Friday, August 22, 2008
A fairly exotic and not to mention exorbitant interest I'm picking up led me on my way to the nostalgic (Why nostalgic? Another story for another time kids.) Tanjong Pagar too early on a Saturday.No, I'm not turning gay. Exotic! Not erotic! Learn to read for the love of all things heterosexual.
So what is that I wanted to pick up? Why I'm glad you asked 'cause I've been meaning to tell you to shut the fuck up and read on. That or kill yourself with a bullet through your pathetic excuse for a brain.
I'm mean and I'm loving it!
Anyway setting off on the right foot demanded we attend to matters close to the stomach first and that we did as I met up with Ruilong for a quick lunch before making our way.
Where else is better than the unfailingly mediocre shopping centre which we all came to despise and spit upon, the one and thankfully only, good old JEC(Jurong Entertainment Centre.).
A twitcher and a lunch date. Kinda.
Not a very sumptuous lunch I assure you but its a lunch nonetheless.
A brief and burpish affair, our lunch was concluded and we met up with Aaron to catch a train on down to Tanjong Pager where we planned to rendezvous with the rest of the party to do handle the paperwork.
Paperwork. No fun getaway of any sort escapes unscathed by its tedium. Oh well.
Aaron doesn't own an EZlink card. Where's his culture man!?
Wenlong, Aaron and Ruilong figuring out where the heck that place is. Me? I'm just contented taking pictures, thank you very much.
Tucked neatly away on the 3rd floor in one of the many modernized restorations of age old shophouses, the office we spent 15 baking afternoon minutes searching for just sat lying there amongst its brethren, not even bothering to hail out at us to save us the trouble. Inconsiderate place really.
Barking up the wrong tree. In this case, the wrong street.
Why don't we ever see any gangster fights in back alleys?
The lost boys?
Mild irritation imparted by all that unnecessary sweating gave way to tingling excitement as we reached the end of the stairs up towards the office, took off our shoes and entered the office.
Tricked by the stiff and self respecting exterior of the place, my expectations of the joint were anywhere but on the mark. All I could say after giving the place a good 2 seconds look and an another 2 for the shock to slip off was evidently what my favorite blogger Blinky Mummy always say. FWAH!!!
If you haven't figure out what hobby I'm picking up by now, I can for certain said that all that oxygen and nutrients never made it up past your neck.
Nice or what?! Anyway this is the only frontal shot of Wenlong which he unwillingly posed for.
Guo Huang and Germaine. Lovely couple eh?
Yes folks. I'm finally picking up diving after my feeble will power was crushed into dust by the overpowering hunger for adventure nutured by the mundane happenings of my life.
Sigining on for such an expedition to the deep blue is more trouble than it would seem. There was this form for acknowledgement of danger, that form for health declarations and others for tedious details which did bored me to tears.
Luckily there was Meowzer. Or I would have opened a vein seeking escape from the agonizing existence of my life further compounded by all that form filling!
Meet Meowzer! Say meow!
So for minutes on end, my attention drifted between ticking funny little boxes on the forms, keying in my particulars on the computer and petting that little ball of fur. With such a arresting distraction at arm shot, all that needed filling were filled even before my patience could be wore off and I started to complain.
Sigh. I'm actually quite sullen by the fact that I was kinda robbed of my chance to whine.
We proceed to submit our forms and in ones completed our payment to seal the deal. After the deed was done and over with, a few of us who couldn't keep our grubby fingers to ourselves began tinkering with the seductively professional assorted diving gear on display on the racks.
Time to pay the piper!
Thus began an equally time consuming episode of shopping which stole the better half of the afternoon, pulling it right under our feet and sent us landing with a sudden thud into doorstep of evening.
It still ain't clear to me whether it was Monica's compelling sales speech or was it our own compulsive desire to better ourselves in a new hobby, but most of us did came out of the joint with bags big and small.
Shopping frenzy!
We are closer than your average stranger. Not literally of course. But yeah, definitely closer.
