Super Friday

My weekend seemed to start early this week.... :)

Supposed to meet an old friend cum ex-colleague for lunch, but 30 minutes before our lunch appointment, I discovered that he was still in another part of the island, just done with his interview. Not feeling optimistic that he will be able to get down to meet me for lunch in time, I proposed to cancel the lunch appointment. The sky was pouring then and the prospects of staying put in the office during lunch time simply didn't appealed to me. Was talking to Divey and found out that she decided to skip her company lunch-time talk, so I jumped at the chance to ask her for lunch which she promptly accepted.

So there we went, two gals just happy to be out of the office environment, excited about the one-hour (or so :P) lunchtime. As it was raining, we decided to simply take a train to Tiong Bahru for lunch. We were both undecided about where to have our lunch and finally decided on this porridge buffet that I have tried previously (it was crowded at the food court and we convinced ourselves that we would be better off treating ourselves to a restaurant fare than trying to find seats at the food court :P). The decision turned out to be a very good one because we gals just spent our time chatting about nondescript stuff and made alternative plans for our run for that night (if the rain didn't stop in time) over hot muay and healthy vegetables. Staring out the window, watching the rain fall (hoping that it will subside in time for our run) and simply nua-ing is just so therapeutic in a way. I returned to work feeling more recharged and I hope to believe Divey felt the same. :)

We were glad when the sky cleared by 5+pm and were even happier when Roentgen informed that he was able to join the run that night (he couldn't confirm his attendance due to a 5pm presentation that he had to give to someone who was notorious for dragging meetings til late). I met Divey at 6:45pm and we made our way to Kovan MRT. Met Roentgen & teelee there and ended up waiting for Charmane who was late (again!!! -__-") for close to 30mins. By then unfortunately the rain had started again and we were worried that our run couldn't proceed as plan. We waited for another 10 to 15minutes and were undecided what to do (although everyone seemed more keen to run out the rain then to cancel the run) until Roentgen gave the executive decision to run and only stop if the rain got too heavy.

So off we went, 5 of us, seeming like total nutcases to the people around us, running in the rain at 8+pm on a Friday night - with teelee leading the run. We ran past part of the Mizuno route, to AMK passing Bishan park. At some point of the run, the rain got heavier but we were all too psyched up and warmed up enough that none wanted to call it quits (i love the determination of this group!). We got to Upper Thomson road, past Casuarina (checked out the makan places there and agreed to return to have our dinner there after the run), Upper Pierce before finally reaching Nee Soon camp, where the boys (this is how Divey addressed the guys, which I find very endearing :)) work. We stopped at the 7-11 outside the camp and wanted to have our milo freeze which unfortunately wasn't available in that outlet, so we bought our drinks from this very old-fashioned looking provision stall right beside the 7-11. The whole place and the shop seem to transport us (or at least just me) back to the older days when I was younger - where there were no Shop N Saves, no big NTUC nor Cold Storage or air-con minimarts - only provision stores with those huge traditional freezers (which the butchers & fishmongers store their produce in those wet markets) where the drinks are kept and the products laid neatly in those metal racks. Brings back memories ! :) But I am sure the boys don't feel the same way, returning to camp is just like returning to work for them, on a Friday night, I wonder how they feel.

By then the rain had stopped and we just hang around outside the provision shop while waiting for teelee to go get the TLV from the camp. Teelee had parked his van in the camp and took a bus home at 4+pm after work so that he could join us for the run and drive us all to the makan place (Thanks teelee!!!)

We then headed back to Casuarina and had zi char. The place was 70% filled and we were initially concerned about the price as the menu did not list the price for the items. We almost left to find an alternative makan place when one of the ladies manning the shop listed out the general prices of the dishes ($4 for a small plate of veg & $8 for a large plate). Finding the prices
reasonable, we agreed to give this zi char restaurant a try and ordered between us one plate of vegetables, one doufu, one deer meat, one large fried rice and hor fun (we ordered the fried rice after seeing it being served at the next table and how yummilicious it looked). The lady who took our order the first time was shocked when the fried rice was served and thought it was a mistake. She was worried that the amount of food we ordered was simply too much for us and they were very nice, even wanted to downsize the hor fun for us (but couldn't because the chef was already cooking our hor fun). Turns out the food was yummilicious, except that the hor fun was bland and tasteless and we had to dip in chilli to give it some flavour. The best thing was, it was ultra cheap! We were pleasantly surprised when the bill came up to only ..... $50! So imagine, such a sumptous dinner with meat and vegetables and it only cost us $10 per pax! Even cheaper than the muay we eat! A good eating place ! We also saw many people eating their chilli crab with deep fried mantou (yummy! my fav!). But we thought the seafood there would be expensive (so will prolly just stick to eating the non-seafood stuff there). We even met Glenn Ong & Rod Monteiro (not sure the spelling) from Class 95 hanging out at the same restaurant. Not bad eh ?

We returned to Kovan where Roentgen picked up his car and drove Divey home while kind teelee drove Charmane & I home. Thanks teelee for always driving us home and even walking me to the lift because it was late! Thank you so much Teelee. The weather makes the run very cooling and comfortable and the friendly and warm company of this close pack makes the run very enjoyable. Thanks all! Most important of all, THANKS to Teelee & Roentgen for planning the route and organising this run. At least we now get to know where our some of our good frens work and call "camp".