Seletar Island Kayaking Expedition

Day 0 - 5th December 2003

We were supposed to stay at Changi Sea Sports Club that night, as no one would be late the next morning and delay the entire team. I had dinner n played a game of pool with Eddy at Parkway Parade before we made our way to Changi. We were like, SUPER-late (2 hours), and Richard kept calling us while we were on our way, saying that the gate of the club was going to close n stuff.

When we finally reached the club, it looked like most of the good sleeping spots were already taken, so we took the benches between the equipment store and the office. Eddy chatted wif his fren while I tried to get some sleep, only to find it difficult, if not impossible, as we were literally hosting a buffet supper for the mosquitoes, especially since I was sleeping under the bench. In the end, we switched to the benches in front of the equipment store instead. Managed to get an hour of sleep, then somehow woke up. I happened to looked around and realized that Jackson n Yankai were sleeping on the row of benches beside mine.

Day 1 - 6th December 2003

I unwillingly woke up the next morning, disturbed by the noise from the activities around me. People packing the stuff they wanted to bring along, digging into their items for their toiletries, etc. I used my infamous Listerine instead of taking the effort to brush my teeth. Being unwilling to part with my handphone, I packaged it up into an umbrella bag, hoping it would be waterproof enough.

Next, we sat in a big circle, had breakfast, n did a little bit of ice-breaking. Allyn requested keeping a bar of chocolates in the umbrella bag as well, n I was ok with it. I was thankful for it in fact, as the chocolate packaging poked the umbrella bag open, and I realized how fucking lousy the quality of the umbrella bag was. So no way would I put my handphone in there and go out to the sea. In the end, I kept it together with Eddy's stuff in his baja bag.

We went back to our packing after the ice-breaking session. Everyone brought all sorts of funny things along, especially Allyn, who suggested bringing her mahjong set. We were quite excited about the idea at first, but later decided that it was quite pointless. Jackson n Yankai brought their camelpaks as usual. I basically brought just the basic stuff, water n handphone. We had the rest of our items brought over to our destination via a land vehicle (clothes, toiletries, etc). Finally, we had a route and safety briefing at around 9 before collecting our kayaks and equipment.

As usual, we teased Teresa about her ass not being able to fit into the kayak. On this expedition, we used double-Slaloms instead of our usual single-Dancers. We had our usual buddy system - I was with Eddy, Allyn with Kayau, Jackson with Yankai, Teresa with Sharon. Bernard, though, wasn't with Jiahui this time as he was helping to lead the group. Not long after, we were all at the beach, preparing to launch off.

Packing our stuff	Having our route briefing
Our kayaks r ready	Before launching off
The gals

Though I usually don't really like the journey to Pasir Ris, I really enjoyed it on this particular trip, mainly due to the fact that I had an entire fleet of fellow kayakers with me on that day. We joked and laughed our way there, taking short water breaks in between. It didn't take us long to be able to catch sight of the Kelongs at Pasir Ris, which meant that we were halfway to Coney Island. Another short break to reward ourselves, before moving on to Coney Island.

Rafting up	Yiling looking swift
Yankai n Jackson	Kayau n Allyn

Since we were on double-kayaks, Eddy n I decided to try out different ways to maneuver the kayaks using different strokes for the front man and back man. I happened to take the front, so I did the powering while Eddy did the steering using the stern rudder. Eddy n I went rather fast, as we wanted to stay at the front so we could relax later. The distance from Pasir Ris to Coney Island was relatively longer than that from Changi to Pasir Ris, but due to the fact that we were slightly behind time, we had to go faster. We managed to reach Coney Island around noontime. No, not lunch yet though. We took the opportunity to disembark and went up to the shore for a rest. There was an unlucky lizard which happened to be spotted by Teresa, and there she was screaming her head off n scaring the lizard away.. In fact it was so frightened that it dove straight into the water. God knows if it was drowned to death.. Poor lizard.. This time, we rested longer as we had the chance to be on shore. My mouth was starting to itch, and fortunately some of them had brought sweets to share.

