Tuesday, October 30, 2001

Monday ...

Woke up when I heard the sound of my friend preparing to got to work. She was wearing her punjabi costume and was stuggling with the string of her pants. It's a drawstring pants and the strings dissappeared into the ... what do you call that part where the string goes through for a drawstring pants? ... anyway, I tried to get it out for her after she gave up and I did manage to get it out.

Tried to get back to sleep after that but couldn't so I just lay in bed and read.

My alarm rang at 9am. I was still to lazy to get up so I continued reading till about 9.30am. Then I got ready for a shower. Walked out to the hall and got distracted by some magazines. Finally got into the showers after about 45 minutes. Packed up everything that needed to be packed and then called Anne ... I was suppose to join her today. Anne said that I was to meet her at Lucky Plaza at 12pm and we'd be going for hi-tea later.

Got to BK's too late for a BK breakfast so I had a bacon and cheese burger meal. Next went to Lush to get Mask of Magnamity for my sister. As usual, it's out of stock. They asked if I wanted to be included in the waiting list. Yes, there's a waiting list for face mask! This face mask sells like hot cakes. Don't blame it, it feels incredible when you put it on and your face feels really clean after that. It's about 12pm time to meet Anne and Regina.

Called Anne from a public phone at Lucky Plaza. They're still at home! Will probably get there at about 1pm.

Okay, let's listen to some music in the mean time. Headed toward Tower Records. It's missing! I wonder where Tower's went. Couldn't find it at the place where I saw it the last time I came a few months ago. In it's place is Lifestorey - a furniture/interior decor store. Pretty nice pieces. Expensive though.

Hung around Borders looking through all the 2002 calendars and listening to Harry Connick, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. Couldn't find a recording for Babes In Arms. All my watches are dead so I don't have the time. Asked a passing guy for the time ... It's 1.30pm! I'm late!

Rushed to Lucky Plaza ... a difficult task in the long sarong wrap around I had on. No Anne or Regina to be seen. Called them again. They're one stop away from Orchard Road - location of Lucky Plaza.

They finally arrived half an hour later. We went shopping at OG Plaza. Not a place I'd go on my own ... I'm a snob. Got a pair of shorts there though. So that's okay. Saw a pair of sandals which was quite nice but expensive. Not worth the price.

Time to fill the stomach. I was still a little full from my late breakfast but I never say no to food and besides, my legs are kinda tired after all the walking. The hi-tea was okay. Not fantastic but I filled my stomach to the brim anyway ... do stomachs have brims? They wanted to do more shopping so we went. After that, it was time to go home for a little rest before heading for the bus station for the journey home. I thought there was still some time so I said goodbye to them and went to browse HMV for about an hour.

Got home to Thana's place. Someone's home. It's her co-worker. I've talked to him on the phone before earlier today when I was looking for Thana. He said Thana gave him a tongue lashing for not informing her that I called earlier. Haha ... can't imagine Thana getting angry at anyone. She's got this cute looking face like a little girl's. Anyway, I called Thana to check whether she'd be back before I had to leave but she has to work late so I'd probably see her maybe next month in Penang. That's where she lives and my aunt lives there and when my aunt in UK comes back in November, we might go up to Penang. Had my shower, flipped through a mag and left the house.

Anne and Regina will be picking me up at a taxi stand near Boon Lay MRT station. I got there early and had a drink. They came and we drove to the interstate bus station. The bus was already there and people were boarding it but it was still early. We're suppose to leave at 10pm. So we stopped by at McDonalds for a short while cause Regina's children wanted to eat. Anne and I said goodbye to everyone and boarded the bus. We were the last to board. More goodbyes and promises to visits later, we were off. Goodbye Singapore ... see you in a month! I'm watching Porgy and Bess next month.



Flashback ... the final installment!

Sunday ... last day of comps

Our game's against the Plantations team this morning with the finals this afternoon. Highly likely we'll be in for the finals. Just have to win 1 match today but 2 matches would provide better security. They rested me for this game. The 2nd ladies who moved up to play first ladies lost ... *boo hoo* ... plus she got a muscle pull. Have to give credit to May of Plantations though. She played really well today. Maybe she's taking revenge for having lost to the SSC lady. We won the second ladies and 2 other mens so WE'RE IN THE FINALS!!!

Another miserable lunch ...

