FRIDAY
Had a coffee date with a loved one at ECP and guess what? The UK Fun Fun Café was open lor. The past few times I went, it was closed and I was pretty sure it had closed down for good. But apparently it’s still open, except they only serve drinks now, and the closing time is whenever they feel like it. Yeah, damn WTF. I like the place cos it’s comfy, drinks are nice, and it isn’t expensive. But judging by the way they’re looking, I doubt they’ll sustain much longer. Boo Hoo.
After that, we had supper at XDL together with tubs and I know I’ve said it many times before but it’s really nice getting an outdoor seat. It’s more cooling, less stuffy, less smelly, less noisy and I don’t have to keep running out just to smoke.
Done with supper, we found somewhere to chillax and it was morning before we knew it. Time for tubs to get his beauty sleep.
SATURDAY
Once again, we pretty much slept most part of the day away. Went to tub’s place just to check movie timing but his parents came home around the same time as us and we all took turns to Skype with Tricia. She brought me on a ‘live’ tour of her apartment which was small but cosy and perfect for herself. I guess visiting her would be a perfect excuse to go Australia (hey I really wanna see her ok) but I guess that’ll have to wait cos soon she’ll be flying back for a short break anyways.
In the end, we went to Lido because we had free open tickets. Wanted to watch Transformers but it was either sold out or selling fast so we ended up settling for ‘I Love You, Man’. It was alight only. It wasn’t bad enuff to piss me off, but I wouldn’t mind not watching it. We had 2 hours to spare before the show started and an empty stomach so with the car still parked at Shaw, we took a bus to Cineleisure for dinner. Haha. After which we took a stroll back to Lido for the movie. People either love the seats at Lido or they hate it. This time I hated it. Cos there was some fucker behind me who stuck his knee right at the back of my seat, which resulted in it to not being able to recline properly, which in turn made me feel like I was having a bad back. And then the fucker started shaking his legs. Which led to me vibrating in my vibrating seat. It was obvious he knew what he was doing. Even tubs could see me vibrating. I was in the mood for some an eye for an eye. So every time he vibrated/ kicked my chair, I made sure I tried to bust his knee open with my seat. He got it finally, but such a pity his pea brain took such a long time to register. I know Lido seats are damn near each other but if properly seated, and if guys sit normally (not slouching all the way down and with their legs open/ slightly open), the person in front wouldn’t have got it the way I did. I have no idea why that Gu Niang behind me was sitting with his legs closed the entire time, but I hope the next time he continues being such a moron, someone will not be as patient as me and bust both his knees open for good.
Because we had a long Sunday planned, tubs decided to act hero and not sleep just so that we can finally wake up/ go out in the morning. So we went back to my place after the movie for awhile before we went to ECP for Macs breakfast and when the skies were starting to turn bright, we headed back to my place to wash up and pack for our Sunday excursion!
SUNDAY
Off to the Southern Ridges for some early morning exercise. Yeah right. Out of 9km chain which consists of 8 intersecting trails, we had it short listed to only 3 trails - Henderson Waves, Hilltop Walk and Alexandra Arch.
First off was Henderson Waves. You could tell we were really prepared. I went armed with a bottle of water and sunglasses amongst other things, and also the most suitable pair of walking shoes ever - Slippers. Yeah, I completely forgot about footwear. Tubs wasn’t so bad. He wore his skate shoes but happened to wear a short sleeved shirt, which buttons came more and more undone along the walk. Haha. But it wasn’t that bad I gotta say. Cos we were sufficiently sheltered and the walk wasn’t exactly very long nor very tedious. Or maybe since it was the first walk, we were in a suitably happy mood and it helped that the morning sun wasn‘t too bad.
When we finally walked to the other end of the bridge, we realized that we went the wrong direction. If we had started from the other side, the trail would have flowed more with the paths we wanted to take. So we U-turned and took more rubbish pictures on the way back. 
Walking along, we ended up nowhere so we went back to the car and decided to drive our way around. And we drove and drove but there was nothing. And then we came to another side of Kent Ridge Park. We found a trail beside a condo but it looked highly questionable and definitely insect ridden but still no sign of Hilltop Walk. Our patience had kinda ran low at this point of time and all this trouble to just find Hilltop Walk was getting too frustrating. At the carpark was a sign leading to ‘Reflections at Bukit Chandu’ so we decided to make that our final stop. It was a mini museum of sorts and we had to pay an entrance fee which was pretty minimal and thoughts of being in an air-conditioned place was pretty tempting so in we went.
