Went out with my platoon mates to Pulau Ubin to cycle on monday. We went to Changi Village to eat breakfast and headed to the ferry terminal for a boat ride to Pulau Ubin. The turnout today was less than the sentosa outing as some people had matters to attend to. Anyhow, 11 people turned up. We took a $2 boat ride there and headed to the shops renting bicycles. Kok Sheng was the experienced guide in Ubin and he took the lead in choosing the shop to rent bicycles. Some of us took off on our bikes immediately and we cycled around 400m to find out that some people did not follow us. We went back to a large open space near the shops and found out that Kelvin did not know how to cycle. He had a phobia of cycling after a bad fall when he was still young. All of us were giving him tips on cycling but they were not very useful as learning cycling requires practical lessons but not theory lessons. Most of us were chatting along the road while some were teaching Kelvin and balancing his bike as he was not able to cycle safely yet. Junchen suggested that some of us go cycle for a while since too many people teaching would be useless. The 5 or 6 of us then proceeded to cycle for around 15-20 mins before coming back to join them. It was extremely tiring to cycle up some slopes but when we made a u-turn to go back, the feeling is really shiok as we were moving down the slopes at top speed without having to paddle and the wind was especially cooling in the super hot weather.
Joined the rest and Kelvin had made significant improvements in his cycling skills although he fell a few times. The whole lot of us were off in a short while and we cycled to a place near the coast with a barren hill of soil beside us. Left promptly after a gust of wind blew sand and dust all over us. We took Kok Sheng's lead and cycled along the route planned by him. Reached a shop selling cold canned drinks and we stopped to take a break. Our legs are rather tired already as most of us haven't exercised for sometime. After our water break, we rested at a shed to wait for Kelvin and some others to come. We sat down on the benches and informed the slower pack about the shop selling cold drink in front. We were about to move off from our resting place when i felt a sudden urge to disturb jiekai. I went behind him and pressed on his shoulder until he was nearing lying down on the bench he was sitting on. As a retaliatory action, he swung his jungle hat at me and swiped my glasses accidentally to the ground. I was shocked by his sudden movement and picked up my glasses. Too my dismay, a part of my frameless lens have chipped off. When i showed Jiekai, he thought that it was a drop of water on my lens but realised it was not. I took off on my bike immediately as i was really pissed and i didn't know what to do. I was overwhelmed with regret, anger and pain eminating from my wallet. I was racing to numb my emotions but stopped when i reached the main pack. Jiekai was apologising to me but i was ignoring him. My face was completely black and i did not want to talk to anyone. When he apologised to me again, i told him that it was useless apologising. Ks had lead us into a trail in the jungle and we were climbing our way up after leaving our bikes in a secluded area covered by trees. He brought us to an opening where we can see the view of a quarry filled with water and the islands around Pulau Ubin including Singapore. The view was great and we stayed for less than a minute before heading up another trail. It led us to the top of the hill and we were treated with a paranomic view of the whole area. My face was still really glum and Ks immediately asked why are my lips "tu tu". I showed him my specs and he exclaimed asking me what happened. Some others also asked me what's wrong as my facial expression is rather expressive. We took some photos using my camera with the amazing scenery in the background. I really felt like jumping down into quarry at that moment. I asked Hwor Chen if anyone were to fall down, will the person survive? He said no immediately and explained that the person will land on the steep rocky slope before ending up in the water. I discarded my idea of jumping down promptly. I remember that when i lost my wallet in secondary 3, i was so desperate in anguish and anger that i nearly wanted to jump off the building. I had more than $40 in my wallet at that time and it was considered quite a lot at my age. It was fortunately reported lost and all the cash were intact. I guess i was really lucky then. I guess no one knew about my mild suicidal tendencies.
