Wave 13

This post is for yesterday, as I was too tired to sit down and post something decent. I woke up at 11am, did some revision till 12, had a snack(it's a snack as I did not take enough for it to be considered as a full meal), went back to sleep, and left home at 2pm. Anyway,I'm trying something different for tonight's post, using phases. So, let's see. There were 10 phases in all, almost every phase has a time limit at least 30 minutes. Come to think of it, I spent more than 10 hours away from home.

I had three main things to do yesterday. First, was to get a suitable and affordable tablet from either West Mall or Challenger at Funan the IT Mall. This first part was a little challenging, for if West Mall had a less costly tablet, I would be facing a it of a problem rushing back to West Mall before heading to do the next task, which might cause me to be very rushed for time when doing the third thing for the day. The next thing was, to collect 2 tickets from Andy, who sadly was not able to make it that day as he was still recovering from a stomach flu. The third, was to deliver the ticket Taufik and watch a concert at Singapore Polytechnic. A fourth came out later on, which I will touch on later on.

Phase One was to get from home to West Mall in 30 minutes, and that was pretty successful, and I was 6 minutes ahead of schedule. That 6 minutes might become very useful when I have to rush back from the City Hall area or when I am waiting for a bus or train to arrive. Next, at West Mall, I had to check out the shops which sold IT products. However, I did not manage to find any shops which sold tablet products there, so in 20 minutes, I was back at the bus interchange, waiting to catch a bus down to Funan the IT Mall. Phase 1: Get to West Mall before 2.30pm(completed at 2.24pm). Phase 2:Search for a tablet at West Mall before 2.50pm(completed at 2.45pm).

In case you are wondering why I did not take the train, I wanted to save up that money BADLY. I only have a concession pass for buses, for I only need to take 2 buses to and from school each day. Although I'm still a student, I don't eally understand why Transit Link or the authorities-in-charge did not grant polytechnic students concession fares in bus and train fares which the stdents in the Junior Colleges have been and are still enjoying since their Primary school days.

Entering Phase Three, I took bus 106 all the way to Suntec, and walked all the way to Funan the IT Mall in under 1 hour and 15 minutes. So now, I'm 5 minutes behind schedule, with the time at 4.15pm. I spent 20 minutes at Challenger, of which I bought a Wacom tablet, the company that WM recommended me to buy a tablet from. I also bought a pack of printing paper for Andy before leaving at 4.35pm. Now, here's the silliest thing I did yesterday. I made a terrible mistake at Phase Four by estimating that the journey from Bras Basah to Boon Lay would take only 50 minutes, when it took 1 hour and 20 minutes. To make things worse, I was more than 15 minutes behind schedule when I boarded bus at 4.48pm. I was supposed to reach Andy's place at 5.30pm, so that I could take a bus and train to Dover MRT station at 6.35pm. Instead, I ended up reaching Boon Lay at 6.10pm, 30 minutes behind schedule. The journey to Andy's place via bus service 242, took another 20 minutes. It was a good thing that service 242 had a high frequency, or I would be exteremely late. Phase Four ended at 6.30pm, 1 hour behind schedule. DAMN. It was a good thingAndy was feeling a lot better than the previous day, for if not for him, I might end up being behind schedule for another additional 5 to 10 minutes. Phase Five was completed under the planned 10 minutes.Phase 3: Get from Bukit Batok to Suntec before 4.10pm(completed at 4.15pm). Phase 4: Get from Challenger to Andy's place before 5.30pm(completed at 6.30pm). Phase 5: Deliver Andy his printing paper, collect tickets for Wave 13-the concert that I would be watching with Taufik-before 5.40pm(Completed at 6.35pm).

