A Mind of My Own

The longest badminton session, ever, 3 hours. Not exactly 3 hours straight since one can literally fall down from trying that when I haven’t done any exercise for around 6 months. So long, huh? My first time at the badminton hall in Changi General Hospital. It felt weird but the recreation centre felt at home, like the other centres that I’ve been to. We started at 3.30pm to be exact.

At 5.30pm, everyone was tired from the session, I was cooling down before I hit the showers. None of us were playing, just sitting and chatting. Dinner was at Nihon Mura, Tampines. Each coloured plate costs $0.99, no wonder the place was crowded. The ice cream was nice. As for the sushi, it was just ok. The rest ordered a lot of food. The whole table was full most of the time. Incredible. It was a real pity because after the workout, we put all the fats back and I’m now with a rounder and bigger tummy. What a waste.

Did anyone missed me? I’m sure you did, come on, tell me. Ok, I’ll stop being so thick-skinned. I went to MacRitchie Reservoir on Saturday morning to check out the HSBC Tree Top Walk with DD. The recommended routes are shown below.

What we took is shown in the purple and pink trails. We walked for the purple route and took a bus in the pink route.

It was very tiring, ok? The start was quite easy to navigate despite the stones and slight mud at certain parts of the trails. The climb was torture. Purely panting and leg strength were not enough. The walking stick would have helped in climbing up the steep slopes. Along the way, quite a number of people jogged or walked briskly past us. After a while, they returned back. So, were we that slow? After what seemed like an eternity, we managed to reach our main destination, HSBC Tree Top Walk. That was after climbing that steep slope after resting a short while at the Ranger’s Station. I was about to get DD to carry me up.

Boardwalks were in place with tiny stairs. Are our feet that small? Anyway, we continued our journey and the view was breath taking. No. It wasn’t. It was “YESH! We DID IT!!!” I was so happy with the wonderful view there. However, it was rather nerve racking because the bridge was suspended. My fear of heights came to haunt me. I wanted to see how tall the trees were but the slight peek made my head giddy and knees weak. I so missed out on the terrific view. Too bad, we were there during lunch time, the birds were hiding from the heat of the sun.

Took some photos, I should have taken the start of the bridge. Rats! The walk back to the Ranger’s Station was filled with stairs. Thankfully, the going up part was very little. The walking down part, took a few rests because I was feeling vomit-ish from the sudden exercise that required me poor heart to overwork. That means I am not getting enough exercise. Double rats.

By the time we reached the station, we took a longer rest because I was feeling slightly light-headed. We did not look forward to walking back the same trail and took another path to take a bus. Legs aching, ok? Thankfully, there were quite a number of buses along the route and we took one of them to the main carpark to take the car.

It was healthy to take such a walk in the forest. We saw quite a few monkeys and monitor lizards. A pity I managed to take a photo of a bird because of the time. The walk started at 10.30am and finally ended at 3.30pm. I was amazed that the rocky path had joggers. I wonder how the heck they can manage the tracks.

We didn’t go empty handed, drinks were definitely the order of the day and DD made some sandwiches, yummy. Go try the walk. It’s healthy.

We all need food. We have been told of the various types of information on fats, transfat, unsaturated, saturated, and lord knows what other terms. It seems an endless list of finding the best and healthiest food in the world.

We have the food pyramid and other diagrams to help us eat healthily but have we taken heed? There are so many junk foods like potato chips, yam chips, French Fries, etc. Often, the sinful foods beckon to us in a hypnotic way. We savour the taste of golden brown hash browns, toasted bread and many others. They taste so good, right? Except, it’s not healthy. Darn it, I like my bread toasted just slightly brown.

I’m getting fatter in the middle at this rate. Speaking of which, it’s been quite some time since I last exercise besides climbing the stairs.

Random reads for today. It’s hot and humid today and my bet is that I’m going to hit the showers (new shower head, the other one stayed at power jets that won’t change no matter what. Not nice to hurt any sensitive parts of your body.)

• You know Garfield, right? Unless you hate comics but there’s this real cat that actually looks like him! Gosh. I’m speechless.
• There’s this sick guy adding people his his MSN list. He plays with his private parts with the web cam on them. How sick. (NSFW)
• Cute bunnies that look like mice without the tails. Pika is the name. No, not pronounced as in Pikachu for short.
• Some encouragement from Career Peace. Best not to reveal my real identity because it’s not safe. You never know why some things happened.
• A cat that disagree with your theories. This cat is not for the scientist or theorist or whoever has theories about anything.
• With F1 coming, one would like these Ferrari, no?
• What if handsome diving instructor is talking to your girlfriend, would you, as the boyfriend do something to him?

Some reads to feast on and enjoy.

