Most Romantic Night Ever

[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.

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Jogged to Henderson Waves

I spent my Saturday very lazily again. Nobody was at home by noon and I could not set myself off to go down to get something to eat until around 2pm. I went to the nearest chicken rice shop, at level two, where Bianhong’s mum worked in. Fried chicken was already sold out and I had to get the white one. The three dollars lunchbox was filled with a lot of rice but the meat was almost half of normal chicken rice from other stalls. I supposed they would only attract one-time consumers.

Anyway, I started sweeping the kitchen after eating. Like usual, when my mum was overseas, I would wash the toilet. I could not stand dirtiness even though every area of my house was like garbage area most of the time. The backache during and after the clean-up was tearing me apart.

In the late evening, I stepped out of my house again for a jog. It was the first time I brought my ez-link card along with ten dollars cash for dinner. Adjusting the device from the Polar sports set was quite annoying. Like Weiming told me the day before, the strap looked indeed like bra strap and it looked awful when I was wearing a singlet, which I had to.

It was seven pm and I reached Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. It was the first time I was heading towards Henderson Waves, and also giving Marina Barrage a miss. The weather was cooling but threatening. The first traffic light was the one at the exit of AYE towards Keppel Road, where I had to pause for a while before dashing across so as to not obstruct the traffic with the green man light. Following was a straight path all the way until the interception from Bukit Purmei, where I had to pause again for the traffic. The longest pause was near the Seah Lm Food Centre at the entrance of the bus interchange.

By the time I reached the turn towards Henderson Road via Telok Blangah Drive Road, I was exhausted. The belt just below my chest was irritating me as it was going to slip down. Alas I made it to the stairs of the Henderson Waves.

Date – 05.12.2009
Time – 19.03
Duration – 25:11
Calories – 347 kcal
Average heart beats – 177
Maximum heart beats – 192
Fat burn – 1:10
Fitness – 24:01

My legs were weak and thus, it took me some time to climb the stairs up. The road was dark and quiet and I was glad to see people around. There were a couple of wedding photoshooting and most of the people were Malays. It started to drizzle and I walked to the other end of the bridge before moving back. I saw smokers and I could see how the place would be vandalized by the cigarette butts a couple of years later.

Thinking that I should take the opportunity to catch-up with friends, I sent Baharudeen a message but he was out of his house, probably celebrating his birthday. Then, I remembered Weirong was staying nearby as well and thus I contacted him. He drove his van over to the bus-stop and fetched me to Seah Lm Food Centre for dinner, where we had some great chats.

He sent me home after that.

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Romance Tips

It is romantic to eat by the roadside with your girl sometimes since it is very uncommon nowadays. Next, a little shopping and purchase of finger food and drinks help to spice up the day. To begin on a journey up to Mount Faber via Harbourfront is a challenge for couples. Next, you can reach the cable car station to view the grand scene, followed by the stature of Mr Merlion. A long walk down the road in the darkness is both exciting and sweet. Finally, grab a good place at the Henderson Waves, lie down and look at the stars. Life is so wonderful.

For these, you need a sweet girlfriend who is sporty and easygoing.

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Staff Bonding – Food Rally

Friday was quite a special day. After some hesitation, I finally decided to go into the office in shorts. When I saw Alvin wearing more causal than me, I knew I was safe. Afni made some cupcakes for everyone. Most people were in high spirit.

I went to Pui Kuan straight away for the amendment of the poster once again and around an hour later, just before everyone was moving off, she told me there was another amendment.

Things almost turned sour when Weitat dragged the time. He was helping Madam Seet with her work and at the point of time when we were moving out, he was not down at the car park yet. Jingkun was frustrated for the sudden delay because it was already planned since so early. I felt it was ridiculous as well but I remained silent since it was pointless to say anything or to change his decision like always. We decided to go ahead with the game without him but he turned up to ease our disappointments.

Joy sped off in her Suzuki, sending the four “hunks” she claimed to Hort Park. We were quite lost at first but we eventually got ourselves registered at the car park and took a picture to start off. Our initial plan was to stroll off fast but the teams in front were running and thus, we followed.

Jingkun was deadbeat somehow at the start at Forest Walk unexpectedly. My right knee started to ache soon as well. Weitat and I tried to take the gradual slope up to realise taking the stairs could be much faster. We reached the Hilltop and finally climbed up to the usual Henderson Waves.