The finals ...
We play SSC again. I felt more confident playing this time around. Don't remember the scores but I played better this time. Still some faults on services though. Hmmm ... have to work on those. The 1st men singles played before I did and we won that. So the score was 1-0 us before I started. Then 2-0 us after I finished. The third game was a close one. a 5 setter. Melvyn (2nd men's single) won the first two game but then dropped the next two. Luckily he managed to stay on during the fifth game. We were making so much noise during his game, shouting and yelling encouragement as well as laughing at his silly mistakes ... we can do this for Mel's game cause he laughs at them himself. And then VOILA! We've won! The 2nd ladies and 3rd men's singles were also played as a formality. Final score was 4-1 SDSC ... YAY!

We were the last game to finish. Everyone was waiting for us at the fields for the closing ceremony. There was a little performance for the closing ceremony. They had an all female bagpipe group playing and also a girl doing that Scottish dance with the sword. People in my groups keep asking me to go up and join the girl cause the skirt I was wearing was also a red plaid skirt like hers except mine was a lot shorter ... it's a sports skirt. I didn't go up of course. Didn't want to steal her thunder ... heh heh ... actually I didn't dare go up ... me chicken. Prize giving ceremony. Our group got load and loads of prizes. Champs for 3 games, runner up for 3 or 4 other games and we won the overall champion cup! Yay! Yay! Yay! Lot's of picture taking followed.

SSC the organiser for this year's games then gave us hi-tea. Better food that the lunches they gave us. Lots of food to go around as well. Went back to the hotel tired but happy.

A quite shower and a phone call later, I was off to meet my friend who's on a project in Singapore. My teammate, Anne, was also staying back in Singapore for an extra day. The rest of the team will be heading back for Malaysia at 10pm tonight. Anne's godsister Regina came to get her and dropped me off at my meeting point with my friend. I didn't know exactly where she lived but I knew the MRT station that's near both mine and her place. My friend, Thana, arrived at the same time I did and her place was only 10 minutes walk from the station. Short walk but with my heavy bag and racquet, I was sweating buckets by the time I got to her place.

After resting a few minutes and a bit of a chat, haven't seen her for almost a year!, we went out for dinner at Sketches. I like going to Sketches. They have a very interesting concept. Their usual menu is a list of choices you can have on your pasta, a lot like making your own pizza. You chose the type of pasta you want, the topping, the sauce, whether you want cheese and the size (hungry or famished!). Cute. One of the waiters chatted with us a bit after his shift. Only a short chat. He doubled back to get our numbers but I didn't give it to him cause 1. I live in Malaysia, 2. he's not yummy, kinda geeky ... I know, I know. I should judge a person by their looks. Just call me superficial. I like people who looks good or at least I think looks good. We were stuffed after dinner and decided to walk off our dinner. Took the MRT to Raffles Place and walked along Boat Quay(again!) and across the bridge all the way to City Hall. We saw Chjimes near City Hall. Our original destination for dinner except I don't remember how to get there and neither did Thana. So I suggested Sketches and since she has never eaten there, we went. Took the MRT back to her place and went to sleep.

Flashback ... continued

Saturday ...

First day of competition. There's an opening ceremony. The weather was ultra humid ... it always is in Singapore. We had a march pass in the open field. Thankfully it was a little cloudy else I might just have fainted in the middle of the ceremony. I was getting a little dehydrated by the end of the ceremony. Nothing fancy about the march. Just a bunch of people babbling on a podium, a brass band playing, the various colors of each team's tracksuits, oath recitation and lighting of the torch.

Time for the first match. Here's how it goes for the squash competition. It's a team event consisting of 5 players (3 men and 2 ladies) and 3 reserves (2 men and 1 lady), played round-robin style. The 2 teams with the highest score at the end will play in the finals. Game play goes 1st men, 1st ladies, 2nd men, 2nd ladies and lastly 3rd men. I play 1st ladies. Today we play team Dunlop Malaysia (DMIB) in the morning and team Singapore Sports Club (SSC) after lunch. My first match was a breeze. Team DMIB didn't have a ladies team but the men wanted to play so they roped in a girl who hasn't a clue how to play the game. Beat her 9-0, 9-0. Me big bully ... *heh* *heh*. They could have rested me for this game. My 2nd ladies/3rd ladies could have taken her without a sweat. 2nd ladies got a walkover cause they didn't have a player. We also won the men's games. Don't remember if we won all 3 men's. But we beat DMIB. Time for lunch. Pathetic excuse for lunch provided by the host. We had rice with 1/2 a bunch of 'siew buk choy', 2 fish balls and small amount of sweat sour chicken ... cold.

