had fried rice for dinner.

I started doing SEO for the tuition agency site when Sae Yeoh chased me for the photos.

It seemed that nobody, except Mike, could see the hard work I had been putting in everyday, working non-stop to make my life dull and stressful. It took a lot for me to spend a day doing voluntary work instead of working on my own stuffs when I was still financially tight, because afterwards I would have to work even harder. I was of no difference to a robot, except that I could appreciate updates from friends in Facebook that would take a few minutes off my time to keep me away from working.

Shopped at IKEA for Bathroom Items

Posted on October 19, 2010 by S

[Sunday, 17 October, 2010]

I was distracted by the Fifa Superstars game in Facebook. It was not the best game around but it definitely aroused my fighting spirit. I was never a competitive person and I believed it was doing me good except that it took away some time from me. I continued to work on my new tuition site and slept at 7am.

I woke up before noon. My younger brother’s German friend came over. He was standing at near two metres and we went to Ah Moy Street to eat the lor mee. We brought Lucky along this time. After that, we went to NTUC where my mum bought another box of big mineral bottles for the workers.

After going home, I took naps and also spent some time on the Facebook game, and also chatted with Anthea.

We waited for my younger brother to return home as we agreed to set off for IKEA at 6.30pm. He was late. After he reached home, I went to the third storey temporary toilet to shit before we went to the bus-stop at Cantonment Link.

We had our dinner at IKEA near 8pm. Since we knew time was running out, we ordered just main course enough to fill our stomachs and started shopping soon. We bought a mirror and corner tray set for the bathroom. My elder brother and I had hotdog bun while waiting for the collection of the items and then we set off to the bus-stop near 10pm.

After reaching home, my entire family went down to the third storey to take our bath together with Lucky. Though I really hated the hassle of preparing and carrying the items down, it somehow brought my family closer together.

Firman’s Convocation and Wanling Met Lucky

Posted on October 9, 2010 by S

[Wednesday, 6 October, 2010]

I spent some time after midnight asking Kachua and Joceyln to test my website. I went to bed at 5am eventually. Lucky refused to sleep and it was difficult to doze off as my mum would start screaming whenever he went near her.

I woke up before 7am and waited nearly half an hour for bus 75. It was ridiculous for the bus to take so long to arrive where the bus-stop was crowded with irritated faces. I regretted not leaving my house earlier or to take the train instead. It started pouring on the way to slow me down. Firman was worried throughout but I was very certain that everything was going to be fine since I had experienced convocation at SIM campus before.

I was right that I was still early even though the stated time was up. I took my time to go to the toilet to release myself but regretted not going in earlier since I could have taken a seat nearer to the stage for better shooting of pictures when Firman went up. Anyway, being at convocation ceremony was one of the things I hated most for the long speeches.

After it ended, we went down for phototaking. I was expecting more friends of him to be there but his classmates were not very “happening” and some had left early for group photos. I followed him around and missed taking food from the tables. I got hungry and had a little gastric pain. In the end, I took bus with him and his parents to Dover where we transited to train.

I went to Bianhong’s mum working place at the coffee shop. She was too busy to entertain the customer at the counter to see me. After standing there for very long, I left for home. Since I had asked Wanling to have lunch with me as I thought she would be coming down soon, I took only a small slice of mooncake.

It was almost 3pm when I went down to find Bianhong’s mum again. After passing her the thumbdrive to return to Bianhong, she treated me two packets of chicken rice. I went down to the MRT station to meet Wanling and we had our chicken rice at the hawker centre, followed by a bowl of ice-kachang.

Since Wanling could not find her kite, we called off the plan to go to the Marina Barrage and instead, we went straight to my house to play with Lucky. Lucky hit off well with her soon and he even scratched her as he got hyperactive. Together with my younger brother, we played for quite long and I got so tired since I had slept for less than three hours, and eventually dozed off inside the bedroom.

My mum, Wanling and I had dinner together after my brothers had their. My mum was asking questions and then she caused some embarrassment when she asked why we were together only now after knowing for so many years. It was a different case for my younger brother for my mum would never mistake his female friends as his girlfriend. Anyway, we quickly clarified with her.