Basically this colonial building on Bukit Chandu aka Opium Hill was restored and now made into a WW2 interpretative centre, with good reason as well, as Bukit Chandu was the site of one of the fiercest and last significant battles before the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. For 48 hours, our soldiers fought even though greatly outnumbered (159 : 13,000) and resorted to hand-to-hand combat when ammunition ran out. In the end, many died and those who survived were captured and massacred by the Japs.
There were barely any visitors inside the museum and the uncle in charge of the place was very nice and asked us to go up to view a show which was starting soon. In the room were some stools with headphones and including us, there was an ang moh lady on her own, and an ang moh couple. The show was a summary of the Bukit Chandu War as told by a man who was there. The only problem was there were a lot of sound effects, the volume both with and without headphones was very loud (headphones were to give a better sound effect) and throughout the video show, it was 70% of the time when the room was pitch black. I mean the kind where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. It scared the shit outta me so I could only hold on to tubs. Before even halfway thru the show, the ang moh lady ran out. Haha. But I think something should be done about this. It’s a history lesson even though the aim was to make it seem more realistic and to make people concentrate on the dialogue. But I don’t get that vibe. It’s more of a ghost show vibe. -shivers- The whole museum was pretty small but we read everything and walked the whole place thoroughly before leaving. Sometimes it’s funny when are the times our country’s history catches our attention - when we are not forced to study it. I have pretty much completely forgotten Singapore’s history. And then when you stumble on such places, it really grabs your interest. Weird. But in a good way I guess. Some things, we just have to know about. Especially when our grandparents can still tell stories about it, you realise it wasn’t even that long ago when such terrible things took place here.
Leaving Kent Ridge after all this running around, it was only coming to lunch time, where we headed to Queensway for. I never fancied that hawker centre even though I’ve been there more than afew times but it’s always very hot there. The food is good. Tough choice but I guess eating there once in awhile is fine, especially since we’re seldom in that area anyways.
After lunch was back to tub’s house but we decided to stop at a block nearby for a smoke first. While smoking, I saw an Indian lady carrying a baby in a way I found peculiar but not exactly wrong. She didn’t cradle the baby like people normally do, but instead she held the baby in such a way the only support the baby had was her 2 lower arms which she held out parallel to each other. You could see the baby’s arms and legs flailing in the air but it wasn’t crying at all so other than telling tubs to look at how she was carrying her baby, I didn‘t think much about it. The next thing we knew, she had oready walked past us and was nearing the road when we heard her shouting and screaming. We quickly went to take a look and we saw her screaming at somebody who had just gotten into a cab and the cab just sped off while she tried to chase it. And we realized she wasn’t carrying her baby. And then we spotted it on the floor. On the scorching hot concrete pavement. I got such a shock but I couldn’t figure out what had just happened. The baby was crying (thankfully it was still alive) and when the lady realized there was no way to catch up with the cab, she picked up her baby and walked off. She didn’t even check if the baby was ok, but she simply picked it up like it wasn’t even a living thing.
I was fucking traumatized I swear. At that moment, all I wondered was if someone had pushed her causing the baby to fall or tried to attack/ rob her or tried to snatch her baby or steal the cab from her, and then asking the driver to quickly move off. I was oready walking towards her to ask if she was ok or if she wanted me to call the cops but when I saw how she picked up the baby. It stunned me until I stopped in my tracks immediately and turned to look at tubs who told me to leave her alone.
After that, it kinda sank in that she should be crazy and that she probably threw/ dropped her own baby on the ground to raise a ruckus, which is why the person was in such a hurry to get into the cab to avoid this crazed woman, and it also explains why the driver went off so fast. I can’t imagine a cab driver speeding off if his passenger who just rushed into his cab was up to no good. I just hope that she doesn’t do anything stupid with her baby anymore cos I highly doubt such a small baby can take much more of such impacts and trauma. But I hope even more that that was her own baby and not someone else’s baby which she stole.