All at Coney Island

Coney Island is about the midpoint between Changi Beach to Seletar Island, which means we still had the other half of the journey to go before we could have our lunch. We went even faster after leaving Coney Island, so we could make it in time for lunch before late afternoon. Nearing Seletar Island, a few stomachs were already starting to growl. Chocolate bars n energy bars did their job. I could see that Vincent was already quite shagged out, trying very hard to drag himself and the kayak along. We went on.. n on.. n got closer to land. Seletar Island was within our view.

Mi & Eddy	Teresa & Sharon
Yiling, Bernard & Chris	Eddy & Mi Again

Lunch came shortly after we went up the shore of Seletar Island. Normal packed food consisting of rice, chicken wing (again), egg n some veges. As I don't really like chicken wings, I traded it for Eddy's veges. We found a spot deeper into the island to have our lunch after scaling a rather steep slope. There were a few dogs there, and that was how we disposed of the chicken bones. We had some fruits and syrup as well, and rested for quite some time before moving off. The beach of Seletar Island hosted all sorts of sea creatures - I actually got to see starfish there. And there was this weird crater-like creature which was buried in the sand. We gave it a little poke and suddenly, this huge stream of water was shooting at us, and the ting juz disappeared. Anyway, we had to start moving off to Sembawang Sea Sports Club after that, as we had to reach there before evening. Sembawang Sea Sports Club was only quite a short distance away, about 3km. So we did the last mileage of the day, and reached Sembawang in the late afternoon, at around 3.

Being all shagged out and eager to prepare our home for the night, we decided to leave the photo-taking till the next morning. We washed and brought our kayaks to a safe spot, and started to get down to work. The vehicle carrying our stuff and tentages had already arrived, so we went on to unload n unpack our items. All our clothes, slippers, toiletries and entertainment items for the night was with us. We went around to explore the area so we could find a suitable spot to stay for the night. Sembawang Sea Sports Club is much bigger than Changi Sea Sports Club in terms of size, and it does look much better. Only problem is, it's rather inaccessible by public transport such as bus or train. It's a huge pity that the club had to close down. We quickly reserved and prepared our individual territories. I was a little turned off when I was told that there are snakes in the area. There was a bigger problem though. The toilets and bathrooms in the club has already been locked up due to the vicnity being vacant for some time, and it was a LOOONNGG walk to the public bathrooms at Sembawang Park. I walked my way there along with Eddy n the NPCC guys (Jackson, Yankai n some others), while some took the vehicle. After an entire day of paddling and wearing the same shirt soaked with seawater n sand, the shower was so damn rewarding. After everyone was done, we made our way back. There was still some time before dusk, so Eddy, the NPCC guys, and I went to some ramp near the sea to sit down and relax. After we had dinner (guess what.. chicken wings again), Eddy decided to meet up with one of his frens who was having a scout expedition at Sembawang Park, so I juz tagged along with him. We walked our way out to Sembawang Park, but was fortunate as we happened to encounter the vehicle while it was sending some of them there for a toilet break. The sky was dark by the time we got back to the club. To avoid having to go all the way to the toilet in the park later on in the night, we designated 2 bushy areas for us to do our 'business' at, one for the ladies and one for the gents.

Unpacking the stuff	Done with the kayaks
Sorting out the stuff	Setting up the safari bed

Sometime in the late evening, one of the gals went missing without telling anyone, causing a commotion. Later, however, she returned. I remember something about either her going out for a walk or something, or that she felt she couldn't complete the journey for the next day so she wanted to give up. Whatever the case was, everything was finally settled and we started with our night activities. Old Chang Kee curry puffs were served before everyone gathered for some games, mostly for ice-breaking. Can't remember the exact details of the games, but we really had a fun time trying to save our own asses from forfeits, n trying to sabo each other. In the end, 4 of them had to do a forfeit. They were given a choice to do any kind of forfeit they wanted, as long as they could make us laugh. And on our part, we had to try not to laugh as they would have to keep doing forfeits until we laughed. In the end, we couldn't help laughing even before they started, as we already knew they were going to do something lame.. So much for trying to control our laughter...