Next, we tried to fool the rest of the teams into wrong direction but it somehow did not work. The journey towards the Cable Car station marked my greatest mistake as I led the team to take the stairs up. It was the normal route for trekking but the other teams took the road instead and made a faster and less effort trip.

The finish dash down the stairs towards the Harbourfront MRT station allowed me to lead all the way, except that we were all lost at the entrance since it was the last station and yet nobody was around to receive us. Jonathan and Joy were doing their shopping and had to rush over.

I was told of reporting near the food centre and quickly rushed over to get the puzzle from Sharon. It was a magic cubic and Jonathan quickly torn it apart to cheat. The next puzzle was a list of location for us to decode and we simply continued solving them by the crowded covered path besides the food centre. Some people were doing surveys near us and we borrowed a pen from a sweet girl but she was gone when we were about to take off. The pen was from City Harvest.

We went to Yuan Ching, Bukit Timah, Adam Road and finally Clementi to take pictures with the stalls. Our greatest defeat was at the traffic jams and we did make some minor mistakes in turning, but overall, Joy was reckless enough to help us speed up a lot. The final mistake was that we should have asked Joy to wait for us near the main road instead of the car park because it took us quite long to get out afterwards.

It was a very enjoyable day even though we could only emerge as the fifth team out of twelve of them. We had nasi lemak from Adam Road for our lunch at the school canteen. Later on, it was announced at the prize presentation that they had extended it to five teams instead of three, and we were glad to receive the twenty bucks NTUC voucher.

I took a lift from Bernard and then Weiming accompanied me until Commonwealth MRT station.

My elder brother and I were engrossed in the 倚天屠龙记 on channel 8 every weekday at eleven PM and thus, we watched it online after midnight and dozed off together.

Henderson Waves with Family

Sunday started off in the morning with my elder brother’s plan to have breakfast at Amoy Street. We were, however, so unlucky that the stall was having a two day break. Therefore, we had chicken rice instead. So, my elder brother and his girlfriend and my mum shared half a white chicken and half a roosted chicken at twenty bucks. The taste was normal but I did not like the soup. After eating, we had a little shopping at the NTUC.

The next part of the day was during the late afternoon after taking a nap. My younger brother and mum were ready to go to the Henderson Waves. We stopped by the bread shop near 7-11 store and got some buns. My mum had a waffle and complained that the amount of peanut butter applied was very little.

The Henderson Waves

We started off at Henderson Road and challenged the stairs. It was not that tough after all. After admiring the place which I had been to for more than four times already, we proceeded towards the Terrence garden and then down Forest Walk. We stopped at Hort Park and the entire trip took us more than an hour.

We took a bus to Vivocity and shopped at the Giant. We conquered the groceries section and managed to let my mum know that we had to carry whatever we bought all the way home. We were drooling over some nice and cheap sofa but had to face the fact that our house was too cramp and messy to put any.

Next, we stopped at the Starhub shop and applied to change our house’s phone line to Starhub since we would be enjoying the free service as long as we were subscribed to SCV Max-online. We were the last customer and the Pilipino staff Christopher impressed me with his politeness.

We bought big coleslaw from Harbourfront Centre’s KFC and went down to MacDonald’s for dinner. They did not have student meal and thus, our budget meal was destroyed.

Singapore Flyer, Popeye and Early Birthday Surprise

My Saturday was spent more sloppily than the previous week. The lack of sleep from the night cycling put me on the mattress every now and then since I did not get a straight comfort rest somehow.

I did try to make the best out of the day with my website. Meanwhile, I was pinning for the arrival of 7.30 PM for one of my favourite shows – 鹿鼎记. I actually dozed off and missed half an hour of it; the worst thing was that I did not manage to get my favourite fish and chips at the Amara hotel’s food court.

Mingfa called me in the midst of my show and I was quite delighted when they suggested going out for dinner. The final call from them cost the last few minutes of the show but I actually spent the time waiting at my void deck for them. Mingfa and Weitat came over to fetch me and together we went to the Singapore Flyer. We met up with Jingkun and Mingli who got there earlier and we bought the tickets.

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The scenery was okay but the night’s darkness made photography difficult. I supposed every visitor had to choose between visibility and photography.