Back at tub’s house, it was time for a nice long shower. It never felt better man. Rested for awhile and I started craving for ice cream. Thought I would settle the craving at U.d.d.e.r.s since it was nearby but then we ended up going to Liang Court cos I was craving for Japanese Green Tea ice cream to be specific and I love Haato’s, which had an outlet at Liang Court. Yums!
MONDAY
Tubs took leave so we slept in and by the time we left the house, it was dinner time. Went for fish steamboat which was wayyyyy too much for the both of us to finish but it was great eating that especially right after the rain.
I’ve been having mad cravings for dessert and so after dinner, we went to Tom’s palette for ice cream.
Had a coffee date with a loved one at ECP and guess what? The UK Fun Fun Café was open lor. The past few times I went, it was closed and I was pretty sure it had closed down for good. But apparently it’s still open, except they only serve drinks now, and the closing time is whenever they feel like it. Yeah, damn WTF. I like the place cos it’s comfy, drinks are nice, and it isn’t expensive. But judging by the way they’re looking, I doubt they’ll sustain much longer. Boo Hoo.
After that, we had supper at XDL together with tubs and I know I’ve said it many times before but it’s really nice getting an outdoor seat. It’s more cooling, less stuffy, less smelly, less noisy and I don’t have to keep running out just to smoke.
Done with supper, we found somewhere to chillax and it was morning before we knew it. Time for tubs to get his beauty sleep.
SATURDAY
Once again, we pretty much slept most part of the day away. Went to tub’s place just to check movie timing but his parents came home around the same time as us and we all took turns to Skype with Tricia. She brought me on a ‘live’ tour of her apartment which was small but cosy and perfect for herself. I guess visiting her would be a perfect excuse to go Australia (hey I really wanna see her ok) but I guess that’ll have to wait cos soon she’ll be flying back for a short break anyways.
In the end, we went to Lido because we had free open tickets. Wanted to watch Transformers but it was either sold out or selling fast so we ended up settling for ‘I Love You, Man’. It was alight only. It wasn’t bad enuff to piss me off, but I wouldn’t mind not watching it. We had 2 hours to spare before the show started and an empty stomach so with the car still parked at Shaw, we took a bus to Cineleisure for dinner. Haha. After which we took a stroll back to Lido for the movie. People either love the seats at Lido or they hate it. This time I hated it. Cos there was some fucker behind me who stuck his knee right at the back of my seat, which resulted in it to not being able to recline properly, which in turn made me feel like I was having a bad back. And then the fucker started shaking his legs. Which led to me vibrating in my vibrating seat. It was obvious he knew what he was doing. Even tubs could see me vibrating. I was in the mood for some an eye for an eye. So every time he vibrated/ kicked my chair, I made sure I tried to bust his knee open with my seat. He got it finally, but such a pity his pea brain took such a long time to register. I know Lido seats are damn near each other but if properly seated, and if guys sit normally (not slouching all the way down and with their legs open/ slightly open), the person in front wouldn’t have got it the way I did. I have no idea why that Gu Niang behind me was sitting with his legs closed the entire time, but I hope the next time he continues being such a moron, someone will not be as patient as me and bust both his knees open for good.
Because we had a long Sunday planned, tubs decided to act hero and not sleep just so that we can finally wake up/ go out in the morning. So we went back to my place after the movie for awhile before we went to ECP for Macs breakfast and when the skies were starting to turn bright, we headed back to my place to wash up and pack for our Sunday excursion!
SUNDAY
Off to the Southern Ridges for some early morning exercise. Yeah right. Out of 9km chain which consists of 8 intersecting trails, we had it short listed to only 3 trails - Henderson Waves, Hilltop Walk and Alexandra Arch.
Weather looking good
First off was Henderson Waves. You could tell we were really prepared. I went armed with a bottle of water and sunglasses amongst other things, and also the most suitable pair of walking shoes ever - Slippers. Yeah, I completely forgot about footwear. Tubs wasn’t so bad. He wore his skate shoes but happened to wear a short sleeved shirt, which buttons came more and more undone along the walk. Haha. But it wasn’t that bad I gotta say. Cos we were sufficiently sheltered and the walk wasn’t exactly very long nor very tedious. Or maybe since it was the first walk, we were in a suitably happy mood and it helped that the morning sun wasn‘t too bad.
