Going Down East...

Went cycling with Tim today. Never expected myself to be lagging behind that badly. :S But I guess it's because I've never cycled in a long, long time.

The day begins with me waking up at around 7.15 to quickly change into something light and packing my slingbag with snacks, an extra shirt and a towel. While packing my stiuff, my parents were suggesting that I organise an event of my own to respond to the many events of friends I've been going to.

I then explained to them that as a matter of fact, I was also thinking around the same lines. I have two proposals in my head to give to them, but can't seem to see which is more suitable, let alone which is more likely to be successful.

In Bid A, I plan to invite friends over to my place for a day to help me redo my room! This would involve the moving of furniture, 'part-by-part' re-assembling of my desk and even the painting of my remaining white walls with a shade of blue! The capacity has to be limited, though, since I wouldn't want too many people in my room. The only problem with this plan is that Cashew Heights is still under probation for En-Bloc sales, so it wouldn't be worth it if all the fixing and assembling and painting to not last even half a year.

And in Bid B, I plan to invite more friends to meet up at Bukit Timah Hill, where we'd spend the whole morning (and maybe a part of the afternoon if more rest is required) hiking on Singapore's highest peak! I could guide them to special areas on the hill which are extremely beautiful and which you'd never expect to find on this island, and the fresh natural morning air would do everyone good! The flaw in this plan now is that Some of my friends aren't really that keen in hard activities such as hiking, and wouldn't want to come. Then friends who would only go if these friends went would also back out.

Hmm, anyone has any advice?

Discovering that we didn't have anymore bottles of Ice Mountain water in the kitchen, I asked dad if we could drop off at a petrol station on the way to Tim's house to 'fetch some resources', of which he agreed to, and we were off.

Along the way, dad was teaching me about the market and how pricing of high-ticket items were judged by. Yeah, that's the good thing about dad: He teaches more than what you asked to learn, so you actually become more knowledgeable on the subject then you actually requested to! This is very useful as you never know when those extra details come in handy, and trust me I've already been proven that dad's abundance is always useful!

Say, this actually reminds me of our Heavenly Dad in heaven. He is always willing to bless you, and when you finally turn to Him for his gifts He'll pour out an abundance of it! Not just the measure of it, but an ABUNDANCE of it!!! Amen!!!

Anyway, back to today, dad soon arrives at Siglap, of which dad made a circle or two before we avoided missing the entrance. By now, Tim was calling me since I was 15 minutes late. By the 20th minute, I paced at Villa Marina's entrance and called him to tell him I was finally present.

He went out to greet me with a smile, one which I later realised my face never returned back, and we both went to his house so I could leave my bag there. Taking along with me a bottle of H-two-O and a munchy bar, I followed Tim down to the carpark to check out the available bikes for use (I don't own a bike, mind you, so I had to borrow one from his family).

Tim unlocked both his parents' bikes to see which were fitting for me, during which I was praying to God that I wouldn't mind embarassing myself, but as long as we could enjoy ourselves I'd be thankfully happy. After giving his dad's bike a spin, I chose it for my mode of movement, while Tim choosing, most sensibly, his own bike. We then took the lift up and cycled our way through to East Coast Park.

Along the way, we passed by a mosque which was celebrating Hari Raya. The atmosphere was very strong, and you could definitely tell how united the muslims were (on my way with dad, we both spotted an entire strech of road double-parked with cars!).

Once at ECP, Tim laid out options for our route: Left or right? I looked both ways blakly, then gave a mumbled yes before riding off behind him. Ah, yes, I tought to myself. A very fine day to cycle once again. Let's see what we've still got.

To my shock, however, whatever was still left was nothing much compared to what Tim already had. While I was struggling to keep up, he could easily dash ahead of me at will without realising he actually dashed ahead of me at will. And within a few minutes, my legs were starting to hurt.

I then remembered that I had just ran 5 laps on the Dam Wall at MacRitchie yesterday and so I'm still at recovery stage if my stretching wasn't done properly enough. Which apparently, it partially wasn't. Nevertheless, I gave all I could to keep up, sweating my paddles forward to as close as I could get the boat to Tim's.

Time after time, he had to circle back for me and then crawl foward, before realising he's overtaken again and cycling another loop around me, just so that I won't get left behind. Half of me was comforted with the fact that I was actually helping Tim with his routine by entending the trail everytime he loops around me. The other half is rather obvious.

When we finally came to the edge of the park, which wasn't exactly the edge but we stopped anyway since we were blocked by a costruction site, we rested for awhile so my legs and I could calm down.

"Man, it's definitely been a long time since I've cycled," I mumbled before taking a big gulp og H-two-O. Tim then comforted me with the notification that the other route mentioned earlier on would have been longer, so I was thankful to God for allowing me to take a better choice. We then cycled back down east and parked/locked our bikes up at McDonalds, where I bought myself a breakfast a couple of times much bigger than Tim's McSausage.

Tim stayed at our table to help chope (reserve) it, while I went throughthe queues to tackle my way for the most important meal of the day. When the food came, Tim asked how much he owed me, of which I accidentally tolm the truth of a bit over a couple of bucks. The thought of having the burger on my bill never crossed my mind, and I only realised it when I tucked the cash into my pocket, of which I concluded was a sign to show it was too late to insist. During the meal, we chatted a little here and there about current affairs and movies and cBoxes and so on and so forth.