• For the surfers, can you beat the rats? The rats are way too cool.
• Now, to earn some spare cash, perhaps Blogitive could be another option to try out. It says that you can earn at least $1500 per month. In USD?
• Chinese shares seems to be falling. I wonder if the Olympics would actually help fuel the shares. Oh and I love the mascots. Pandas are cute.
• Wondering if you are unimportant? Everyone will ignore you.
• There’s a new food, not available here, definitely. It’s dick. And it’s yummy.
• I’ve always loved animated gif.
• I wonder if a map can be as colourful as Bruceville. Bruce reminds me of Bruce Lee.
• Children learn from adults. They do what they see despite us telling them the opposite. Sad to see that negative things are being taught nowadays.

Looks like it’s high time I go for that Lasik evaluation. Contact lens lifespan is 10 years, it seems. Rats. Not that I like contact lens but they can be troublesome when going to the beach and BBQ. Worst is when it’s late at night, dry eyes start to get to you.

Wonder if there’s any special discounts since GST is rising. If I were to do it, I better do it soon.

My skin’s peeling. Urgh. Not nice in any way. I’m more tan now. Would like to keep this tan though. Been a long time since I’ve been tan. Let’s see how to keep it.

I went to Wild Wild Wet again because there’s still some free tickets to be used. DD brought me to 3 different pet farms after that. All the puppies are cute! Some of the cats, such as Persians, Persian Cross are so cute! The Beagles and Golden Retrievers are so cute too! Ok, too many cute here. I know some of you might just want to puke if I say one more. Last one. Cute.
We went to Pet Movers, Ericsson Pet Farm and the smaller one next to Ericsson. I love the Persian Cross. They look so adorable and seemed to love to be hugged and cuddled. However, I don’t have the time to spend with pets that need a lot of interaction now.
To get to those pet farms, you’ll need to drive, the bus stop is too far. The best time to watch people train their dogs would be morning where the dogs are not so hot and sleepy.

I had fun at Wild Wild Wet courtesy of DD. There was this scary ride whereby 2 people can take a float in the shape of the number 8. The slide is U-shaped, the kind where the skateboarders and stunt cyclists use. I didn’t attempt any because I’ll be screaming all the way. That is not the way to start work with a sore throat.

Took a bicycle ride and nearly got blisters because no shoes allowed. Thank goodness the track was short. There wasn’t much to see at the track despite the height. I got dragged to take a ride in a large float that slid down a winding slide. Scream lor.

The 2.5 hours spent there brought me nothing but a worse sunburn. I brought the sunblock only to leave it in my bag all the time. I thought the water would block it but I forgot that the time of the day would bring out the strongest sunlight ever, noon to 2pm is definitely not a good time to get tan even if it’s the fastest way.

Excuse me while I reapply my soothing gel for the nth time.

It has been a long day. I’m sleepy and tired. Were supposed to meet up with DD’s friends at 10.30am but the delay was till 2.30pm when the first 2 arrived. The rest subsequently arrived quickly after that. We had planned to go have some fun in Wild Wild Wet because of the complimentary tickets but didn’t go because we didn’t know what time they would arrive.

What a waste. I had planned extra clothes only to bring them back again without needing a new change of clothes. My family had went yesterday for some relaxation. Like I said, it felt more modern than getaway from modernisation. The Internet connection was lousy. DD couldn’t even get a signal. However,without that modernisation, the toilet wouldn’t be that great. What a contradiction.

  [via Flickr uploaded by L.Z.O.]

The morning brought some rain and some peace and quiet. The next door neighbours had moved in on Saturday to party late into the night. I think they slept at 4am. I woke up a couple of times only to hear their loud talking. Their music started again in the afternoon and in the evening, their loud games. I call them the Loud Ones. They want everyone to know their presence. No wonder I hate to stay overnight at chalet sometimes. The air-con is good to sleep in but the walls are not sound proof. Oh, by the way, their singing can slaughter pigs too.

I got sun burnt at Sentosa. I left out my delicate shoulders and rubbed sunblock all over the rest of my body. -_-’ The beach was nice but the sea water was not clear. So full of mud or whatever it was that made it so dirty. DD got slightly burnt on his cheeks.

I had not swam any laps for a long time and the little man-made islets were not for me. I felt that the distance was too far to swim. I saw a few who went there and returned. For a Sunday, it sure was quite a huge amount of human traffic in places whereby there were performances.

The Underwater World was not worth it. DD and I spent an hour despite squeezing through the crowd in the tiny walk space and browsing the souvenir shop. What a waste of my money. The ticket came with a complimentary entry to Dolphin Lagoon, that was what I had wanted to visit. It rained at 4pm and I was worried that we won’t be able to enter if the rain still doesn’t stop by 5pm. The show started at 5.30pm, we had missed out the earlier show times.

Fortunately, the weather god was kind. The rain stopped at 4.30pm However, the area still was hot and we chose a good seat; front row. The pink dolphins were good. The jumping, walking on water, hula hoops spinning and wanting the whole box of fishes instead of being contented with one or two. I still think Australia’s Sea World had a larger area for them to perform
I missed out the rest of the photos because I didn’t have spare batteries as backup. GAH! Had to use DD’s because the place didn’t sell the type of battery that I wanted.