I was in luck, as Andy had to go to Queenstown MRT station to meet his family, so we could take a taxi to Dover MRT station together, and the cost would be divided between the both of us. So, Phase 6 was completed very quickly, and I recovered quite some time. It has been more than 3 years since I took a taxi, and 17 years since I hired a taxi. This was the first time I took a taxi in the event of an emergency(though it did not seem to be like one). I was surprised when Pei Xuan suddenly called my phone. As far asI can remember, she has never given me a call before, and I could not recognise her voice at all! It turns out that that night, Taufik and I would be accompanied by friends I have not met for some time. Randall told us in the taxi, by sms that Yisin was also performing that night! Wow! Anway, we caught up on quite a lot of things that happened over the past 2 months, it was very delitful to know how well many friends did for their promotional exams in the JCs, and at the same time, it was sad to hear of friends being retained in the JCs during our journey to Dover MRT station. Phase 6: Get from Andy's place to Dover MRT station before 6.35pm(completed at 6.45pm).

Once there, I ran to meet Taufik, who has not really changed much, so it was definitely easy to recognise him! So sorry for making everyone wait so long for me yesterday!!That was the first time I was so late for a gathering. Normally, I was either the first or among the first few to arrive at a place. From here, Phase 7, things went on very normally. Phase 7: Attend Wave 13 till 9pm(completed at 9.00pm).

So, this is where the next 3 phases came in. After I met up with everyone, Suzanne suddenly asked u if we wanted to have dinner after that. My immediate answer: YES! It's been a long time since I had a meal with the group, and also, I had not eaten breakfast, lunch an dinner, nor have I drank anything since I left home at 2pm. The performance was really great! The choreography, lights, sounds, everything was very well planned out. We spotted Yi sin and Randall many times as well. At 9pm, they came up to meet us, and Justin and his sisters came up too. Justin's looks has changed, though his character was still the same. His sisters have grown quite a lot as well. Phase 7: Meet Randall, his sisters and Justin before leaving.

After that, I left with the group for dinner. We took a train to Jurong Point. Taufik alihted at Jurong East MRT station, leaving 2 guys in the group, and they are Hui un and I. by the way, I still don't know some of the names of the people in the group I joined yesterday for dinner, for I was sort of like a no-body during my four years of life back in Secondary School. I guess, only mainly the people from 4E1 would know me, though there are more as well. Whatever it is, I will always remember those days. We chatted a lot, and ate a lot too I guess? half of us went to MOS burger, while the rest of us, Pei Xuan, Suzanne, Hui Jun and I went to MacDonald's. As expected they were stunned at the amount of food I ordered at MacDonald's. I ordered a full up-sized meal, and an additional burger. Frankly, that was around a third of my total capacity. Throughout, We found out a lot about one another, and I got to know them better as well. Just like the old days, Suzanne and Hui Jun never failed to provide an enjoyable entertainment. I' m so Looking forward to going out with them again someday! I seldom sat with their group in Sec 3 and 4. We chatted till 10.45pm before leaving for home. I was dead beat when I reached home 2 minutes before midnight, breaking my record for this year. My previous latest time was 11.45pm, clocked somewhere earlier this year. Phase 8: Get to Jurong Point from Singapore Polytechnic before 9.30pm. Phase 9: Have dinner till 10.45pm. Phase 10:Reach home before 11.59pm.

I was extremely tired yesterday after reaching home, and turned on the computer for an hour before going off. I guess Pei Xuan was still very surprised when she saw me eat that amount of food yesterday, as I seldom ate so much whenever I had lunch back in the old days at Yuan Ching. Photos wil be up tomorrow.

It's been a long time since we sat together as a group to have a nice chat. Really brings back lots and lots of memories. I will never forget the last days of Secondary School life and all the memories. Dinner last night was great! I'm so looking forward to the next time we could all meet up again, though I don't think it's soon either.

Come to think of it, I would rather have a group whose bonds are strong and a group whose members are always in touch with one another and there are always opportunities to meet up for gatherings, compared to a group whose bonds are extremely strong and whose members lose touch with one another over time and there are few opportunities to meet with one another for gatherings.