The Perfect Cycling Trip
23rd July 2007, Monday
The weather had been good on Saturday, despite being arid as for weeks now...global warming man...
So the rendezvous point for the few North-based colleagues was Yio Chu Kang MRT station cum bus interchange as the SBS No. 76 was the only viable choice to head eastwards towards Marine Parade and East Coast Park...
A good 40 minutes later inclusive of a rather sweat-inductive stroll towards the park, we finally got to that famous Golden Arc fast food joint where the rest of the gang had already gathered...
Objective: A good bicycle ride round the park for at least 2 hours on this faithful day
So we went to the nearest bicycle renting booth along the beach and each got that 2-wheels...
It was amusing to see 2 of my male colleagues deciding to ride a tandem while the rest of us settled for the usual mountain bikes...
SL, the attachment girl who was a close chum of ours at work, decided to go on the rollerblades to flaunt some of her skills...
In a matter of minutes, the entire crew was rolling off like how Optimus Prime would command his loyal Autobots...
The ECP had looked almost the same as I last came years back...The same old cycling path lined with coconut and palm trees with a considerable population of our Malay comrades already littering the beach area, pitting their tents or spreading their family picnics...playing a bit of soccer with the ah-bangs & ah-dehs...
Since it's a Saturday you will notice quite a few coagulation of students basking in their class outings which I had experiences myself..The same youthful foolishness of innocent courtship which gives me goosbumps these days...
I must admit I am not a beach person, and that from a guy living on an island all his life, may bears a notion of irony...
Despite being in the Navy, I was never a good swimmer and the idea of gulping mouthfuls of salted sea water ain't the best way to complement struggling against the tidal waves...
I also hated cleaning sands off myself after the entire ordeal...
Seriously if I wanted to go to a beach, it would surely not be the polluted seawaters Singapore possess but the pristine blue ones we see from some of our neighboring countries (for e.g. Koh Samui where I had my honeymoon)
I am also not a bike person..Though learning how to balance myself on a 2-wheeler since the tender age of 6, I had many unforgettable accidents while supposedly cruising on bikes and scars to remind me of the agony inflicted from these accidents...
Therefore I was a bit jittery during my first km on the path but eventually got the hang of it as long as I wasn't dumb enough to try the sharp bends...
It was great having the wind rushing towards your face under the glaring sun which gives us a good tan at the end...
We had a good chat about the lousy bosses and much-loathed colleagues at work, the latest movies we had caught, hobbies, politics and anything under the sun...
In no time it was already early evening and a few of us had got appointments lined up for the latter half of a beautiful Saturday...
It was when we returned the bikes and bode each other farewell to put a perfect cycling trip to a close...
Would really anticipate another of such cycling expedition with my colleagues...That is if it actually did happened....
It didn't take a meteorologist to give an astute weather forecast as on Saturday morning, our local skies was engulfed in heavy rain clouds which sent showers to the entire island...relieving us from those hot and humid days and nights we had recently...
A message from BY who had been coordinating with HB, the main organizer that the cycling trip would unfortunately had to be abolished as raindrops had been relentlessly pelting at the eastern side of the island as well...
Woohoo..just when we actually bother to have a group outing among the colleagues and this happened...
Well I spent the entire Saturday just slacking around at home cos the rain came intermittently throughout the day..I had paid my weekly dues to La Tendo the evening before as EK mentioned that there would be a hefty shipment due on Friday afternoon and had summoned the gang to render some help packing when actually he had done it on his own by 3 in the afternoon..
I went nevertheless as I had planned to do so and had dinner with the few of them present...
Sunday was a carbon copy of the weeks before with badminton (attendance seemingly dwindling with only the likes of me, my wife, EK, Karen and Chan bothered to turn up for 2nd week in succession)...
We then chat about the future of the shop when they actually moved (location has nailed) and did got me buzzing abit by how the expanded shop may turn out...
The rest of Sunday was very much like the week before with movies that I had hoped to be entertaining and they were...
The missus was out the entire afternoon but basically still in Yishun with a visit to a fellow business partner for an exhibition and then back to visit her folks which we hadn't done so for weeks now...
Well perhaps it was meant for us not to go for this cycling trip...
The weather had been good on Saturday, despite being arid as for weeks now...global warming man...