The forfeitors!! Hohoho..	Eddy's & my backviews
Aunties' commotion

It was around 10 to 11 after our games session, and it was time to go to bed, while some of the trainers stayed up to discuss some stuff. Eddy and I did not bother to get the tents or safari beds, so we juz tore up 2 trash bags, laid them on the ground and slept on the trash bags. I brought a sleeping bag, which we then opened up to share as a blanket. Jackson n Yankai took the spot right beside ours. Mosquitoes were feasting on us, and it could have been worse if they NPCC guys had not lit mosquito coils to fend off some of the fucking mosquitoes. I was getting kind of excited about going back the next day. Eddy n I didn't get much sleep - we listened to the radio until abt 2am, I got up for a toilet break, then we finally decided to fall asleep.

Day 2 - 7th December 2003

I was yet again reluctant to wake up the next morning, having slept soundly like a pig over the night. Juz wished that I could have slept longer, but then again, there wasn't much point in doing so. The toilet was the first ting I was looking for after waking up, so Eddy n I began to scout for our toilet spot as there was quite a number of people at the designated toilet spot. We found some bushy area near the sea, n did our business there, hoping the gals wouldn't come near when we were halfway thru. I used my Listerine once again, and breakfast was soon waiting for us. Bread with jam/butter/Natalie and/or hard-boiled eggs. The Natalie sandwiches, especially those made by Teresa (wahaha), looked like shit, but who cares as long as they're delicious.. I had 2 eggs, cautious of the cholestrol in the yoke. Bernard, on the other hand, gobbled 4 eggs down. There was milo as well, but I decided to give it a miss as I was feeling extremely heaty.

Teresa's shit	Lots of food
Macdonald's without us?!?

Time to get down to work after a heavy breakfast. Had to dismantle the tents and pack all our stuff for the vehicle to send back as well as the stuff we had to carry on our journey. We got everything settled quickly, and so we started to prepare the kayaks and took our last photos before we left.

Grand staircase	Overlooking the main building
Overlooking the club from the gate	Eddy acting helpful
Overlooking the club from the seaside	Before moving off

Despite the fact that some of us were already quite tired out from the previous day's trip, the journey back was rather easy, as the current was in our favor. We stopped for less breaks than the day before, and it was quite a relaxing journey in general. Not before long, we hit the south-western part of Coney island, and we disembarked for lunch.

Zaid & his little powerboat	Gathering at Coney Island

Lunch for today was once again normal packed rice with mixed dishes. The food tasted great once again. Either it really was great, or we were just so hungry that it tasted good. Chicken wings yet again. I topped my meal off with an apple. Since we were way ahead of schedule, we actually took a VERY long break after lunch. Feeling a little bored, I attempted to do double-rolls together with Bernard. The paddle roll worked well, but the double-hand-roll was a total flop. I spent the remaining time wandering around, before we were finally ready to continue. Coney Island was just a really short journey away from Changi Beach, and in about an hour, we were back at Changi Sea Sports Club. Home sweet home!

Lots of shit happened for the past few days, and I don't think I have the mood to update my blog for quite some time. Been having some personal problems I don't wish to mention.. Don't think I can last for long anyway.. So whoever is catching up with my blog can now remove it from ur bookmark or favorites. Thanks for all your attention. Hopefully I can get through the next episode of my life alive.

More trouble... Computer trouble this time... Computer-overpopulation. My uncle asked me if I want some computers which a school intended to throw away, and I asked Eddy if he wanted some computers. He said yes, so I told my uncle I'd like some, but I ended up giving my uncle the impression that I wanted ALOT, and he got alot for me.. 18 to be exact.. Now Eddy, his parents and me are stuck in a situation whereby we are wondering how to transport and store them and what to do with them. It's all my fault.. Hopefully we'll settle it tomorrow. I'll place more details about the entire incident here then.

