One Deeper Valley

Woke up late, groggy, thanking the stars that I didn't even have a smidgeon of a hangover.

Oh, I'm supposed to study my heart out today, but an old friend wanna meet up! How can I pass this opportunity by?

Plan: Rollerblading in East Coast Park.



I look tired. Bad sleep last night. Kept on waking to either close the windows in the cold or open the windows from the stuffiness.



Buses to the east of Singapore are always slow and frustrating, as every bus that traverses the east has to wind around the numerous small roads, rather than speeding through arterial roads like in central and west Singapore.

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Talked a whole lot! Used to be good friends, but drifted apart. Human beings are very strange creatures. People with similar world-views and personalities tend to end up hating each other at some point in time (perhaps seeing oneself too much in another person?) but when they patch things up, friendships usually continue as though there wasn't any issue to being with.

Public holiday. Crowds. Weekend prices for rollerblades. As we were both noobs at rollerblading, the idea of skating into an oncoming cyclist suddenly became rather distasteful.

Ended up not rollerblading and just walking around, looking at people wakeboarding at the cable-ski area.

Bloody crowds. Figured, I might as well go practice by myself in Bishan Park and hone in my skills in private on a weekday, like how those Shaolin masters hide in the caves to master their art alone.

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Having developed a new allergy for crowds, we decided to head to the business district for dinner. Everything's closed, Maxwell food market too, so a trek to Lau Pa Sat...



... where all the stalls were practically open but were devoid of the usual peak-hour queues. Yay!

Korean food there looks good.



And tastes pretty good too. This is bibimbap, served in a hot stone bowl. Won't recommended it though, my friend bought the beef set and instead of the egg and vegetables, he had a whole huge plateful of beef!



I like kimchi.

Just walked around that area, around Maxwell food market, and took some photos just because we're bored. Friend has the full works - digicam and tripod, and we shared a couple of tips and all. Yay for another photo-taking friend! He sorta showed me that the autopilot (landscape, portrait, night shot, etc) modes aren't too shabby too, since I take most photos in the manual modes anyway. Somehow I don;t feel comfortable going autopilot after having been brought up on manual-focus, manual-everything cameras.

Starbucks, where we just caught up on stuff and talked about everything. Turns out, he's pretty disillusioned about school too. I can't help; I'm equally disillusioned. But turns out he has similar interests in school, which was a major surprise.



Everyone has his or her issues, everyone's sad in a way. I feel some pride in being able to let my friends loosen up and talk about themselves, but I can't help. I'm too messed up myself.

It was great catching up on stuff! And it surely beats having a mopey public holiday at home.