So the rendezvous point for the few North-based colleagues was Yio Chu Kang MRT station cum bus interchange as the SBS No. 76 was the only viable choice to head eastwards towards Marine Parade and East Coast Park...
A good 40 minutes later inclusive of a rather sweat-inductive stroll towards the park, we finally got to that famous Golden Arc fast food joint where the rest of the gang had already gathered...
Objective: A good bicycle ride round the park for at least 2 hours on this faithful day
So we went to the nearest bicycle renting booth along the beach and each got that 2-wheels...
It was amusing to see 2 of my male colleagues deciding to ride a tandem while the rest of us settled for the usual mountain bikes...
SL, the attachment girl who was a close chum of ours at work, decided to go on the rollerblades to flaunt some of her skills...
In a matter of minutes, the entire crew was rolling off like how Optimus Prime would command his loyal Autobots...
The ECP had looked almost the same as I last came years back...The same old cycling path lined with coconut and palm trees with a considerable population of our Malay comrades already littering the beach area, pitting their tents or spreading their family picnics...playing a bit of soccer with the ah-bangs & ah-dehs...
Since it's a Saturday you will notice quite a few coagulation of students basking in their class outings which I had experiences myself..The same youthful foolishness of innocent courtship which gives me goosbumps these days...
I must admit I am not a beach person, and that from a guy living on an island all his life, may bears a notion of irony...
Despite being in the Navy, I was never a good swimmer and the idea of gulping mouthfuls of salted sea water ain't the best way to complement struggling against the tidal waves...
I also hated cleaning sands off myself after the entire ordeal...
Seriously if I wanted to go to a beach, it would surely not be the polluted seawaters Singapore possess but the pristine blue ones we see from some of our neighboring countries (for e.g. Koh Samui where I had my honeymoon)
I am also not a bike person..Though learning how to balance myself on a 2-wheeler since the tender age of 6, I had many unforgettable accidents while supposedly cruising on bikes and scars to remind me of the agony inflicted from these accidents...
Therefore I was a bit jittery during my first km on the path but eventually got the hang of it as long as I wasn't dumb enough to try the sharp bends...
It was great having the wind rushing towards your face under the glaring sun which gives us a good tan at the end...
We had a good chat about the lousy bosses and much-loathed colleagues at work, the latest movies we had caught, hobbies, politics and anything under the sun...
In no time it was already early evening and a few of us had got appointments lined up for the latter half of a beautiful Saturday...
It was when we returned the bikes and bode each other farewell to put a perfect cycling trip to a close...
Would really anticipate another of such cycling expedition with my colleagues...That is if it actually did happened....
It didn't take a meteorologist to give an astute weather forecast as on Saturday morning, our local skies was engulfed in heavy rain clouds which sent showers to the entire island...relieving us from those hot and humid days and nights we had recently...
A message from BY who had been coordinating with HB, the main organizer that the cycling trip would unfortunately had to be abolished as raindrops had been relentlessly pelting at the eastern side of the island as well...
Woohoo..just when we actually bother to have a group outing among the colleagues and this happened...
Well I spent the entire Saturday just slacking around at home cos the rain came intermittently throughout the day..I had paid my weekly dues to La Tendo the evening before as EK mentioned that there would be a hefty shipment due on Friday afternoon and had summoned the gang to render some help packing when actually he had done it on his own by 3 in the afternoon..
I went nevertheless as I had planned to do so and had dinner with the few of them present...
Sunday was a carbon copy of the weeks before with badminton (attendance seemingly dwindling with only the likes of me, my wife, EK, Karen and Chan bothered to turn up for 2nd week in succession)...
We then chat about the future of the shop when they actually moved (location has nailed) and did got me buzzing abit by how the expanded shop may turn out...
The rest of Sunday was very much like the week before with movies that I had hoped to be entertaining and they were...
The missus was out the entire afternoon but basically still in Yishun with a visit to a fellow business partner for an exhibition and then back to visit her folks which we hadn't done so for weeks now...
Well perhaps it was meant for us not to go for this cycling trip...
Japanese word of the day: 運命~un-mei~(Fate) Believe in it 'cos it can explain some unexplainable phenomenon...
posted by Kei at
2:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home