Slacked at home today until about 6.20, when I left my house for Parkway. I was supposed to meet Eddy at the Roxy Square bus-stop at 6.35, and I wondered why I was still on the left at 6.20. Hurried to the bus-stop, but the bus seemed to wait purposely till 6.35 before arriving at my bus-stop. Nabehz.. Never had to wait so long for 31 before, even if I just missed the bus. But anyway, Eddy was EVEN later than me. Well, at least I didn't have to hear him complaining about me being late or see him shaking his head when I arrived. It was 7 when we met.. 25 mins later than the waiting time, but who cares..

We decided to have dinner at MOS, and had our usual. After that, went U2 with the intention of looking for Gabriel, but he had gone out for dinner, so we went to Royal Sporting House instead. I bought a pair of water-shorts. Finally, my first piece of new year clothes. We spent quite some time in RSH, and by the time we went back to U2 after that, Gabriel had returned. I wanted to go in to say hi to him, but Eddy refused to enter the shop for some weird reasons. Eddy brought me to Mark Spencer and recommended me some chocolate biscuits, so I bought some. Think he would do well in MML, or is it that I'm accept suggestions to easily?? Anyway, we went to play a few rounds of pool at the Informatics Building until around 9.40. It was then I remembered that the steamboat is waiting for me at home, so we decided to go home. Eddy's bus left just as we reached the bus-stop, and the next bus would take a REALLY long time to come, so I decided to sit down and wait for the bus with him. We were talking about some stuff when suddenly, we were interrupted by a piercing-loud laughter from behind. We turned around and saw a bunch of 3 weird women talking non-stop. Just 3 women, but they LITERALLY sound like a group of 7 or 8 people! And each of them had a special characteristic of their own - one is skinny, one is fat and one is nerdy. Maybe they can make a comedy series entitled 'The 3 Dumb Ladies'. After some time, Eddy's bus finally appeared and I sent him off onto the bus, and made my way home. Quite a great day, after all.

Didn't update blog for the past 2 days due to exponentially-increasing fatigue.. Went back to school yesterday cuz Aearon and Jeremy went back to prepare their Open House project, so I was hoping there was some fun for me to join in. Met Weixiong at Tampines to pay some debts before going to TP. When I reached TP, seems like Jeremy and Aearon had already finished what they had to do, so they waited for me at ITAS canteen. I was quite psyched to have lunch there, as I have not gone back to school to eat for AGES. Miss all the food there, especially the fish and rice from the western muslim stall.

We went to Suntec City after the meal, and window-shopped around in TopShop, Oaker's, and some other shops with weird names I can't remember. That was when I remembered I still have gotten a single piece of cloth since New Year. Wanted to buy a pair of Oakers bermudas, but freaked out when I peeped at the price tag - $83. Think Pasak Malam is more of the right place for me. Anyway, Suntec was having some celebration for the upcoming Valentine's Day. There were LOTS of roses placed in the square in the shape of a heart. Damn.. Wish I have a date to celebrate Valentine's Day with, but guess that's just an impossible dream for now.

Jeremy left at 3.10 as opposed to his previous plan of leaving at 2. The next best thing I could think of is going to the arcade, since Aearon can play ParaPara and DDR too. Played 3 games of Para Para by myself, and a game of DDR with Aearon. I was TOTALLY shagged after that, and I literally had to keep myself awake. However, I'd rather feel that way than to go home. So we went to 7-Eleven at Suntec to get some drinks, and made our way to the Esplanade. I've not had a good chat with Aearon for more than 2 months, so we talked quite alot. Whined about life, and crap. Aearon left at around 5.30, so I was left alone to decide on my next activity for the day.

Ok, I had 3 choices then. To watch Final Destination with Laibao, to watch Cat and Mouse with my sis and bro, or to meet Raymond and walk around aimlessly. I went for the 3rd option as my wallet was shagged too from the week's activities. Besides, I had to pass Raymond his birthday present. So it was killing 2 snakes.. Err.. birds with 1 stone. My energy level was 0.1% by the time I reached Raymond's place, so we decided to do something light such as going to Parkway to disturb Gabriel while he's working =P.