Anyway, the four of them were too excited and thus most of the shots were on them. The sudden decision to spend the thirty bucks saw disaster to my hair. It was my first ever ride on a ferries wheel. It was great to have the whole cabin to ourselves.

After the short-lived enjoyment, we finally got to chew on the chicken in the Popeye fast food restaurant. I was so hungry that I started peeling out the flesh immediately and almost burnt my fingers. It was delicious.

After the late dinner, they were discussing over the next destination. Mingli took Jingkun’s car again. I felt weird that they wanted to go to the Henderson Waves but the tiredness and excitements eased my suspicious.

We went to the petrol station before going up the Telok Blangah hill. When we stopped at the carpark, I was asking them if we needed to wait for Jingkun and Mingli but I did not get any answer before we started making our way up to the bridge. We took some stroll around before Jingkun came over and told us that Mingli was having menstruate and was sitting down at the end of the bridge. Suddenly, Jingkun gave me a plastic knife and I finally realised what was going on.

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Mingli failed to light the last candle before our arrival. They started singing birthday song and I could feel their efforts. There was a little photo taking session before we ended the night and I had to bring the entire cake home since they were all full already.

Singapore flyer, Henderson Waves and Alexandra Arch

On the same night which I ended my Southern Ridges expedition with Gilbert, my volleyball gang called me up for dinner at the Singapore Flyer. Weitat, Mingli and Jingkun drove over to pick me up and meet up with the rest – Mingfa, Mingen, Tiffany, Wilson and Ruoci.

It was my first trip down to the Singapore Flyer ever since it was built. Then, I realised they were going there for Popeye, which I thought they only had branches at the airports. Despite I already had my dinner earlier on with Gilbert, the craving for the delicious chickens made me share a three-piece chicken meal set with Mingli. The sizes of the chickens were small and disappointing though.

The rest of us, excluding Mingen and Tiffany, went to Mustafa after our late dinner. We left soon after Mingfa got his knee guard. The highlight of the night finally began. As I was mentioning about my trip to the Southern Ridges, and how beautiful the Henderson Waves was in the day and certainly would be even more dashing at night, my gang decided to complete my night and desire.

Weitat drove to Telok Blangah Hill and we climbed up from the car park. It was not long before we arrived at the classy Henderson Waves. Because of the height, it seemed like we were hanging in the air. The lighting and the tranquillity made the entire bridge look like heaven. There were already people hanging around to enjoy the beautiful night and some army guys were jogging.

We proceeded next to the Alexandra Arch, which was a big disappointment as the lighting ended at midnight, and thus we could only see normal white lights. A group of youngsters were camping there. We ended the night and it was probably too quick to take any nice night shots.

NParks had done a great job.

Trekking at Southern Ridges

I completed the Southern Ridges trekking with Gilbert just now.

We met up at the Seah Lm food centre and started off at the Harbourfront MRT station.

We took the right direction after going uphill and finally walked the opposite direction towards Jewel Box restaurant (Slogan: Singapore’s Iconic Hilltop Destination).

Next, we crossed Faber Walk and finally reached the speculate Henderson Waves; we were so impressed by the great work at such a great height – near 80 kilometres above sea level.

We proceeded to Hilltop Walk and after more struggles under the hot sun, we reached Forest Walk, which was a grand place with the steel bridge leading visitors towards the Alexandra Arch; it was never possible to access to Alexandra Arch from the Hilltop Walk with the steep slopes until the completion of the Forest Walk.

We finally arrived at Hort Park which I had visited once a few ago near midnight and could not walk around. I did not expect it to be a very big place.

We took the Canopy Walk and lastly, arrived at the Science Park after some extra walks.

It took us around five hours to complete the journey, inclusive the photo taking throughout the expedition.

We took bus to Bouna Vista MRT and walked to Holland Village after that. After some consideration, we decided to dine at Coffee Club. It was my first time and a very disappointing one. Gilbert discouraged me to order fish and chips and thus, I tried the Alfredo, which was actually pasta together with ham and mushroom in mushroom cream. I was actually “allergic” to pasta and furthermore, the sauce made me sick right after a few bites. The soup of the day was tomato soup, which was not to my liking. After the dinner, which I did not finish, I had mochaccino and I had never expected it to be served hot, and thus, I was extremely disappointed. The dinner could be described as a complete disaster.