A "Fool" Print

What would you want to do on a windy and cloudy afternoon?

For me, I cycled o East Coast MacDonald, which took me about 1hr 38mins to complete the round trip journey. Made a stopover at Vivo city and surprised to find the mono-rail had commissioned.

This is perhaps the quietest Christmas Eve I ever been through. Hmmm.. What did I do in the past, apart from Christmas party, Discos, Countdown, Get-together Session and Singing Christmas Carol? Ha.

At 11pm, I took a walk along Orchard Road to feel the Christmas atmosphere before it fades away. As usual, the street was crowded with people. It had somehow turned into battlefield with youngsters spraying snow foam at each other. I had also become a victim in one of those duels. Nevertheless, the whole scenes had made the festival mood livelier. Also, there were some shops hadn’t closed. Among them was Taka Jewelry, else there were workers still working at the building opposite Centerpoint. By the time I reached Raffles City, it was 12pm. I heard the Church bell rang. Christians were gathering in the Church singing the Christmas Carol and in memorial of the arrival of Jesus Christ. The scenery seems so peaceful.

For me, I was feeling content being a bystander watching the crowds with one hand holding my “Kit-Kat” ice-cream cone….

I could not remember when was the last time I ever go for trail run at Macritchie. I was overslept this morning and arrived much later than my usual timing.

Despite the shower from yesterday, the beginning of the trail was relatively dry. After running for 5km, I was surprised to discover a toilet at the junction between Pierce trail and Sime track. That was totally something new to me!! (That shows how long I have not been to Macritchie Trail Run). J Since Sime Track was closed, I took the Pierce track and made a detour to Tree-Top, which located within 2 mins run on a steep slope. Although I knew the bridge is safe, but I naturally reduced and lightened my speed and footsteps when running on it. At the Petaling Trail, it made up of staircases and somehow transformed the whole running experience to staircase training. After bypassing the golf course, the trail was getting muddier and slippery. I nearly skip a few times. I hope before and on the day of Ultra-marathon, there would be no rain or else I have to seriously consider getting a pair of trail running shoes. About 500m away from the Macritchie toilet, I bypassed Jane and Yihui from the Singapore Women Everest team. When I was considering whether to make another loop, I saw Soh Huan and Eng Hwa. Soh Huan was asking me if I am joining the Safra Run. Ha.. :(

While waiting for the bus, I felt a pain at my left thigh. Perhaps I strained it during running or so. Back home, I used the Flexi-Hand Massager, which KC had rejected, to massage my left thigh. It sure felt good..

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.