Happening Vesak Day

Thursday afternoon, nearing knock off time (about 4 pm). Most of my colleagues were already in 'holiday mood', asking one another about plans for the coming long weekend. My only confirmed activity then was "cycling at East Coast Park next morning". The look on my colleagues' faces when they heard my reply spelt the word B-O-R-I-N-G.

Well, doesn't matter what they think.

Speaking in 'local tongue', I went out with Vege, Froggy, Tup, 2 Cell, Zhengbing, Quiping and Eve whom I've not met before. Nope, there're no errors. Only Zhengbing, Qiuping and Eve use conventional human names. And as usual, I was kept waiting for some time, to say the least (managed to cycle from the bike rental shop to the no kite-flying zone at East Coast Park before they arrived, if you know where that is). Don't wish to mention who, but For those inteRested tO Guess, here's a biG hint for You.

It was 2 Cell's 1st lesson on cycling. Another friend said I'm like an instructor - I teach cycling and kayaking to my friends. Actually I teach DotA too, but that's another story altogether. Anyway, East Coast Park is a very poor choice for learning cycling beacuse of the traffic there. Few people, local or foreign, can display tolerance for beginners.

2 Cell has got to be the luckiest guy on Earth. Apart from me, Vege, Froggy and Tup, he had auxiliary instructors in the form of an elderly Chinese man and 3 Africans (I think they are Africans who came to work here).

Halfway through our lesson, there was this elderly man who suddenly came up to 2 Cell and imparted his soon-to-be-lost secret skill of moving-off-a-bike-with-1-leg-standing-on-the-pedal-and-then-crossing-the-other-leg-over-before-riding-off. He must have been observing us for quite some time.

The elderly man was telling us that the way we teach him to ride is not efficient, his secret skill is the fastest way. We realised that his words were true, but there's a catch to it. According to Froggy, it's a "do or die" method - either you learn very quickly or you die trying. 2 Cell felt he was too young to die, so he opted to stick to our method. Even an experienced cyclist like me too some time to master that skill, can't blame 2 Cell for not wanting to try.

Apparently learning to ride a bicycle is rather attention-catching, for 3 Africans came up to us next. They spoke to 2 Cell just as he was about to make another attempt at cycling,

"Hey man, you've got to look straight. Don't look at the wheel, keep your eyes in front. Ya man, that 's the way. That's it, keep going... Awww man!"

2 Cell just fell again. Disappointed, the 3 Africans walked off.

Froggy decided to impart some of his knowledge to 2 Cell, as a beginner to another beginner.

"When you just moved off, your speed is slow and therefore your bicycle will wobble. In order to balance yourself, you'll have to steer left and right and your bicycle will be moving long a big S-shaped path. Once you've picked up speed, the bicyle will be more stable and the big S will become small S."

Since Froggy said this in Mandarin, the last part sounded like "...大S 会变成小S."


Hmmm...原来大S 可以变小S.

The lesson ended when 2 Cell was too tired to carry on, and fortunately, without anything worse than a crash into a lamppost. Froggy was quick to ensure no damage to public property was sustained. But before forming any impression of Froggy, please read the clarification below.


Clarification: Froggy is not an uncaring person; he cares for the lamppost.


We had afternoon tea (what else can you call a meal at 3 pm?) at Plaza Singapura's Swensen's so that we can make use of 2 Cell's $50 voucher. Surprisingly, none of us were hungry until we sat down at the restaurant poring over the menu. The amount of ice creams we ate probably replaced all the calories burnt earlier on.

I felt it was a pity to let the day's activities end so soon, so I suggested... KTV!!! Vege didn't join us because he was having Mother's Day special and Qiuping was too tired to carry on. Zhengbing already made arrangements to watch Poseidon with his friends at 5 pm (also in Plaza Singapura), but upon hearing the 3 magical letters, decided to join us after his movie.

While waiting for Zhengbing, we played pool at Parklane. During the last 2 rounds of pool, we divided ourselves into 2 groups - Froggy, Tup and 2 Cell vs Eve and I. Through brilliant manipulation, my team caused the opposing team to lose by default (someone the white ball went into the pocket right after the black one). To spare him the embarrassment I shall not say who made the last shot, but For those inteRested tO Guess, here's another biG hint for You.

I haven't been to KTV with friends for quite some time. The good thing about going with friends is that someone will start doing crazy things, then more will follow suit, and in the end, everyone turns crazy. But of course we didn't all go crazy that night. We just had a lot of fun disrupting one another's songs by stopping songs, changing pitch in the middle of a song, cracking jokes to disrupt one another's singing...

For the whole day, we only had 2 meals - afternoon tea at Swensen's and the supper which came right after our KTV. We wanted to have something light but the only places available along Orchard Road at that time were NYDC and S11. NYDC desserts and drinks are definitely not classified as light snacks. Neither are the food sold at S11, but we settled for the latter anyway.

End result: calories gained > calories lost.