Once done, we both got to our bikes to unlock them, of which Tim recieved message from Zeik that there was rain coming and that the event had to be cancelled all along. But from where we were, the sky was still a beautiful shade of blue and not a raincloud could be spotted. Until we stood up from the locks, that is, when a tree did not block our view of a rather big and dark one. But even that cloud was obviously very far away, and Tim and I agreed that it'll only rain by the time we finish.

We carried on our journey further east to see how far we could go till we needed to turn back home to arrive at what we arranged to be 10.30 am. Everytime Tim sped up ahead of me, I'd look down at my legs, of which a muscle would twitch from, a sign I've gradually learnt to mean, "Don't you even dare try."

When we estimated it was time to turn around, we could see an entire fleet of stormclouds heading towards us from North-West. But the sky still consisted mostly of the light blue of a beautiful morning at the beach, and so we still rode comfortably back to his house to end of the journey. Locking up the bikes back where they came from, we went to the appartment to tone back down.

"Announcing the arrival of two cyclists!" exclaimed a softly enthusiastic (Tim's) mom as we walked through the door, and after a few seconds the rain began to fall. The three of us were praising God in our own ways; one saying it aloud, one mummuring the agreement tones and one standing silent but with a thankful heart.

Tim's mom then invited me to use their bathroom to wash up in, of which I accepted. She brought me a guest towel, showed me to the toilet and gave me a mini-'guest tour' around the area. She was pointing out the different shampoos available. Once privately on my own, I locked myself in and did all I needed to (let's just spare the details, shall we?).

While bathing, when it was time for me to shampoo my hair, I tried to remember the characteristics of each bottle and brand. The most distinct of the bottles was a blue bottle that was supposedly pH-neutralised so as to suit many, if not any, forms of skin irritation. I was rather aware that Tim had a certain condition after hearing he needed medication during the OEP trip this year, but I never knew what condition it actually was, let alone what exact measures he took against it.

Neverhteless, I chose what I saw the most familiar: Heads and Shoulders. Once done with the soaping as well, which was made easier with only one bar of soap, I gave a final rinse and quickly went out of the shower to change into a new shirt and stuff. I tried to get out of the toilet when I was done, but accidentally forgot that it used a double lock. WHen I finally figured how to get out, I caught a slight glimpse of the family present giggling, something worth the disgraceful misguidance of unlocking a toilet door I guess.

I then observed around Tim's room while he had his turn of bathing. After a few more minutes, everyone was all changed up and ready to leave the house, Tim's family because they had to attend something of family affairs. We then proceeded down to the carpark as a bunch and drove off in their car.

They dropped me off at Kembangan MRT Station, where I stumbled my way to a west-bound train with pre-exausted legs. Instead of taking a simplified route of dropping off at Dover and taking buses back home, I decided I might as well get a haircut while I still had the time. Afterall, my hair was rather in a mess, and I had to clear it up before I returned back to school this coming Tuesday.

After trimming up at the $10 barber at Bukit Panjang Plaza, I bought myself a peanut butter pankake before walking back home for a nice and relaxing final bath and a good rest in bed. The afternoon was more or less topped off with a round of Rise of Nations for the first time in almost a year!

Highlights of the night was just me asking my mom of the possible opportunity prices that we'll have to pay if I wanted to learn an instrument, of which she said that both she and dad were willing to support me in these matters (music passion). How touching! But still, after she laid down the things I'd have to concider, which mostly consist of time management issues, I've limited my options to either the Guitar, the Saxaphone or my Voice. Gotta make a good choice, 'cause I'm willing for all three, but I want the one that'll have the best worth.

Anyone has suggestions in this area too?

Ah, well. Need to attend to other stuff now. Will leave you with this song titled 'Sing Out' by Ron Kenoly. (Yay for Soul Gospel!!! Man, after buying an approved collection of his hits, the songs are still paying in my head. Wonder how long this would last...)



Sing out
The Lord is near
Build Him a temple here
A palace of praise
A throne of thanksgiving
Made for the king of kings

Sing out
A joyful song
He’s love goes on and on
When praises abound
He’s glory surrounds us
Building His temple here
Sing out
The Lord is near

The Lord inhabits the
Song of His saints
And lives in their praises
The Lord inhabits the
Song of his saints
And lives in their praises

Sing out
The Lord is near
Build Him a temple here
A palace of praise
A throne of thanksgiving
Made for the king of kings

Sing out
A joyful song
He’s love goes on and on
When praises abound
He’s glory surrounds us
Building His temple here
Sing out
The Lord is near

We come to worship
Together as one
With Music and singing
Rejoice in all that the
Father has done
Let's lift up an offering

Sing out
The Lord is near
Build Him a temple here
A palace of praise
A throne of thanksgiving
Made for the king of kings

Sing out
A joyful song
He’s love goes on and on
When praises abound
He’s glory surrounds us
Building His temple here
Sing out
The Lord is near

Ezekiel 34:14-15!!! God bless y'all!!!