Are you ready?
The long and winding road
The view from below
The view below
The view straight ahead
And the view above -
The sun's true powers are starting to show..
When we finally walked to the other end of the bridge, we realized that we went the wrong direction. If we had started from the other side, the trail would have flowed more with the paths we wanted to take. So we U-turned and took more rubbish pictures on the way back.
Spot the bird
My Ah Beng isn't fond of heights
The kid wasn't pointing at tubs but somehow the photo turned out this way. Lol
Wootz!
Back into the car for some aircon and to drive to the next trail. Hahaha.
Next was to Hilltop Walk, which was situated at Telok Blangah Hill which we were on anyways. So we just drove around looking for it, and ended up at Forest Walk.
Next was to Hilltop Walk, which was situated at Telok Blangah Hill which we were on anyways. So we just drove around looking for it, and ended up at Forest Walk.
It was a long snaking walk man. We didn’t think it would bring us to Hilltop Walk anyways so we just went to take a quick snap before we went back into the car. Driving along, we came across an abandoned mansion and despite the signs, we went in anyways. Haha. We didn’t go inside the mansion. We only walked thru some grass and stood in the vicinity taking pictures.
From the outside
The white area in the middle of the lamps used to be a fountain
The mansion
In it's heydays
Rain clouds?
That was Alkaff Mansion, which not so long ago (2003 I think) ceased operations for what used to be a hotspot for weddings and it was also well known as a restaurant. The Mansion‘s history before that, you can find out on your own. Let’s just say some really rich Arabs used to own it, amongst other properties in Singapore.
Continuing our search for Hilltop Walk, we ended up at Canopy Walk. It was really walking thru the top of the trees. And that only means one thing - insects of every kind. The wasps were the last straw for us so we detoured before barely walking for even a couple of minutes. Haha. It was a redundant route for us anyways and we may have scared afew people on the way either by how we looked as if we saw a ghost or like we were being chased by something or just me with my Sadako inspired hair. My logic was that as long as I don’t see anything except the ground I‘m walking on, I won’t freak out and as long as nothing lands on my face, I wouldn’t scream the whole bridge down. But I guess I didn’t take into consideration how I looked to other people. That few steps into the Canopy Walk was enuff to give me an itch so back to the car we went once again.
Round and round we went, up and down we went, not stopping til we came to dead ends. And alas, we figured we have passed every possible carpark at least twice and still no sign of Hilltop Walk. We decided to ask an uncle who seemed to have just finished his morning exercise and he told us it was at Kent Ridge Park.
Continuing our search for Hilltop Walk, we ended up at Canopy Walk. It was really walking thru the top of the trees. And that only means one thing - insects of every kind. The wasps were the last straw for us so we detoured before barely walking for even a couple of minutes. Haha. It was a redundant route for us anyways and we may have scared afew people on the way either by how we looked as if we saw a ghost or like we were being chased by something or just me with my Sadako inspired hair. My logic was that as long as I don’t see anything except the ground I‘m walking on, I won’t freak out and as long as nothing lands on my face, I wouldn’t scream the whole bridge down. But I guess I didn’t take into consideration how I looked to other people. That few steps into the Canopy Walk was enuff to give me an itch so back to the car we went once again.
Round and round we went, up and down we went, not stopping til we came to dead ends. And alas, we figured we have passed every possible carpark at least twice and still no sign of Hilltop Walk. We decided to ask an uncle who seemed to have just finished his morning exercise and he told us it was at Kent Ridge Park.
...................................................................................................
But instead of going to Kent Ridge, we went to Alexandra Arch first and I was lost for words at the sight that greeted us. It was just a damn pedestrian overhead bridge. The normal kind all over Singapore, the normal kind everybody uses to cross the road. Except this one had more pattern.
But instead of going to Kent Ridge, we went to Alexandra Arch first and I was lost for words at the sight that greeted us. It was just a damn pedestrian overhead bridge. The normal kind all over Singapore, the normal kind everybody uses to cross the road. Except this one had more pattern.
