Of the lack of post and platoon gathering

Yes yes it has been pretty long since I last blog and having multiple entries in one go nor producing a super long entry is not going to be able to make up for that long period of void. And no, it’s not the world cup that robbed me of all my time for blogging. Just because I recommended the football streaming software, doesn’t mean I will be watching every single match. Heh. As a matter of fact, I haven’t been watching a lot of the matches, certainly not the religiously-stick-to-the-TV-every-single-night- to-watch-every-match-till-5am type. I do follow the matches of a few teams and try to watch them, yet I kept them to a minimum as I have other commitments like work, self-studying, gatherings and doing my own stuff basically like gaming, practicing on my keyboard, runs, swims, cycling. Ah yes cycling, that’s what the next part of my entry is going to be about.

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Mini Platoon gathering

It was supposed to be a cycling trip at pulau ubin. But somehow, due to the ulu-ness of the place (an offshore island at the northern east side of Singapore in case you dunno...), most people requested for a change to the East Coast Park instead. Well so be it. Nevertheless, we still managed to have loads of fun in the park and the activities that follow.

Only SiQi and I brought our own bike, so the rest had to rent theirs from the bike store. That’s with the exception of Jian Cheng and Wei Heng who went on with their roller blading session. Wait I mean lesson, Weiheng teaching Jian Cheng how to blade, while the rest of us, ZhiGuo, Jevon, SiQi, Chang Tai, Yi Cai and myself, raced down along the track towards the east direction.

Before U-turning and heading back to relief Weiheng from his boredom (teaching a beginner how to stake can be really pain in the ass and being a MOE scholar aka teacher to be, I believe he had thrown in his bestest effort), we just had to drop by Bedok camp’s 10km starting point for reminiscence sake. Nothing much has changed there, just an additional vending machine, which I dun believe there’s any during our time. And for some reasons, Jevon and ZhiGuo were extraordinarily slow and were way behind us most of the time, must have got something to do with their extraordinary relationship. (Recalled that ZhiGuo is different from the rest of the male population, he declared it at Don’s ROM remember? Heh.)

After lunch was roller blading for me and we set out to the other side of the park. This time the cyclist went slower so that the skaters (Me and Weiheng) could catch up. It surprises me that I still remember how to blade although the initial few steps were a bit jumpy but gradually got back my composure after a while. It has been like 7 years since I last bladed, with a good friend back then in secondary school. Heh, those were the days man.

The traffic lights of the day. lol

Settlers

Dinner was at hawker near parkway and by then Yi Cai and Weiheng were already gone, the former went off to find his “girlfriend” and the other one home. Following that, we shifted our heavy asses to Katong and search for the new settler’s café branch Chang Tai spoke of. Indeed there’s a new branch there and we had a game of taboo and the miners & saboteurs game for 2 hours. Truly a great place for board games and gatherings. Do check it out if you wana plan some activities for your friends, its a great alternative to the usual ktv/movies/pool/lan gaming/yada yada. Other games i would recommend are: Munchkin, Jenga truth or dare!, Acquire, Settlers Catan and many others. Check out their hugh list of boardgames at their website. Again, link here

Finally, the last stop of the day was at Jing Xi’s house where we happily made ourselves at home and showered, rested, ate Pringles (Jevon gobbled down half of it and still wanted more, luckily we stopped him or he will finished everything unknowingly =p), had coffee, played Ninja turtles on PS2 while waiting for the soccer matches to kick off. It was 2 great matches last night. Brazil vs Ghana and Spain vs France.

The first one was somewhat predictable but I was hoping for Ghana to win. That is one team I have pretty much been following as I thought they were rather strong. They do have their weakness which was their defense and their opponents managed to break the offside trap on many occasions. Yet, they certainly put up a great fight against the Brazilians and they will be able to leave the world cup with pride with such a battling performance.

As for the second one, when David Villa kicked the ball into the back of the French net in the penalty shot, we thought it was the end for France. Yet we were so darn wrong. The experienced old men knew exactly what they were doing and remained calm in the enthralling battle this morning. They turned the table around and scored 3 against the Spanish team, 3 wonderful goals that send the French team into the quarters. They shall meet Brazil in the quarters and it should be an interesting match to watch.

Slept till 12 noon and had brunch at Jing Xi’s house. After which I cycled home with an awful ache in my thigh which resulted from the cycling session. It was around 30km I cycled for the entire journey since I left home the day before. Woah!