Ok back to the topic, we took quite a lot of photos at the hilltop. After that, we walked all the way down to where our bikes were stationed and began cycling again. We cycled for some time before reaching a steep slope where most of us pushed our bikes up. Following that, we continued our journey until we reached a temple. We parked our bikes there as it was a dead end and Kelvin went to the temple to pray. Liyuan, Keng Han and i followed suit since we are just outside the temple. We left the place shortly and cycled back to where we came from. Kok Sheng and Jiekai warned us that we need to brake as we approached the steep slope. I didn't really take the advice seriously until i realised that my bike is a bit unstable as it was going really fast. I squeezed the brake handlebars and it was going smoothly until i tried to cycle. The speed was too fast for the oscillations of my legs and my feet lost control of the peddles. I jammed the brakes as i was worried that i'll lose control of my bike. My rear wheel swung upwards and my body was pushed to the front. I quickly released my hands from the handlebars and hopped over the front wheel. The bike crashed behind me and i was unscathed, thanks to my long legs. It was really quite a dangerous accident but i was lucky that i did not fall down. Daryl and Junchen who were behind me witnessed the accident and stopped to ask me whether i was ok. Junjie thought that he caused my accident as he was braking in front of me but he was quite far from me. Got back on and peddled away, trying to catch up with the front pack which consists of Kok Sheng, Jiekai, Paul, Daryl and Hwor Chen. I saw the same cold drinks stall and was suprised that the 5 of them did not stop for a water break in this hot and sunny weather. I parked my bike there and bought a bottle of 100 plus. The rest who were behind me followed suit and we had a rather long break drinking and chatting until Hwor Chen called me and asked of our whereabouts as they had been waiting for some time for us to catch up. We caught up with them after around 5 mins and headed to a place near the jetty to discuss whether we are staying for a longer period of time or go back to Changi Village and have lunch. We decided on the latter as most people were tired, sweaty and hungry at that point of time. Returned our bikes and walked to the jetty where we took a few groups photos. Took the ferry back to mainland and went Changi Village to eat lunch. Did not get anything from Jiekai as i was hoping maybe a free drink from him in return for my disfigured specs. Nothing of that sort even though i teased him earlier that he will be treating me for lunch. Anyway, i had gotten over it and all i can blame is my bad luck with Jiekai. He caused my slipper to "drown" when we kayaked at East Coast and now my specs. Anyway, there is no use complaining now, i can only think that maybe i owed him in his previous life. Headed for home after our lunch.
Tuesday, went out with my family members in the afternoon to the temple and decided to go to Wiraka Showroom and office, which sells pool and billard tables. My family, or rather my sis and i have been wanting to get a pool table the moment we shifted into our new house. We planned to get a 9 feet pool table as my living room is really large and a pool table would fit nicely in it. We had a rather hard time finding the place as it was at Eunos Ave 7 and we thought it was near Eunos mrt and we went around the area to look for it. When we couldn't find it, we realised that it was actually near Paya Lebar mrt instead. The traffic there was really horrible as there were a lot of vehicles on the road and there are road diversions due to the construction of Kallang/Paya Lebar Expressway. My condolences to those taking lessons at Comfort Driving Centre. We finally found the location after several U-turns and careful scanning. The staff introduced us to many different types of pool tables but my sis and i had already picked one, which is the Max Diner Pool that can be converted into a dining table as well. It was a pricey $2800 with all the accessories and delivery charges included. After we picked the type of pool table, we can choose the colour of the cloth and the material & colour of the table itself. My mum insisted on green cloth as she said that seeing green is good for the eyes but i persuaded her to choose for the blue-green cloth as it looked more modern. We all agreed on matt mahogany for the table material as scratches would not be too visible if there were to be any in the future. We had to wait for around a month as there was no stock of any Max Diner 9 ft pool table. I felt the pinch as GST was not included and an additional $140 is going to be charged. That adds up to nearly $3000 for a pool table which is quite a waste of money.
We left after giving a downpayment of $500. Headed to Bedok to have our dinner and my mum shopped for fruits and groceries after that. Went back to our old hdb flat to help my father pack some stuff as there was still quite a lot of things in there. It was hot and stuffy there without any fans or chairs to sit down. Went back home with quite a lot of our old stuff.
Wednesday, went swimming with Kok Sheng in the morning at Safra Mt Faber. The facilities are brand new and we also do not need to pay to use the swimming pool. There was also not much of a crowd in the pool and we have the freedom to swim around without avoiding or dodging poeple. Tried the jacuzzi by the side of the pool for a while too. Left at around 1.15 pm and the changing room was like that of wild wild wet. It was like we were in a country club, but as a matter of fact, we are. Too bad our membership ends when we ord. Went to the hawker centre opposite to have our lunch and i was eating halfway until i felt something hard in my mouth. I pulled out expecting a bone but it was actually a staple. If it was a nail or something bigger, i would have definitely complained. Headed to Ikea after our lunch as Ks needed to buy cd racks and a plastic bag dispenser.
Met up with Liyuan at Jurong East after that to register at some job agencies there. We went to a job agency that he knew of and were told to register online without the need of going there. I felt a bit stupid but we continued to find other job agencies in the building. Found another one in the building and we filled in the application form for temp jobs. They said that they will contact us if there are any temp jobs available. Went to a building beside it to look for more job agencies and found quite a lot from the companies directory at the ground floor. Went to each job agency to fill in the application form and before we knew it, it was 6 pm. Went to Ck departmental store and ntuc to buy some stuff. The pasa malam was next and i bought two t shirts while liyuan bought one. Headed home after that.
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