I wanted to puke blood but then we spotted something more interesting. Other people’s houses. Hahaha. They were the big pretty colonial kind. Very nice but we figured it wouldn’t be very nice to take photos of people’s houses especially when they’re in. And it was that street that we figured out we were also at Floral Walk and Hortpark, which were 2 of the trails but which didn’t catch our fancy cos flora and fauna aren’t quite our cup of tea.
So over to Kent Ridge we went. And walk we did. First we were at the all familiar sight - The Tank.
Simply because it was right at the carpark. Haha. Then uphill was the lookout point which showed more land reclamation at work in the near distance. This is Singapore. What’s new eh. And we also spotted some houses whose owners obviously didn’t have any taste in colours at all. Maybe they just wanted their house to be so striking that people can’t miss it when they are on Kent Ridge Park looking out. If that was the case, then they’ve succeeded 10 times over.
So over to Kent Ridge we went. And walk we did. First we were at the all familiar sight - The Tank.
Simply because it was right at the carpark. Haha. Then uphill was the lookout point which showed more land reclamation at work in the near distance. This is Singapore. What’s new eh. And we also spotted some houses whose owners obviously didn’t have any taste in colours at all. Maybe they just wanted their house to be so striking that people can’t miss it when they are on Kent Ridge Park looking out. If that was the case, then they’ve succeeded 10 times over.
Walking along, we ended up nowhere so we went back to the car and decided to drive our way around. And we drove and drove but there was nothing. And then we came to another side of Kent Ridge Park. We found a trail beside a condo but it looked highly questionable and definitely insect ridden but still no sign of Hilltop Walk. Our patience had kinda ran low at this point of time and all this trouble to just find Hilltop Walk was getting too frustrating. At the carpark was a sign leading to ‘Reflections at Bukit Chandu’ so we decided to make that our final stop. It was a mini museum of sorts and we had to pay an entrance fee which was pretty minimal and thoughts of being in an air-conditioned place was pretty tempting so in we went.
Basically this colonial building on Bukit Chandu aka Opium Hill was restored and now made into a WW2 interpretative centre, with good reason as well, as Bukit Chandu was the site of one of the fiercest and last significant battles before the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. For 48 hours, our soldiers fought even though greatly outnumbered (159 : 13,000) and resorted to hand-to-hand combat when ammunition ran out. In the end, many died and those who survived were captured and massacred by the Japs.
There were barely any visitors inside the museum and the uncle in charge of the place was very nice and asked us to go up to view a show which was starting soon. In the room were some stools with headphones and including us, there was an ang moh lady on her own, and an ang moh couple. The show was a summary of the Bukit Chandu War as told by a man who was there. The only problem was there were a lot of sound effects, the volume both with and without headphones was very loud (headphones were to give a better sound effect) and throughout the video show, it was 70% of the time when the room was pitch black. I mean the kind where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. It scared the shit outta me so I could only hold on to tubs. Before even halfway thru the show, the ang moh lady ran out. Haha. But I think something should be done about this. It’s a history lesson even though the aim was to make it seem more realistic and to make people concentrate on the dialogue. But I don’t get that vibe. It’s more of a ghost show vibe. -shivers- The whole museum was pretty small but we read everything and walked the whole place thoroughly before leaving. Sometimes it’s funny when are the times our country’s history catches our attention - when we are not forced to study it. I have pretty much completely forgotten Singapore’s history. And then when you stumble on such places, it really grabs your interest. Weird. But in a good way I guess. Some things, we just have to know about. Especially when our grandparents can still tell stories about it, you realise it wasn’t even that long ago when such terrible things took place here.
Leaving Kent Ridge after all this running around, it was only coming to lunch time, where we headed to Queensway for. I never fancied that hawker centre even though I’ve been there more than afew times but it’s always very hot there. The food is good. Tough choice but I guess eating there once in awhile is fine, especially since we’re seldom in that area anyways.
