The past two days...

... Have been filled with thrills!

27 June

I went to hang out with my dad at the airport. Nobody we know was flying anywhere, but it's a Singaporean thing that we like to go to the airport for no good reason. Changi Airport is after all one of the best international airports, it has air-conditioning, and what else is there to do in this tiny country anyway? Besides, I like the skytrain, which is a light-rail system connecting Terminals 1, 2, and 3. As my longer-term readers will know, I have a thing for trains.

We took the skytrain a few times, and I got to see the Jewel under construction. The Jewel is the latest vanity project our airport authorities are working on. It'll be a big shopping centre and lifestyle attraction, and there will also be lots of greenery and waterfalls inside the building. But what's most exciting for me is that they're running a new line for the skytrain that travels right through the heart of Jewel itself. From the outside, you can see they've already finished putting up the track leading into the building. I can't wait for the opening next year!

After leaving the airport, we went to a hawker centre. I wasn't craving for anything in particular that day, so I simply browsed the stalls until a ban mian (handmade noodles) stall caught my eye. The pictures on the menu board looked nice, and I picked a bowl of mee hoon kueh (randomly shaped bits of rice flour dough, boiled in liquid) on impulse.

I'd never tried mee hoon kueh until then. I'm not sure how it had escaped my notice all these years. I've had almost every kind of noodle: mee pok (flat yellow alkaline noodles, like linguine pasta), mee kia (thin yellow noodles), thick beehoon (rice noodles), thin beehoon, yellow noodles (generic noodles of medium thickness, contains a delightful cocktail of synthetic chemicals which lend it an overpowering alkaline smell), lamian (noodles pulled by hand), ee mee (another kind of thin yellow noodles), you mee (yet another kind of thin yellow noodles), beetaimak (fat white noodles colloquially termed as mousetails)... But not mee hoon kueh.

Fortunately, I liked it. The smooth yet chewy pieces of dough were fun to eat as they had an interesting texture. They were helped in terms of taste by the addition of a runny egg, anchovies, and fatty minced pork to the soup.

I also had a cup of tea. Lately this has been my beverage of choice, especially during daylight hours. What can I say? I'm getting on in years.

That night, my mum came home from work with the mail from the letterbox downstairs. There was a brown envelope addressed to me, with the return address of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean's Office. "Must be a bill of some sort," I thought. "Or maybe they're accusing me of misconduct."

When the government sends us mail, it's never anything pleasant right?

Not this time. The letter turned out to be good news: I am awarded the China Daily Prize for the Arts 2 level for the 2017/18 academic year! The prize is given to the best Communications and New Media (CNM) student in each level each year, and has a cash payout of $1500.

Hype!

There was a lot of jumping and screaming when the contents of the letter had been digested. I knew I'd done well in my CNM modules, having obtained straight 'A's, but I wasn't quite sure how they determined which straight 'A' student gets the prize, or if I was even eligible for it rules-wise as my period of candidature has been rather short for a level 2 student.

Anyhow, it's apparently mine, and I'm glad.

Still high from the buzz of this revelation, my dad and I proceeded to watch the Germany versus South Korea game. Everybody knows what happened in the end so I won't belabour the point here, but suffice to say that what the match lacked in football quality, it more than made up for in drama. It was easily one of the top three most entertaining matches I've ever seen. Being a typical kiasu (afraid of losing out) Singaporean, I started out supporting the Germans, but by the time the referee trotted over to watch the video assistant referee review footage, my heart was thumping in my chest, willing the referee to award the goal to the plucky underdogs. Time seemed to slow. And when the referee returned to the field and pointed to the kickoff spot, there was another round of hollering from the guys in the house.

The second goal was icing on the cake, made even more memorable by the lack of a goalkeeper.

28 June

For the first time in over a decade, I rode the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) subway train system.

Also for the first time, I visited The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

Parking at The Shoppes costs an arm and a leg, just like everything else in that cesspool of pretentiousness, so it made sense for me to take the MRT there if I wanted to explore it. But taking the MRT isn't straightforward for someone like me. Just to get from my house to the station involves a dangerous traversal of the condominium driveway, exposure to the elements, and a trek of half a kilometre. Then I have to take a lift into the basement, tap my payment card through the fare gates, and take yet another lift deeper underground, all of which would be almost impossible if I were by myself.

And all that wouldn't count for anything if my wheelchair can't cross the platform gap to get into the train carriage.

That's what dads are for. He was the one who suggested this journey in the first place, since I have a lot of free time during the university off-season to give it a shot and see how it goes. And he helped me overcome all the obstacles between me and the train, and luckily my wheels are big enough not to get stuck in the platform gap.

Problems avoided, we were on our way to The Shoppes!