After the dinner, we went down to get batteries before joining my brothers at the second storey for a while as they were playing with Lucky. I sent Wanling home soon. I tried contacting Gilbert since he was staying nearby and he thought we were together as well. We had good chats along the way and it was peaceful after alighting from the MRT station, walking towards her house. We stopped by the 7-11 store and grabbed two bottles of milk tea.

When I was crossing over to my house, someone called me and I was surprised that it was Tommy whom I met at MediaCorp years ago. I could not believe it that he could still remember me. I walked him to the MRT station as we chatted. I loved talking to him even though we did not chat often online.

One Star Kayak Course Day One

Posted on September 19, 2010 by S

[Saturday, 18 September, 2010]

My family went to the prata shop with Lucky. We wanted to packet some prata home but we managed to find an empty table at the outside, and thus we changed our minds. At first, everyone wanted to take a single prata because of the heatiness but we ended up taking two slices each. We went to the ATM machines after the supper. While we were going home, we played catching with Lucky.

I went to bed at 2.30am but could not doze off. The last time I checked my clock was 4am.

I woke up at around 10am and started packing up for the kayak course. My younger brother and I took bus 70 to the stop after Nicoll Highway and walked to Stadium MRT station. It was our virgin visit. I went to the toilet and was shocked that the lock was spoilt, which was too soon for a new MRT station.

After meeting up with most of the people for the kayak course, we walked towards our destination along the highway. The kayak course was beyond my expectation. I thought it would be a short theory before we would get to kayak around, but it was meant to be a more professional one. Since everyone, including the coach, Kelvin, were nice people, my brother and I enjoyed a lot. We started off with some theory before moving off. I met Caiping who was with a group of youngsters and I supposed it was her church event.

I was happy to get to kayak again after many years and it reminded me of the past when my volleyball gang and I went to Sentosa in a huge group. The kayak course included capsizing drill and simple swim test. We got to learn about technique to paddle well. Apart from them, I could never recall all the terms used. The toughest thing was to carry the kayaks. The course ended before 6pm. my brother and I did not shower. We walked to the bus-stop and took bus 196 home.

After reaching home, we hurried to open the toilet’s door as my mum had left Lucky inside after he vomited, peed and pooed continuously to cause dizziness to my mum. She even puked. My younger brother took his shower first and left the house to pick up his friend at the MRT station before he bought Burger King’s meal for my dinner. Together with his friend, we took Lucky down for a walk.

At 11pm, I was dead beat but the channel 8’s Andy Lau’s show about the warring states kept me alive.

One of the Best Days – Suntan, Dinner and Movie

Posted on September 4, 2010 by S

[Friday, 3 September, 2010]

I was taken aback to realise that my source code for the Quit Smoking Calculator being stolen by someone who was foolish enough to be discovered by me. I was probably too naïve to believe that the world was still quite decent and nobody would have done that; at least the person would have credited it to me. This was not the case this time and the girl did not even care to modify much of the coding. I dropped her an email to check if she was a human or wildlife before I would do anything. I could see details of her in her Facebook profile.

I spent too much time doing the website instead of looking for a job, and I really cherished my baby a lot.

This nasty incident forced me to include a simple copyright statement on top of the pages in a form of comment. Scripting in JavaScript for simple application was easier than doing it in PHP, which involved other pages, but due to security purpose, I would have to make new adjustments in future.

I went to bed after 5am but the backache caused me my sleep. It was really bad this time that I could only doze off after 6am despite I was really tired. I woke up before 8am, before my alarm clock on my phone sounded. Even though I lazed on the mattress, I did not dare to doze off for I knew I would oversleep. Wanling dropped me a SMS to delay our meeting time from 9.30am to 10.30am. After stepping out of my house before 10am, I asked her and she told me she would make it at 11am instead. I returned home after seeing her reply.

The top buttons of my Sony Ericsson G705 failed on me whenever I pulled the slide phone down and I had to push it back before I could press the button to send SMS. Since I had got the time, I did a restore factory setting action to be surprised that the phone went back to normal. However, it soon regained the stupidity. I was glad that the phone did not die on me totally before I met up with Wanling at Harbourfront MRT station.

