A "Fool" Print

The plan: To cycle from my house to East Coast again. The result: An on-and off shower and 2 stopovers at Tanjong Pagar Old train station and Raffles place. Finally, I decided not to inflict any more damages than caused by the rain and clean up my bike instead. Therefore, I made a return trip back from Esplandane.

The cleaning up had taken much more efforts than I expected, partly due to my negligence to maintain the bike for all these years. First, I used a damp cloth to clean the body part of the bicycle. That was easy and quick. Next, I had to disassemble the rear wheel to clean the chain portion. The chain was full of grease and rust after years of exposure to sun and rain.( I left my bike on the balcony) I resorted in using a sandpaper, filing or craving tools that I could find to clean out the obstinate rust. It was a tough battle and needed a lot of patience. Like a good lady stitching a broken trouser, I sanded and rubbed the rust away each and everyone of the roller chain. It took me at least an hour to finish the task. L Subsequently, it was my pedals turn. It didn’t look good either, and stained with rust. I took my craving tools to scrub the rust away from both inside and outside of the pedals. I promised after today, I won’t ill-treat my bicycle again. Ha After finishing the 2 most troublesome parts, I began to clean up the front and rear bracket. It was full of dirt, grease and contained sand. After removing the dirt and grease, I utilized a brush to get rid of the sand hidden in the deep corner side of the brackets. Finally, the last part was the gear portion and it took me a while to finishing it off.

By the time I done with the “Spring” cleaning, it was 10.30 pm. I went to the newly opened 24hr Malay food shop and ordered a “Maggie Goreng”. Not really fantastic but would be enough to fill up my small stomach.

The movie tells it all. :)

A pouring wet experience!! This was the adventure I gotten on this ever Hara Raya Haji holiday. Nevertheless, it was fun and full of laughs. I wouldn’t miss for a second chance. :D

We all gathered at Changi Jetty around 7.30 am. There were 20 totals of us. The weather seems to be kind since it had been raining continuously for the past few days. It looked like we could enjoy a dry morning and afternoon after all. I had decided to rent a bike with the rest instead of using my own. (I am too lazy to clean my bike if it caught hold in the rain.)

Setting Off
The cost of renting a bike was $10 for a whole day trip. It was those mountain bikes with fat tires, wide seat and heavy body weight.(*Disappointed*) Surprisingly, when I sat on the seat, it was relatively stable, and not using too much strength to peddle the wheels. After a hassle of adjustment made on the equipments here and there, we were ready to set off.

At the jetty station, I saw a few cyclists crossing the sea to the same destination as us. Their bicycles were mostly those MTB equipped with semi-slick tires. At the sales counter, the staff member told us that we needed 13 people to fill up the bumboat full before it could depart. Since we had 20 people and not wanting to waste time waiting, we decided to pay for the extra 3 empty seats not taken by anyone. After the staff member recorded our names, we loaded our bikes one by one onto the bumboat. And guess what!! The staff member turned out to be the bumboat driver too!!

After 45mins ride, we had reached Pengerang, but our blessing had vanished to the thin air. The weather started to pour immediately when we touched on the Pengerang jetty station with the wind growing stronger. We booked the bumboat driver to meet us back around 3.45pm by paying off our deposits first. The station closes at 4pm. (see left)

The Ride
After an half an hour wait, we decided to cycle in the rain while those without raincoats would catch a cab and meet us in town instead. The road was relatively flat with few up and down slopes. The whole route was straight with only one right turn heading towards the town. During the ride, the raindrops had been splashing on my eyes. (My cap had lent to Hwee Li). I wouldn’t open my eyes and been blinking them on and off. I did try to wear my shades and naively to think it might block the water coming to my eyes. It was not effective and I better off without the shades. The raincoat that I bought at Bali did help to keep my shirt minimum dry. After a stopover for photo session, we arrived at 11/2 hr later for a distance of around 17km.(see below)
The Town
The Sungei Rengit was a relatively small town. We met the other 5 whom took a cab down there. The cost of arrival was RM18. Apparently, they had started their feast. (see left) We split into two tables and our table ordered a “Lobster Set Meal C” which cost RM280. I fond of the vegetables and the soup particularly. The butter lobster and chili crabs also smelled good too!! Contrast to what I pictured, the lobsters were those small ones and the chili crabs were in mid-size. My friend told me that the crabs were caught from nearby shores. Overall, the whole dishes tasted super!! My stomach was too full and lazy to ride back. Ha.. The rain hadn’t been stopped yet.

The Ride Back
It was a non-stop ride back to the jetty, which took me around 1hr On our boat ride back, the rest couldn’t stop taking photo shots on this memorial day. We disembarked to Singapore at 4.30pm. I was completely exhausted and slept in the MRT train…..

A Christmas poem i sent to Beth.. (my so-called Wife from US) :p ..

A Christmas Card,
Represents my missing of you,
Loneliness am I in SG,
My heart belongs to the winter land of Seattle,
Every single drops of rain,
Reminds me the moments we been together,
Yet so far but feels so near,
Here I now,
In the middle of this drizzling night,
Wishing you a Merry Merry Christmas,
And an ever best coming New Year.

It has been a while since I last ran at MR. I decided to do a slow and steady run alone from Macritchie to Seletar reservoir in the morning. During the run at 13km mark, I saw Yuen and informed that Soh Huan, Eng Hwa, Goole and Uncle Chua was doing a 20km run too. I managed to catch up with them at the Seletar reservoir toiler. We had a quick chat and I continued running on my own. On the way near to Macritchie, I saw some of the MR runners and they gave me a good thumb up. In the end, estimated to complete the distance within 2:10 hr. Ok for a slow and steady morning run. :)

In the afternoon, met my cheerful cousin and we chit chatted and joked with each other for 2hrs. Ha.. At night, I met up with Partrick and we had a dinner together exchanged our views about BG relationships. Tomorrow, most likely I had to give my response to reject another job offer. And lastly, I have received an email for allowing to take my PMP certification test.