Happily Bruised Up

I've rekindled my love for East Coast and Katong!!! Yesterday i played host to my 3 friends from the west - Cherrie, Esther and Jin Yan, my awesome group mates from PLAYMAX!! (oops haven't blogged about that event yet). They stay pretty far west, like jurong and chua chu kang, so it's understandable that they've not been spending much time in the happening east-side of Singapore. So when we decided to go to ECP it wasn't me being lazy to travel ok, i really wanted to show them the exciting side of the island:D

We were supposed to go cycling after we had our subway lunch but we ended up going in-line skating *WOOHOO* i love roller blading!!! but unfortunately my dear friends didn't have much experience skating, so we were struggling for most of the 2 hours HAHAHA ie. walking more than actually skating. Until we discovered this awesome way of going like a little faster (than the painful snail pace we were going cuz Cherrie had never skated before, but she was doing great for a first timer la) - one person would skate while the other person just holds onto the skating person's bag and be pulled along!! yay smart right? that was what i thought until i lost balance and fell sprawling face first on the ground..... ARGH SO EMBARRASSING!! i mean cherrie who was holding onto me fell too, but she fell quite glam-ly at least! like seriously i landed on my stomach in the middle of the cycling track. cherrie felt really bad la but honestly skating with people who can't skate isn't fun if no one falls. and so that's how i got my bruises - they're really "orh" you know! (as in "orh-ceh" or blue-black) i've a really painful one on my hip and both my knees too, even though we were wearing knee pads. which is ok, i don't mind getting bruises (not too many or in obvious places of course) cuz it means i've been out and about, and anyway they usually can't be seen since i got my tan back haha.

After we returned the skates 40 minutes late (which the boss VERY kindly said it's ok he wouldn't charge us the $7 for the 3rd hour) we rested at macs before heading to the seaside. i think we missed the sunset while we were inside macs:( but playing at the beach was still pretty fun, we made sand animals HAHA a really cute turtle and a teddy-bear looking monkey, then decided to hop into the water and discovered it was actually warmer in the water than on land with the increasingly strong sea breeze we were getting. of course when we stepped out of the water we were freezing la, but before we did that we spent quite awhile in the choppy and very dirty waters. Like seriously it was littered with all sorts of nonsense - plastic bags, snack wrappers, plastic covers - and the water was so murky i couldn't see my hand if it was just beneath the surface. Somehow we found ourselves surrounded with lots of loose seaweed and leaves while standing on rough stones in the shallower end, which wasn't very shallow since it was high tide. And being on the receiving end of the waves wasn't exactly comfortable, it was really quite strong and we found ourselves having to brace ourselves for every wave, sometimes having to catch our breath after being hit, which wasn't pleasant cuz then you'd get a taste of the salty sea water.

Yet despite all these unfavourable conditions we actually had alot of fun in the water - we sat on the shallow end being battered by the waves, picked up the bigger stones from the very rocky beach and competed to see who could throw the furthest, throwing up our arms in glee like we were in a roller coaster everytime a big wave came to bash us. And when the sand in our pants became unbearable from being constantly washed ashore while sitting, we stood in the deeper waters (not too deep of course, es and cherr aren't too tall haha) and walked in a row along the shore, jumping at every big wave and tickling each other with the stray seaweed. when we finally came up out of the water when we felt too drenched and salted from the sea, we had like a million and one attempts at a nice jumpshot - like really, we were very persistent! sigh, but it was difficult to get the timing right with jy's lag camera, but at least we managed to have nice group shots!:) shall put it up when they're uploaded (it'll be up on fb first of course)

So we found that it was getting pretty dark after camwhoring by the sea, and walked over to the showers to wash up and change. and yes, you guessed it, we camwhored there too! Esther had this bright idea of using the mirror to take group photos (we found that the mirror was too murky to actually take reflective shots) with the help with my long arm to press the button heh. Until we figured we could just set the camera on timer! HAHA too bad the camera ran out of battery so we only had like ONE nice shot from the timer shots:/

Then we walked and took a bus down to Katong to eat Katong Laksa!! YAYY :D too bad it was late so most of the shops were closed, and the laksa shop itself was pretty empty. nevertheless the west-end ladies wanted to walk around to see the place cuz *gasp* they've never been to Katong before!!! Es kept saying how it looks like malaysia haha but i think these shophouses are one of a kind. we walked along the lanes peering into darkened shop windows, mostly only the food places were open, and the interesting small shops were all closed by then:( We passed the famous 5 star chicken rice stall and saw this small shop across the road,it had a quirky name "oompa loompa" and more importantly there was bright light shining thru its shop window! So desperate we were to enter a nice quirky shop in katong that we crossed the road and went to take a look. Turns out it was a gourmet chocolate shop which does customized choc designs too, and after chatting to the nice sales girl and her boss aka her brother, we discovered they stayed in the west too! like really close to cherrie, and they even went to nearby schools! so they had this nice long west-end chat while i chose ZO cards (they've such nice stock) and drooled over the chocolates on display. The boss was really good at PR and treated us to a piece of home-made choc, it was really good! In the end we all ended up purchasing some for ourselves (the boss gave us all 10% discount), I bought 4 for my parents who just returned from malaysia. After that yummy experience i was ready to go home, shower and rest my bruised body, but first i had to ensure the 3 west girls didn't lose their way home! Amazingly the boss offered them a ride home in his lorry, and more amazingly they accepted. No worries they got home safe, and before i reached home myself. (I decided to endure a long bus ride home cuz i spent my EZlink top up money on the choc and couldn't afford a train ride home)

After a long day out, it was just great to be able to shower (not before unloading my day's activities on my poor brother's aching ears while giving him a much needed shoulder rub) and sink into bed, slipping into a much deserved sleep...

Thanks for an awesome time babes, looking forward to seeing you this saturday!:)