Second match. I was a bit shaky for this match. Saw SSC's 1st ladies play against Sime Darby Plantations. She's got beautiful serve. I'm not too great a receiving volleys especially backhands. So, I kinda freaked myself out even before I went in for the game. I do that a lot. Managed to beat her 9-0 in the first game although with loads of mistakes. Second game was even worse. Multiple service faults!!! Service faults! Hate that. What the heck went wrong with my services that afternoon I have yet to find out. But they were horrible. I'm lucky to beat her 9-6 or was it 9-4 ... something like that. If I had playing my usual game with no sense of fear whatsoever, I think I should have been able to beat her 9-0, 9-0 easily. Stupid me. What's wrong with me? Why do I scare myself silly even when I know I'd be able to beat her? Nevermind.

It was easy victory for the 2nd ladies again. The men usually have more to fight out that the ladies do. But in the end, SDSC (that's my team) still prevailed. Yay! However, there was an incident, our 1st men single knocked and dislocated his knee during his game. Had to be taken to the hospital although he insisted that he could still finish the game. We didn't think he could and told him so and made him go with the medic to the Medic Room before he could be taken to the hospital. He's okay now. Not too great an injury but he couldn't play anymore and so his wife drove him home the next day

That night, the 2nd men single, Azlan, gave us a dinner treat that night, he's a manager. He said he'll claim it from the MD - our 1st men single. Not sure if he did. Anyway, we took the MRT (Mass Rail Transit), Singapore's rail service, to Boay Quay. Had a delicious, hearty dinner of seafood with the Singapore River as a backdrop. Lovely place. Boay Quay is a stretch along the Singapore River which houses numerous little pubs/discos and eateries ranging from seafood to indian food. They're celebrating Holloweens a little early in Singapore. We saw several vampy looking girls and skeletal guys, a french maid, a girl in arabian costume and a whole lot of other costumes. I think the french maid and arabian girl needs a little more assets to fill out their duties. ;) ... back to hotel and to bed. My roommate, team captain, Lorrin must have been really tired. She flipped through several TV channels before settling on a beach volley ball game and fell promptly asleep ... ha ha. I was reading my book and one moment she's awake and the next time I looked up, she KOed. :) I went to bed too as I was falling asleep reading.


... watch out for Flashback ... the final installment!

I'm back!

We won the squash champion trophy and the overall champion trophy! Yay! ... and since it's the third time we've won these 2 trophies, we get to keep them for good. They'd have to get new trophies for next year. Oh ya, we also won 2 more champion trophies and several runner ups.

Flashback ...

On Friday, the journey started late cause they left the first pick up point at 3pm; the appointed time for pick up point #2 (where I was waiting). Anyway, the bus was pretty nice. I've got both seats to myself. Lots of room to stretch ma legs. Down point of the journey, the utterly incompetent tour guide and bus rules. We weren't allowed to eat in the bus ... and there I was stocking up on munchies before the journey. What a waste. The tour guide also tried dispensing some jokes which nobody laughed at. He always ends up laughing at his own jokes. He even said so himself, he said 'I'm so embarrassed, I told a joke and I'm the only one laughing'. I don't know if his jokes were funny or not cause I wasn't paying any attention to him. I had my book and I was happily reading it.

When we got to Singapore, we got lost a little. The bus driver knew the road in which the hotel is located but not exactly the location of the hotel. Once again, the tour guide's incompetence came into the limelight. Firstly, he didn't have the lot number of the hotel. So even when we were on Geylang Road, where the hotel is, we didn't know whether we were going down the correct way along the one-way road. Luckily, my team captain had the lot number, I remember it being on the briefing handouts that were given to us. Surprise, surprise, we were going the wrong way. Fine. So the easiest thing to do now would be to turn back where we came from before getting into Geylang Road right? NO! I kept telling the guide that we were going the wrong way and that we should turn back. He didn't want to listen and just kept going further and further down that road until we got to the end. All this while, I didn't know he had a map which directs us to the hotel. Finally, I took the map from him and me and another guy, Raslan, I think it was, tried to make out where we were suppose to go. I remember passing Sim's Avenue which was on the map and asked the bus driver to go there. That's the main road that goes along Geylang Road. Common sense says that since we were heading towards the wrong end of Geylang Road and since Geylang Road is a one way street, all we had to do was to go further along Sim's Ave. before turning into Geylang Rd. ... and now that we have a map, we know exactly when we're suppose to turn. Lo and behold, after say 15 minutes, we got to the hotel! It was 11pm. We should sack that bleeding useless guide. After settling in, we went to a nearby stall to have supper. We had something called a Roti John (John's Bread). It's half a french bread stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and fried egg topped with mayo. Delish. I was told that they serve this in Malaysia as well. Hmmm ... never eaten that nor seen that on the menu before. Must not be too popular where I live. Next it was off to bed on a full stomach after a long day of travelling.


... to be continued

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails