hofitcos14.txt
16-22feb99
Valentines Day
Sunday, the day after I got my bike, went to the bike shop to try and improve the brakes, Chee Wan asked me if I wanted to go on a ride. We rode to his house, put the bikes in his car and drove out to the east coast and from there rode out to Changi Village and back. About 45 km. He's been riding regularly for six months and basically kicked my ass.
It's very different from the riding that I'm used to. I'm used to riding in the hills, by myslef where there are not any stores or such like. Here, if you get hungry, you just find a food court and eat.
It seems like all the "rowdy" bars are expat bars. After the second time I was told about it, I went to a bar in the Concourse called "Elvis". There were mostly expats there. They play rock and roll, mostly from the 60s and 70s. They crank the speed up so everything has a slight "chipmunk" sound to it. People there dance on the tables/bars. I showed up there Saturday night about 11PM and it was pretty quiet. By midnight things were starting to happen. One guy wandered up to me and said "I know you". I looked at him, not recognizing him and he said "Muddy Murpheys". I guess I made more of a spectacle of myself when the Clares played than I realized.
On Valentine's day, I was woken at about 7:30 by a phone call from a net.friend passing through Singapore on her way to Malaysia. After a brief chat I called Chee Wan and we joined a group ride that he had heard about. It turns out that it was a training ride for a 1000km charity ride raising money for one of the local AIDS organizations. We rode from the national Stadium out to the Tuas Causeway (the other side is in Malaysia) and back. It was an 85 km ride and left me pretty tired at the end of the day.
When Chee Wan and I got back to the stadium, I notice a rather nice Mini parked near the KFC and had to check it out. Once we got our bikes back in his car I saw another Mini drive up. I had a hunch that this wasn't a coincidence and might have something to do with the local mini club. My hunch was right and we saw a lot of nice minis and met some nice folks.
I'm also no longer a "beam virgin". While we were checking out the Minis I met Ward, from the Beigh Arya, who also has a Palm III. Since he ran out of film I let him use my camera and we were starting to swap info and ended up figuring out how to "exchange business cards" with our Palm IIIs.
Despite my lack of romantic companionship, it was a pretty full Valentines day, and I was pretty glad that I only had to work half a day on Monday as it was Chinese New Year's Eve.
Last modified 22 Feb 1999
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