We alighted at Bayfront station on the Circle Line, which is conveniently connected to The Shoppes and the rest of MBS by a warren of subterranean tunnels, allowing us to stroll around leisurely without melting under the sun. I got to lay my plebian eyes upon a host of branded items that I'll never be able to afford, restaurants bearing the names of various celebrity chefs that I hopefully will one day, and the casino. Ah yes, that casino which keeps the money flowing through our economy like blood through your veins, and the very purpose for the existence of MBS. Ka-ching!

I was very intrigued when we discovered a plate of chicken rice going for a mere $7 in a hidden corner of the place, but it was too early for lunch so we gave it a miss.

One thing that I really loved about The Shoppes was the number of angmoh (Caucasian) people. They were walking everywhere, and a few groups of them were even riding the boats down the canals which run through the mall, being paddled along by Filipino and Chinese underlings. Forming the upper class here, even among the tourists, they tend to congregate around the bay area where everything is bathed in gold.

Angmoh people are my favourite kind of human and I don't care if you judge me for it.

The famous Singapore skyline, the beautiful Marina Bay, and me.

Soon it was time to eat, and we decided to retreat to a more heartland location in search of sustenance. Back onto the MRT we went! A quick trip to Chinatown on the Downtown Line ended with us discovering that there was no way to connect underground to Chinatown Point shopping centre, and I would have to use aboveground roads. I didn't like that, so we hopped back onto the MRT and returned to Bayfront to change back to the Circle Line.

You know what else dads are for? Making sure their kids don't get lost. The interchange stations nowadays are a helluva lot more mind-boggling than they were when I took the MRT as a child in a stroller. There are so many train lines running in so many directions that the stations now are sprawling complexes that have so many different levels and platforms so as to be able to accommodate them all. I felt like a fish out of water, but I just had to follow my dad's lead and I'd eventually get to the right part of the station.

My dad is also a great shield against people I want to avoid. While we were going back to Bayfront, an acquaintance boarded the same train. I got a rude shock because this was a real case of speak of the devil. The day before, while we were at the airport, this acquaintance had rung up my dad out of the blue, inviting us to a dialogue with other people with my disease, to openly discuss morbid topics in a safe space. Sounds good, but I've got no problems discussing morbid topics in an unsafe space, as evidenced by my posts on this blog which is publicly visible for the world to see, so thanks but no thanks because I'd rather use the time for other things. I had snickered about this to both my parents that night and the morning after, and lo and behold here she appeared in front of me. She's always been a bit too much of a goody-two-shoes for my liking, and I didn't feel like entertaining any inane conversation with her. As it was, I was barely holding myself together against the aural assault of the train and tunnel sounds and the rocking motions jolting every bony protrusion in my body. So the five-year-old boy withdrew behind his mum's skirt, peeking out shyly I stared at the wall and kept quiet, and my dad smoothly stepped in and handled the acquaintance with his excellent interpersonal skills until it was time for us to get off the train.

We took the Circle Line to Stadium station, where we ate at Old Town White Coffee at Kallang Wave Mall. It was our first experience with this casual dining chain, which was apparently brought to Singapore by actor and one of my favourite local celebrities Mark Lee, and I'm pleased to say it was a good one. The staff were prompt and polite. My dad enjoyed his nasi lemak (coconut rice) and loved the thick black coffee it came with, and my garlic butter thick toast, essentially an Asian version of garlic bread, was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, exactly what a toast should be. The flavour of the garlic was adequate, and accentuated with the salty undertones of the butter. I had it with a cup of white milk tea, and oh my god it was the strongest cup of tea I've ever had. Usually I like my tea overly sweet and excessively milky, because I don't like the bitter taste of the tannins. But this one of full of that tannin bitterness. That's not to say it was unpleasant. In fact, it was surprisingly palatable for me, and a novel experience. But I did feel a bit trembly all over and my heart started to race, so perhaps I should cut down on the caffeine intake... Who am I kidding? Not a few hours later, I knocked back a can of Pepsi.

At the mall, I passed an electronics shop and it was selling the GoPro Hero 6, which I talked about in my previous post, for $595. I mention this because if not for the GoPro in the hands of the American man Dennis, I might not have agreed to my dad's idea of riding the MRT to explore Singapore. Dennis' video series showing off his neighbourhood spurred me to want to get out there and get to know mine better, from the ground and on foot rather than from inside the sterile and detached environment of a car.

The past two days have been a rollercoaster ride. What an adventure! It was tiring but I have no regrets. Now I look forward to a few peaceful days just chilling at home, playing computer games, and recharging my battered body and mind... But I'm already planning where to take the MRT to next, and beyond that, becoming $1500 richer!