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Lazy sunday?
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Not too long ago, I sent my bike in to be serviced.

Before I headed off to cambridge to do my A levels, cycling was both my practical mode of transportation and also my time to relax with friends.

My two main cycle buddies and also neighbours, Jivesh and Mark, and my dad and me used to cycle EVERYWHERE. Day and night we would traverse the island, West Coast, East Coast, up North into the heartlands.

Once the car was in, the bike was out.

Well, after having spent 240 bucks on the servicing of my bike, I thought a Sunday afternoon with no fixed plans was as good a time as any to go cycling.

I decided to take the old neighbourhoold routes I used to cycle when I was a pubescent teenanger.

First stop however, was the neighbourhood bike shop. I wanted to pick up a "cyclocomputer" as they call these things nowadays, so I could measure how long and far I'd been cycling for.

Treknology bike shop at Henry park is lika a Toys R Us for any bike afficianado.


The perfect place to "zeng" your bike.

So instead of just getting the "cyclocomputer" which costs about 100 bucks, I ended blowing close to 500 dollars on a host of other things.

A wireless cyclocomputer which tells me how fast I'm travelling, how long for, and what distance I've covered.


A bicycle lock to chain my bike up when I go eat ice cream.


A "cat eye" back light, in case I go night cycling.


A detachable storage compartment


New continental road tyres to replace the mountain bike tyres since most of my cycling will be on roads.


And a new seat! I actually got this on the way back, after my sunday ride, cause boy did my ass hurt with my old seat. This little sucker costs 165 bucks! WTF!


Check out my baby!

After the bike shop, I headed to my old neighbourhood.

This is my old house! No 2. Holland Grove Lane. It is now rented out, and truthfully, I hope this land and house will always belong to my family and their children.

It may not be the biggest or most glamorous of our properties, but it holds the fondest of my childhood memories.

Playing hide and seek, camping out in the little tikes house, burying my mum's dunhill lighter (back in the day when she was smoking, and me and my brother wanted her to stop, which she did).

Perhaps one day, my children will fill its halls with the same laughter and joy that I experienced there. ahhh.

Next, it was off to the Jalan Kebaya Park. Here, underneath this huge tree, me, mark and jivesh used to meet for our cycling expeditions.

Haha, this is quite gay, but I remember how, when Jivesh decided to go overseas to the Uk to study. Right before he left, real early in the morning, about 5am or something like that, I cycled down there to meet him to say bye. It was a cold morning. Vivid memories, but one that reminds me of the importance of our friendship.

I paused for a brief moment, underneath the shade of this huge tree, outside the neighbourhood belle's house (no I wasn't the one with the crush on her), and took in the moment. Some things change and some things don't seem to.

Next, I swung around the corner to this misplaced temple. Who would expect it in the middle of an upper class housing estate? I remember, how we used to pretend we were undercover cops, racing in, and disturbing the old uncles and their mahjong game. It seemed clandestine to us, how they were smoking and playing mj here, and our boyish imaginations just carried it further.

Carrying on, I hit the ulu pandan park connector, and stood admiring some student's graffiti. I remembered reading about this in the new paper, and really do hope that the government will promote more such initiatives to enliven the sometimes sterile surroundings that conformity promotes.

Continuing on, I hit the second park of the ulu pandan park connector. Which is actually the more beautiful and scenic part.

Here, storks and kingfishers fly overhead and take the occasional dive perhaps having spotted an unlucky prey.



The track took me all the way to jurong. After which I turned back and headed home.

It was a refreshing experience to have traversed all those paths I used to trod down so often before. And while I was doing so, I really did miss my cycling companions. Whatever it is, after having spent all that money on my bike, I'm going to make it a weekly occurrance. Work-life balance is important. Therefore, once a week, cycling, once a week tennis and once a week cooking class/dancing class!

As the song goes, "The young ones, darling we're the young ones, and the young ones shouldn't be afraid to LIVE, LOVE, when the flame is strong, cause we may not be the young ones very long."


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