We went to Breeks Café at Harbourfront Centre. Since I had taken my breakfast while waiting for her earlier on, I did not have room for food. Consuming a bowl of soup was filling enough. We started our usual chatting and I was quite astonished over her comment on me that I had too many things in mind to get working, which made her a good observer. We went over to the hawker centre to purchase our lunch from my favourite chicken rice stall before we boarded the Sentosa bus.

We went to Siloso beach on account that there would be more bikinis than the Palawan Beach’s side. We lay the picnic mats and started to enjoy the peaceful day, watching foreigners passing by and a couple showing off hot kisses. It was one of the best afternoons I had ever had, suntanning with a sweet girl who could easily tolerate all my craps and indecisiveness for more than eleven years.

Apart from the enjoyment, I had headaches regarding the dinner date I had with Guoxin and Mingli without my phone. I had to use Wanling’s phone to communicate with them and I was hoping too much to finalise it as soon as possible that it cracked my head. The problem was I wanted to include Wanling in since she had no curfew, and that Mingli had told me that she did not want to go out till late hour. Guoxin and I were considering over catching a movie after dinner over either at Vivocity or Jurong Point. If we were to catch it at Vivocity, it was more convenient to go home for Wanling but Mingli might find it a hassle to meet us; whereas, Jurong Point was too far for Wanling to go home. Guoxin suggested going to his house after the movie at Jurong Point to wait for his dad’s car so that he could send Wanling and I home, but it would be after midnight. After hesitating for some time, Wanling finally gave in and agreed to Guoxin’s suggestion.

After washing up in the late afternoon, we went to Harbourfront’s MacDonald’s because Wanling was too thirsty for the coke, which she claimed that the restaurant served the best. I tried hard to fix my phone but it insisted to depart.

We met up with Guoxin first and went to the movie ticket booth immediately to purchase the tickets. Mingli met up with us at New York New York. I had a plate of teriyaki chicken instead of fish and chips for I wanted to fill my stomach with something harder. After dinner, we shopped for a while until near 9pm when the movie started. I forgot to get a group photo before Mingli left.

We went into the cinema right in time when the movie – Grown-ups – started. The seat was low and I had a bad time with my back, trying not to block the person behind me by sitting low. The comedy was fantastic and I almost died laughing many times. I supposed the companion made it better.

After that, we took bus to Guoxin’s house and started playing with his dog, Golden. Then, we played daidee and I got my ear and forehead hit by Guoxin.

Most Romantic Night Ever

Posted on August 15, 2010 by S

[Saturday, 14 August, 2010]

My brothers and I had a game of Command and Conquer before my younger brother went to bed. We planned to go swimming in the morning and thus I wanted to try dozing off earlier. However, Eileen messaged me and told me of her failed application to SIM and we started talking on phone later. Her incredible cute stories of her past entertained me till after 6am.

I woke up at around 12pm, feeling surprise that my younger brother did not wake me up for the swim. However, I could see that the sky was not in good mood. Five of us had lunch at the market and the owner selling duck rice turned me off the second time with his sales. My younger brother wanted to add an additional egg and he muttered and then pointed at the picture of a set meal for me, which included beancurd and egg, and thus I said okay to him. In the end, he did not serve us with egg and he told me that he had earlier mentioned that the egg was sold out. It was sort of ridiculous. The worst thing was that his duck meat was over salty.

Not long after reaching home, Huiting messaged me and told me to help her with a banner design for a blog, which she needed it by the same day. I spent the next few hours doing up the banner. Towards late afternoon, Regina told me she did not want to attend her church but she refused to meet me earlier.

I set off after 7pm and took bus 167 at Cantonment Link. When I was near Bukit Merah, I saw a bus number 5 in front and I had a strong intuition that Regina inside and true enough that she SMSed me that she was reaching. We went shopping for food together. I was quite disappointed that I could not find sushi at the NTUC. The MacDonald’s was closed as well. We went to the KFC and that was when I realised that upsizing everything in a Zinger meal could cost a big bomb.