On our way to Parkway, my mum called and guess what.. She was at Parkway too, and it's damn predictable which part of parkway she would be at - Giant.. Dat was a lame one.. Well, guess Giant is THE haven for all mothers..

Upon reaching Parkway, we went to U2 to look for Gabriel, but looked like he had gone out for dinner. Went to John Little to look for Jinyang, but looked like he was on leave. Went down to Cold Storage to get some drinks and dilly-dally, and went back to U2, but Gabriel wasn't back yet and we were literally starving, so we went to the hawker center for dinner first. Had the usual - Tenderfresh Chicken Cutlet Rice. Finally, we went back to U2 and found Gabriel. Gabriel was supposed to finish work at 10, so we decided to wait for him. Went to the beach to relax in the meantime, and went back at 10, but looks like he still had some things to do. We continued waiting, until.. guess wat.. 11.30!! Was watching him from the escalators, picking up rubbish, and vacuuming the floor. It was surprising to see a rich, pampered guy doing such stuff though.. It was a torture waiting for Gabriel, and even plus Raymond's continuous whining about fearing he would miss the last bus, it didn't seem enough. A careless mother had lost her son in the malls, and even the policeman had to be called in. She was shouting for her son non-stop even after most shops had closed. Coincidentally, or unfortunately, U2 was the LAST shop to close. Actually, we regretted waiting for Gabriel, cuz after he came out, all we did was get some food from 7-Eleven, finished them, and went home....

Supposed to meet Eddy at Tampines interchange at 6.10, but I got restless while waiting for him and tried to call him up. The reception was so damn poor as there was no tone nor anything when calling him, so I guessed he was in the library. Made my way there to look for him, but the moment I reached the 2nd storey of the damn library, he sent me an SMS, saying he's at the interchange. Kns.. I hurried back as quickly as I could, cuz I didn't want him to wait for too long.

When I reached the place where I was supposed to meet him at, I noticed he wasn't looking, so I decided to sneak up to him and poke him just below the ribs. But in case he decided not to be in a good mood that day, I did a soft one, just enough to make him turn around. Heng he didn't get angry =P

We took bus 67 to Eddy's house, and Wengyew boarded the bus halfway. Dunno if he was too engrossed in looking for a seat, or if he purposely pretended not to see us, until I decided to shout at him after Eddy's desperate attempts to call out to him. He was like "Oh.. Hi.." and seated some seats in front of us. Talked a little along the way and after he got down the bus, until we went past his house. Wengyew went home and it was time for me to train my pull-ups. However, I still don't seem very successful at even managing to pull myself up a little. Eddy helped me by pushing me up, but that was the ONLY time which I could go up. Couldn't even hang there for more than 15 seconds. I felt like a total loser xia..

After the training session at around 8.30, I went up to Eddy's house to help him retrieve his Oracle username and password. Helped him install Tomcat too, but didn't configure it cuz he said he wouldn't need it yet. My diet was ruined when he brought in a bottle of new year snack and tempted me with it. Plus, he treated me to carrot cake at He Ji Pao.. Anyway, left at around 9.45. Damn tired when I reached home, once again. Hiong week, huh?

From today onwards, I've decided not to mention my work in my blog, as it's not part of my life; it seems like I'm finally able to zombify myself towards work. =)

So basically what I did for today was meet Shaoqi at 7.30 at Tampines MRT station, and went for the movie 'Lucky Star' at Tampines Mall. Quite a nice show, with a humor just next to 'The Guru'. The cinema was freezing like hell, and I had became quite restless a number of times throughout the show. But still, it's a slightly better show than Shanghai Knights which i watched yesterday.

After the show, Shaoqi decided to bring me to the kopitiam near the library for dinner, but seems like most stalls were closed cuz it was already 9.30. Macdonald's was his second choice, but I suggested BK instead as I'm a die-hard BK fan, and I was in possession of BK vouchers then. Shaoqi treated me to a Chicken Sandwich value meal, and that a weird BK Bague value meal. That was 50 cents more than the movie tickets which I had treated him to, but oh well.. it's just 50 cents.. Boonhou came down to meet up with Shaoqi in BK after just finished doing his project in school. We went home after that. I'm so beaten again today that I decided not to do the poster for the Open House.