Hunger crept past us unknowingly amidst the afternoon's happenings and left famishment in its wake. And not to mention that no true food connoisseur in the right state of mind would pass up a chance to pamper their taste buds when Maxwell Market is but 10 minutes walk away, along with the Original Ya Kun laying literally just around the corner.
Digressing, did you know that the Ya Kun at Tanjong Pagar was my fave haunt back in the days when I was still dressed in blue 1/2 of the weekdays, had my facial features dotted with pimples and was perpetually on overdrive, the unfortunate result of a hardcore tea addiction.
I've been wanting to come back for a long time since my reinstatement of my singlehood.
Not that I am partial to blue, mind you, but the colors of one's Secondary school uniform isn't really opened up to discussion.
I see I'm boring you folks more than usual. Fine! Back to the recountal then, see if I care!
As most parted ways, making their way through their day and through their list of other appointments, me, Ruilong and Aaron, with social schedules to rival the bleakness of the North Pole, were left to our own vices.
And look where 3 ravenous stomaches got us.
You're drolling on your keyboard.
Machiam advertisment hor?
Meet Aaron and his newly aqquired flippers! Yah and the bag of some other diving stuff too.
Though toast and tea didn't really filled us up, it nonetheless hit the spot, sending 2 sated dudes on their way home. What happened to the 3rd fella? He blundered in on his good friend's date of course.
Not that it was with that intent that I made my approach, but that was the way I would call it when both only Carol and Dom were in the flesh.
Blissful in each other's company. How not to hate?
Mitigated by my long attained understanding of respective failings of each and every member in our loosely knitted family of friends, I recovered from my amicably short tirade of preferred vulgarities just before I broke the social threshold for acceptable swearing.
As usual, I found out that excluding Dom, the rest whom all seemed adamant at attending the Career fair just the night before, had all answered to greater callings, say sleep for starters.
Leaving me stranded in this quaint three way conversation which I felt I wasn't invited to. I did, for my defense, tried to bail out of my imposition on them but was cordially stayed by their combined entreatment.
Ah, fuck it. I was nuisance once, how hard is it for me to be a nuisance again?
So with the freeing certainty that I couldn't get out of it without being outrightly rude, I simply decided that I might as well make the best of it.
Time to look for another job.
Our odd trio circled the Career fair a couple of times, stopping only when the human congestion crawled to a standstill or turned on itself. We religiously collected assorted pamphlets of various faculties whenever the names of the institutions or the courses they offered piqued our interest, and feeling me with rancor to say, whenever we become waylaid by some over zealous booth attendants hellbent on adding their burdensome load to our pile.
Having more info than we could possibly digest, we stowed away the stack of varied-colored pamphlets and went on a detour for some discounted shopping next door which turns out to be just cursory glances and occasional fiddles but nothing more.
Dinner was the next order of the evening which was concluded after some milling around of the Raffles City Shopping Centre basement. But not before the usual trading of anecdotes, witty observations about all things under the sun and bringing each other up on the latest cause for resentment at one's work.
A candid moment caught on camera.
Fuel for my tummy!
With an hour or two to waste before the two lovebirds make off for their movie plans later that evening, we settled in at J-Co for some serious looking through of the day's bounty at the Career fair and discussions regarding the furtherance of our academic accomplishments.
Where's the J? He's posing for you and making a face in the picture. Go figure.
You might have guessed it but might not believe it. All that serious intentions packed into the donut session turned out to be just another continuation of the dinner conversation.
It's saving grace was that we did after all took the dull stack out for a look or two and perhaps throw in a few minutes of relevant discussion. But that was far as that went before the conversation once again resumed its lighthearted bearing towards the inane.
Look at their seriousness! Its so thick, you can run headlong into it and hurt your head!
With a smile on my face and 9 on the watch's, I took leave of their company and call it a day.
Incidentally, I bought this!
FUNKED IT ALL UP ON 7:23:00 PM