We went back to the interchange and took bus 131. When it started turning into Bukit Purmei, I was quite turned off since Henderson Waves was actually just a few bus-stops in the straight Henderson Road away from the interchange. After making a big round, we finally reached our destination and climbed up the stairs to the beautiful Henderson Waves. I was glad that Regina was amazed with the beautiful scenery as well. It was a cool night and I had never thought of being with a female friend hanging around there at night, especially when I did not own a car.

We walked to the far side of the bridge and found a space to sit down. We took our dinner while playing around with the cameras. Next, we walked towards the Terrace Garden and we stopped by the fitness corner to take photos together. It was the moment I had waited for years as she trimmed her hair super short the previous time I managed to take a picture with her.

As we were entering Terrace Garden, I saw three Bangala walking behind us and I supposed that was the problem with going out with a girl at night that I had to tighten up my muscle and get ready for any unforeseeable event. Regina was acting like a reporter with my Sony camera but the battery was drained up soon. It was to my horror that my younger brother did not charge the spare battery and we had to give up the fun.

We reached the top of Terrace Garden to join other people to glance at the fireworks of the Youth Olympics Games starting ceremony from far, but it did not last for long and I could hardly catch any. Regina was waiting for more fireworks with my Olympus camera but it was a useless wait. I was glad that she was ready to take more photos with me ever since her crush joked with her that she was ugly. She did not see the remote control I held in my hand until I decided it was not fun to keep the secret anymore.

She was on the phone for quite long before I led her down to Forest Walk. The place was beautiful, though it more remote than any other places and I was shocked that she chose to complete the journey with me instead of turning back. It was the first time I went there at night, and instead of being with a group of guy friends, I was in fact with a cute girl. I felt lucky being trusted. We reached the Alexandra Arch after the long walk and finally Hort Park. After using the toilet, we went down to the hall area and Regina took pictures with the SYOG Mascot. We went to the swinging seat near the entrance and finally started heading off.

I checked my phone and was amazed that it was already 11.30pm. Regina was worried about getting home since she stayed far in the east and I was a little disappointed for she should not worry with me around. We crossed over the road and took bus 166 to Outram Park and waited for the last bus number 2. On the way, I dropped Hirman a SMS and he told me I could look for him afterwards.

It was one of the greatest nights I had ever been through.

Blink Blink Blink

Posted on August 3, 2010 by S

[Monday, 2 August, 2010]

I slept at 3.30am after blogging and washing up.

I woke up at around 10am when the Tanjong Pagar GRC team came over to take photos for the housing upgrading work. I got prepared and left my house after 11am to collect my passport. I reached around fifteen minutes earlier and received my passport quite soon. I got home within an hour after departure. After taking a short nap, or rather, dozing off, I spent the time on Facebook to invite people to the National Day event.

I left my house after 4pm and reached Takashimaya at 5pm sharp. I stood by and watched construction work at the big empty square right opposite the big screen. Twenty-five minutes later, Jade messaged me to meet at 313 Somerset. At first, I thought it was a prank. I walked over in one of my lousiest mood and walked around the building first time and on my own. I was relieved when I received the next SMS that she and her classmate were at Superdog already. I looked at the directory and went down to basement 3.

We went to Paragon and finally decided to dine at Fish and Co where I had my usual fish. Then, we walked over to Wisma to shop for Liurong’s cosmetic stuff before she left. Jade and I went back to 313 Somerset to walk around and finally sat at Food Republic for tea before we left.

Dinner with the Babes

Posted on July 10, 2010 by S

[Friday, 9 July, 2010]

I spent the morning updating SmokeForWhat crazily. It took too much time and effort to type new article. I had a few more in mind and phobia was taking over me. I went to bed after sunrise, after replying Huiting’s SMS.

Since the initial dinner venue was at SP, I had no plan to take off early. After some hesitation, I made my way to the gym.