After lunch was back to tub’s house but we decided to stop at a block nearby for a smoke first. While smoking, I saw an Indian lady carrying a baby in a way I found peculiar but not exactly wrong. She didn’t cradle the baby like people normally do, but instead she held the baby in such a way the only support the baby had was her 2 lower arms which she held out parallel to each other. You could see the baby’s arms and legs flailing in the air but it wasn’t crying at all so other than telling tubs to look at how she was carrying her baby, I didn‘t think much about it. The next thing we knew, she had oready walked past us and was nearing the road when we heard her shouting and screaming. We quickly went to take a look and we saw her screaming at somebody who had just gotten into a cab and the cab just sped off while she tried to chase it. And we realized she wasn’t carrying her baby. And then we spotted it on the floor. On the scorching hot concrete pavement. I got such a shock but I couldn’t figure out what had just happened. The baby was crying (thankfully it was still alive) and when the lady realized there was no way to catch up with the cab, she picked up her baby and walked off. She didn’t even check if the baby was ok, but she simply picked it up like it wasn’t even a living thing.
I was fucking traumatized I swear. At that moment, all I wondered was if someone had pushed her causing the baby to fall or tried to attack/ rob her or tried to snatch her baby or steal the cab from her, and then asking the driver to quickly move off. I was oready walking towards her to ask if she was ok or if she wanted me to call the cops but when I saw how she picked up the baby. It stunned me until I stopped in my tracks immediately and turned to look at tubs who told me to leave her alone.
After that, it kinda sank in that she should be crazy and that she probably threw/ dropped her own baby on the ground to raise a ruckus, which is why the person was in such a hurry to get into the cab to avoid this crazed woman, and it also explains why the driver went off so fast. I can’t imagine a cab driver speeding off if his passenger who just rushed into his cab was up to no good. I just hope that she doesn’t do anything stupid with her baby anymore cos I highly doubt such a small baby can take much more of such impacts and trauma. But I hope even more that that was her own baby and not someone else’s baby which she stole.
Back at tub’s house, it was time for a nice long shower. It never felt better man. Rested for awhile and I started craving for ice cream. Thought I would settle the craving at U.d.d.e.r.s since it was nearby but then we ended up going to Liang Court cos I was craving for Japanese Green Tea ice cream to be specific and I love Haato’s, which had an outlet at Liang Court. Yums!
Walked Meidi-ya, wanted once again to buy 101 random things just because the packaging was so nice, practiced successfully some self-control, then we headed to Granny’s for dinner. Haven’t been over for 2 weeks oready. I swear Granny gave us her death stare. Haha. Aunty Cat has been back in Singapore for the past 2 weeks as well if I’m not wrong so it was about time I went over. Mel and family didn’t go over though cos they decided to stay home after their trip down under in case they caught anything nasty there. I still wanna go Australia lah. I don’t care about the damn H1N1. Haha. Heard fireworks going off and from where I was at the balcony, I could only see some smoke and some reflections. Should have tried the other rooms for a better view. Bummer.
Supposed to meet up with Ben at night but while at my house waiting for Ben to call, tubs fell asleep. Ben never called, Tubs never woke, and I was still waiting to go out.
Supposed to meet up with Ben at night but while at my house waiting for Ben to call, tubs fell asleep. Ben never called, Tubs never woke, and I was still waiting to go out.
MONDAY
Tubs took leave so we slept in and by the time we left the house, it was dinner time. Went for fish steamboat which was wayyyyy too much for the both of us to finish but it was great eating that especially right after the rain.
I’ve been having mad cravings for dessert and so after dinner, we went to Tom’s palette for ice cream.
This place was highly raved about and I ain’t complaining about anything but somehow, it doesn’t give me enuff kick to go down just for an ice cream fix. I had rum&rasin which was laden with rum but not too much til it makes you choke, and I also had chocolate. Basic chocolate. It reminded me of Awfully Chocolate’s version a lot but I preferred the one at Awfully Chocolate. Tubs got himself some banana chocolate ice cream which he really liked. I think they have really nice ice cream, but there’s just something lacking which I can’t figure out exactly what. But then again, ice cream is very subjective. What’s too sweet for others may be just nice to me, what’s not creamy enough to me may be very creamy to others. So the only way to judge is to try for yourself.
Oh. And talking about cravings, I’ve been eating too much Jagabee in just 1 weekend. Somebody stop me!
Oh. And talking about cravings, I’ve been eating too much Jagabee in just 1 weekend. Somebody stop me!
Asphyxiated at at 2:28 AM