Didn't update my blog yesterday cuz I was so damn shagged after walking from City Hall to Raffles Place, then back to City Hall, and to Bugis, with Laibao. In fact I'm equally shagged today after watching ShangHai Knights till 11 and making my way home, but guess I'll take some time to write some shit here. Think I've further refined my twisted mindset recently, due to feedback from all my friends. Jan 2003 had been a very hellish month for me, due to bombards from friendship problems, family problems, my uncertainty in the future, fear of NS, etc. However, I've only begun to realize that most of my friends had been with me all along, trying to get a simple message across - Be Positive. Here are words from different people, but they mean the same thing:

Jeremy: "always look on the bright side of life, rem??"

Raymond: "Don't worry about it lah.."

Yiliang: "I'll cut the story short and tell you peeps how I live my life. I focus on the positive things in my life, even if I've had a fucked up day I come home and tell myself 'alright cool my WWE show is on tonight.' Or I'll just grab a drink, magazine and just chill out. And to keep my mind away from whatever problems I have, I'll just don't think about it and keep myself busy with stuffs." - Copied and pasted from his blog

Eddy: "kNs la be more optimistic and u'll be finee"

And lots more... So you see.. This is what everyone is trying to tell me, although they put it in different ways. Only since a few days ago, my mind has calmed due to the fear that if I continued raging on, Eddy would be through with me. Finally, with a calm mind, I could understand what everyone is trying to say and embrace that. And best of all, Yiliang had actually provided the steps to doing that, which made things really easier. I too, had also noticed recently that by being more positive, things would turn out better. Weird huh?..

Oh yeah, another thing which helped me alot in going through the recent trials is the song.. 'Tomorrow Never Knows' by Mr Children... Yes, it's the song which has inspired my new nick and everything. Maybe some of you who have heard it before (through me sending it to you) might think that it sucks, but take a look at the lyrics or it's translation and you'll understand. I'll explain what it means roughly:

"The song basically describes the feelings of a guy who has got a painful and regretful past whereby he does everything to get what he wants, ending up betraying his close friend for a woman. He lives his life with regrets, but could not make up for the things he had done in the past. Instead, all he could and should do is face the future with hope and confidence."

There were lots of times when I'm really vexed to the point of breakdown, but am just unable to cry out. However, crying out doesn't seem to be a problem when I'm looking at the lyrics and listening to the song at the same time. Tears would flow down from my eyes, but it often feels better after that. Merely listening to the song doesn't seem to have the same effect though.. =)

This blog entry is basically describing how I feel recently, rather that what I do. Though I do feel much better yesterday and today, there's still alot for me to do in order to feel happier and more contented in my everyday life. I'll try harder to change, and hope for a better tomorrow. Wish me luck =)..

Just came back from dinner at WTC. Chinese restaurant again. The dishes there seemed better than those I'd had during lunch, except for a dish which resembled decomposing meat after being mercilessly forked about by us. Yunjie sat beside me for dinner and as usual, we talk, talk and talked non-stop. Think our table was the messiest in the restaurant when we left, as one of my dad's friend was clumsy or drunk enough to spill a glass of beer over himself. Like as if that wasn't enough, another one almost knocked the saucer of chilli sauce over. I've had too much water and the price to pay was that I had to keep visiting the bathroom. I found out later that the bill was over $500, but it wasn't in my place to complain anyway. Anyway, it's still early now. Think I'll do something productive to waste my time away until 3am.

Just reached home, getting ready to go for dinner at WTC with my dad's fren's family again. Wanted to call Eddy to ask him if I could go his house tomorrow to pass him the CD but he didn't answer his handphone. Called his house phone and he's not in; his dad picked up the phone instead.. Wonder where he went, as I thought he told me he'd be going out with his parents for the whole of the 1st - 3rd day of New Year.