I had no time to waste like usual to take lots of breaks in between the workout. While others always used “resting is useless” to push themselves, my mind was full of “resting will make me late”. I almost killed myself by exhausting myself thoroughly. During the previous “day 2” training, I could do four sets of wide shoulder pull-up, but this time, my third and fourth sets could not even reach ten pulls to complete them. My injury on the left shoulder hurt more than ever.

I managed to finish the entire workout within an hour. While I was trying hard to stable my wobbling legs, I checked my phone and realised Eunice had changed the meeting venue to Bukit Timah. I rushed home to shower and get changed. When I missed the bus 75 right in front of me, I knew I was bound to be late. The next bus took ages to arrive while the road was full of other vehicles. There was no other way to get to my destination earlier other than this direct bus.

While I was still stuck in the jam of Holland Road, I thought Huiting was near Ngee Ann Polytechnic already and thus I would be the last to reach. I dropped off a bus-stop earlier and paced towards the Old Town White Coffee, reaching the junction earlier than the bus at the nearer stop. I was glad that I was not the last one to arrive.

It was a good dinner but since Eunice had declared to pay for the meal, I was quite stingy with the selection of my food. I was the only guy but it was not the main reason to be rejoiced, for the companion of nice people was more attractive. We moved to the food centre for dessert after that before Eunice called for a curfew at 10pm.

I had lots of fun crapping with Jade while waiting for her bus. After that, I went to KAP’s MacDonald’s to test their toilet before going home. The place reminded me of the past, after my A division volleyball games, the entire team went down together for dinner.

My plan to spend the peaceful night trip on bus 75 doing my work failed as I was troubled over Firman’s project, which had no budget.

Zaki’s Advanced Birthday Celebration

Posted on July 4, 2010 by S

[Friday, 2 July, 2010]

I was crazily working on SmokeForWhat again and slept at 7 plus in the morning. Magdalene woke me up at 9+am to inform me that we were going to have early dinner with Zaki at 5.30pm. I could not doze off after that and thus I went online. There was a spam mail from Weitat and I quickly informed him. After some time, I finally managed to doze off.

I was woke up in the afternoon by my neighbour’s shouting. She had difficulties in walking and her dog ran out of the house when she was going out for treatment. I went out but she was actually blocking the corridor that wasted quite some time for me to go over to find the dog. Luckily, the dog was shivering at the stairs nearby. It was raining heavily and the dog was afraid of thunder. It was my first time carrying a dog with great fear because she had just done her operation and her stomach was still in stitches.

I went to 313 Somerset to meet up with my ITE buddies. It was Zaki’s advanced birthday and we gathered at Marche. The entire shopping centre, including the restaurant, was a babe-sighting heaven. I was so distracted by sweet faces walking around. Hirman’s hyperactiveness made the night with lots of laughers.

After the dinner, Hirman left in Magdalene’s car to pick up his from Orchard Tower. The rest of us went up to try to adjust Zaki’s new watch but it was too bad that his wrist was far too small. I was quite stunned by one of the shop assistants who looked nice. Next, we went to Centre Point and Joei got herself an item for makeup. Then, we waited outside for the drivers who were caught by the traffic jam.

I took Magdalene’s car together with Zaki whose house was too near for him to drive over. The birthday boy started making tea for us and it smelled awesome but the taste was not as superb as expected. We started playing Monopoly Deal when the rest arrived and it was an interesting game. Jenne arrived soon and we stopped the game once Zaki pawned us.

We began the cake-cutting session and it was fun. I was shocked by Zaki when he proudly stated that he had nothing more to wish for. He had houses, car and money, girlfriend and a stable job; though he did not own all the best things in Singapore, he was being so appreciated and contented with his life. I supposed having a bunch of true and no hidden agenda friends was another great achievement of his life.

After that, we played the DVD – Ugly Truth. Hirman dozed off halfway as expected as he claimed that his contact lens were too dry. I missed a part of it because Chua called me after he saw my scene in the latest episode (170) of “Your hand in mine” on channel 8.

It was at 11 plus, everyone started to leave and I hesitated for a while before deciding to stay behind to accompany Hirman, who continued with his sleep.

Dear Dreams

Skai Chan

Tag Archives: happiness