I was having some kind of weird dream about cars and stuff, when I got rudely awakened by my dad. Was so sleepy can't barely make out what he said. All I can remember was he saying something about '40', or 'quick', or 'late'. I groaned and got out of bed. Casually picked a black set of clothing from my wardrobe and went to shit and bathe. I came out from the bathroom just in time to see my dad hurrying my mum and brother. My mum commented on my hawaiian bermudas, saying stuff like it being too sloppy and shit. Went to the balcony, took a pair of white bermudas from the line and changed into it. Went into my room and booted my comp. My sis and bro came in for some unknown reason, and I noticed both of them are wearing black. Damn.. How could they leave me out. Once again, I went to the wardrobe and picked a black pair of sport shorts. Looks perfect. And it looks like my dad is losing his patience. Gotta go for lunch with my relatives now.

Just came back from house-visiting. Think I collected more angpaos than last year, but that can only be confirmed tomorrow. Apart from collecting angpaos, house-visiting seems more like a bother, as I have to stuff myself with snacks due to over-hospitable hosts, and then again with dinner at a hawker center where only 2 stalls were opened. But still, I appreciate the angpaos and the hospitality. Didn't wanna go home so early but think everyone's busy with their own stuff so can't get anyone to go out with me. Well, think I'll start working on my website for now.

Phew.. Thank god it was just my cable service being down for a bit, not that it got suspended. However, I've yet to rejoice cause I know my fear will come true sooner or later as long as my dad pretends not to see the bill on his desk.

My brain was officially conscious at 11.20 or so, but my body refused to move any further than hugging my pillow and picking up my handphone and wishing some people new year. Out of about 15 people, only 3 of them replied. Talk about the declining sincerity of people nowadays. Anyway, I just lied motionlessly on my bed like a corpse until 12.30. My family was going to my grandma's place, but I've decided to stay at home until late afternoon, since we are having lunch tomorrow anyway, so I wouldn't miss my angpaos. Home Alone. And hungry. I began to scavage the kitchen for food, only to find a pot of hardly-palatable glutinous rice balls lying on the stove. Looks like my mum has successfully created a close replica of the baby eater email scam which was circulating around the Internet some time back. Or it seemed more like a baby being placed into a grinding machine, as there were bits and pieces of bones in every cubic inch of the soup. But when people are starving, they'll even eat dung. So I guess I had no choice. A small bowl was much, much more than enough to deter my appetite for the rest of the day. Once again, I booted up my comp. Itching to play some games before going to my grandaunt's place later. As I was using the Internet half-way, I got rudely disconnected. That was when I found out that my cable connection got suspended cause my dad has not paid the bill for a few months. FUCK. Guess I'll have to put up with dial-up connection for a while now.

Pulled myself out of bed at 8.30 at usual, did usual morning stuff, and left for work. Sucks.. I was so sleepy that I didn't even notice it was drizzling until I got down to the void deck. Like it wasn't unlucky enough for me to almost slip and fall on my way to the bus stop, the drizzle decided to turn into a huge downpour just as I alighted from my bus in Tampines. Damn.. I cooly walked across the road and into my workplace building despite the downpour, with the intention of showing those helpless sissies waiting at the bus-stop how pathetic they are, wasting their time waiting for the downpour to subside.

When I reached the office, only 2 or 3 poor fellas were there, rooted to their seats. Zhangran (the busybody China-gal who was sent to this company for attachment along with me) seemed to be so engrossed in surfing her chinese website that she didn't even notice my arrival. Well, I didn't want her to notice anyway.. I set my bum on my seat as with routine, and powered on my sucky, obsolete computer, opening whatever instant-messaging shit I've got. The first person I noticed on ICQ was Eddy, and without any hesitation, I messaged him, trying to start a conversation and hoping for him to abolish the cold-shoulder he was giving me since I really pissed him off a few days ago. Bared my heart to him telling him I'm sincerely sorry and all that shit, but he didn't sound very convinced. Oh well, guess he STILL needs more time to cool down. I started to talk to Shaoqi, whining about my unlucky situation. We slowly strayed off the topic, and I found out Shaoqi was selling flowers at a Pasak Malam again. That kindda made my day, as I imagined Shaoqi being the typical florist with an apron draped around him. A collegue of mine (he's an Indian; everyone in the office except me and Zhangran are Indian) tried to mine some new chinese words out of my already-limited chinese vocab, but I don't think it was a fruitful attempt, as I was busy chatting on ICQ and spreading my new email address around. I passed the rest of my time by reading the list of nonsensical scandals I've compiled, until my collegue FINALLY had the time to review the work I've done yesterday. A minor error was spotted, and it took me no longer than 2 minutes to correct it. I was hoping for my work to be over for the day, but when I went back to him with the corrected stuff, all he said was "Go print out all the documents." I did as he said, cursing and swearing quietly. I was SUPPOSED to have printed the documents, but nothing came out of the printer. It was then I realized I had sent the crap to the wrong printer! I pretended nothing had happened, and sent the documents to the hopefully-correct printer this time. I didn't realize how much crap I've written previously until I found myself standing and falling asleep at the same time in front of the damn printer. Ok, my job for the day was done, but it was only 11.30! Still another grueling hour to go before I could leave. I just sat at my seat, punching away at my handphone and pretending to check my mail until the time was finally up. I changed into my shorts and sandals immediately and headed for the bus-stop.

Upon exiting the building, I was kindda put off by the fact that it was still raining chicken and ducks. Not that I hate being wet, but I knew my feet and sandals are going to stink after being over-moisturized. I took the same routine home, except I had to walk in twisting paths to avoid minimal contact between my feet and the rain. There was no proper lunch prepared for me when I reached home, so I had to make do with a curry puff and a packet of fried kuayteow. On to my room. I booted up my comp, and spent the rest of my afternoon surfing the web, dancing parapara/ddr, mopping the floor, and snacking (I was fully aware that I'd ruin my diet but hey.. I couldn't resist the temptation...). At around 6.30, I had a shower, surfed the web a little, and went for my reunion dinner at my dad's friend's house. Weird huh.. Since when did they become part of MY family.. But then again, I was kind of looking forward to it, so I could catch up on Yunjie.

We left the house damn late, and were further delayed by a traffic jam caused by a so-called accident (it was more of a vehicle breakdown, but the billboard displayed 'accident'). Just before we reached our destination, my dad somehow lost concentration on his driving and drove over some hard shit line along the lane divider. It punctured one of his tyres, but thankfully we were only a few meters away from my dad's friend's place (hereby referred to as DFP). We decided to leave the tyre alone and go for our dinner first instead.

Upon reaching DFP, we exchanged greetings, and were invited to the dining table. However, everyone seemed to have finished their dinner by then. Nevertheless, there were more than enough food for us, and it was quite a great steamboat meal after all. We were given some BBQ'ed chicken which was still partially raw, but we secretly dumped them into the steamboat when Uncle Yeoh, the host, wasn't looking. I finished my meal rather quickly as I was eager to have a chat with Yunjie. So, we chatted for quite some time, until finally my parents hurried me to leave. Well, at least I got his ICQ number. We went down the elevator and into the carpark to face the horror lying ahead of us - the punctured tyre. Like as if changing the tyre is an easy job, it was still raining mouse and cat then. That wasn't really my problem, but I had my own problem of Raymond complaining to me over the handphone about his computer not working and shit like that. After some time, I told him nicely that my handphone bill is heading for the clouds above, and ended the call. With the tyre fixed, we could finally move on, but it was really damn uncomfortable in the back of the car as I had to squeeze in with my mum and my younger brother, who was as big-sized as me. First, my dad sent another of his friend, Uncle Toh, home. It was past midnight then. I received a cute picture SMS from a number of an unknown origin (later found out it was from my aunt), and forwarded it to Eddy. The last thing I expected was Eddy wishing me a happy new year, but he did, to my surprise. Looks like I could finally stop my many days of sulking.

By the time I got home, I was damn shagged but I attended to my computer anyway. Chatted on IRC for quite some time before filing this blog.