Welcome!: Sunday @ ECP

Monday, 9 February 2009

Sunday @ ECP

Due to the fact that I have been gaining weight like a pregnant cat, yesterday we decided to go cycling. This very idea was hardly accepted by some people because they know I don't exercise, I simply lack that gene for some reason. But since this is new year and all, and we ought to try doing new things...oh sod it, I'm so dramatic. It's just cycling, for goodness' sake.

Yes, fine! Kill my awesome introduction, I wanted to start with 'I went cycling yesterday' but it seemed to lack the explosive climax that I intended.

Oh well. So yeah, Dom was there with all his glory, complete with professional gears and all. Bonnie and I were simply in flip-flops and I felt indequate, tinier by the second. Anyway, we took the double-bicycle thing (like those you see in soppy romantic korean drama?), and thank God we did, for the reason I shall reveal later on.

I have to say it was fun, though. It's nice to be out there in the park and seeing the beach and people enjoying their Sunday as well, picnic-ing, walking their dogs, rollerblading and all. And seeing the ocean! :) We were there at noon so it was pretty scorching hot!

Bonnie was riding in front at first and after some time, we decided to switch. Anyway, I will spare you the details but let's just say that I probably wasn't the most balanced-cyclist in the world.

"You know what I'm feeling right now?" Bonnie shouted from the back while I was maneuvering the bike. It just wouldn't go straight, I'm telling you! We were moving like a freaking snake!

"Eh, what?" I asked.

"Fear!" she blatantly declared. Ouch, I'm wounded! Man, now I had to be responsible for another being's safety? Look at me! I barely managed to take care of my own!

After only 15 minutes of the bike running from left to right, but not centre, we switched again, probably for the best. I was still in the state of denial at that point, blaming it on the bike! Must have been because it was double-bike so it was heavy, I thought to myself, feeling suddenly consoled.

Our tandem bike at East Coast Park.

Bonnie left a few hours later and Elsa and Albert came. The three of us decided to rent bikes again. My rationale was actually because of guilt for eating so much at lunch! This time we took the tandem bike and a single bike.

Just then was my denial was scattered cruelly by reality! I rode the single bike..........

.........and fell right on my bottocks!

What the!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't ride a bike to save my life! My knee was bruised, my ego even more! Granted, I haven't rode one in years, but what happens to the saying "...it's like riding a bike?" Who the hell said that?! I want to sue!

"Here, here, ride with me,..." Albert said, feeling charitable.

Oh, for the love of......!!!! (so close to cursing!)

Ehem. So. We stayed there 'til 5 pm and by that time our thighs were feeling it! But, aside from the saddening realization that I could no longer ride a bike, it was so much fun.

Us @ lunch at some Hongkong Cafe.

So I can't ride a bike, there are worse things in life, right? Right? Right?

By the time I got to the movie later at night to catch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, my cheeks and nose were sunburnt! They are the size of two very red apples. Well, the size has always been like apple, but the color!

Maybe next week I shall try...rollerblading? Too ambitious. Running? Um. Perhaps. How about walking? Strolling? Sounds like a winner! Ha!

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Quotes

There's a hundred million different ways of writing, and it takes you a long time to sort through that stuff. And I think it takes anyone a long time to find a voice.

You must learn to take the good with the bad, the happy with the sad, love what you’ve got and remember what you had. Learn to forgive, but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret. People change and things go wrong, but you just have to remember that life goes on.

The day before I’m supposed to be meeting Caroline for a drink, I develop all the textbook symptoms of a crush: nervous stomach, long periods spent daydreaming, an inability to remember what she looks like. I can bring back the dress and the boots, and I can see her bangs, but her face is a blank.

I don't know, I think that if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult. You know, that's what to be expected, then I might not get so pissed-off about it and I'll just be glad when something nice happens.

I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.

There's a big fucking world out there. It's messy, and it's chaotic, and it's never, never ever the thing you'd expect. It is ok to be scared, but you cannot allow your fears to turn you into an asshole, not when it comes to the people that love you, the people that need you.

Maybe what I'm saying is, is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, I mean, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don't know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was, uh, whacked with insecurity, you know? Now I'm older and my problems are deeper, but I'm more equipped to handle them.

I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.

Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.

A woman needs to be held, even, and science has shown this, if its with someone she doesn't care about. Protective hormones are released, and the amount of hormones released depends on the degree to which she is held. The first and best is the complete surround. He wraps you in both arms, whispers how beautiful you are. Second best is the 'arm around.' He is next to you but with one arm around you. Third is he's just next to you on his elbow, but he rests his hand on your stomach and looks at you. Fourth is you snuggling up to him with your head on his chest, while he looks away into space. But when the first best happens, you feel completely, wonderfully like a woman.

So, so what, so fuck off, go home, leave you alone? I'll tell you something Paul, there isn't anything that I've wanted for eighteen years, cause I was a kid eighteen years ago. And if I did still want the same things I'd think I'd gone wrong somewhere, because actually I don't want to marry David Cassidy, I don't want bigger tits, I don't want to do better on my marks. I've stopped worrying about that kind of thing and maybe you should try.

Well maybe there's a big bit of you that's gone missing somewhere, maybe everyone should want something they've always wanted.

Why is it that adults aren't supposed to go mad about anything? You gotta keep a lid on it. And if you don't then people are apparently entitled to say what they like. "You haven't grown up. You're a moron. Your conversation is trivial and boorish. You can't express your emotional needs. You can't relate to your children." And you die, lonely and miserable. But you know, what the hell, every cloud has a silver lining.

I just woke up one morning and didn't feel the same way. Where did it go? It was like there had been a lot of food on a plate in front of us, and we ate it all really quickly, and then there was nothing left. Maybe that's how couples stay together: they're not greedy. They know that what they have in front of them has to last a long time, so they kind of pick at it. I hope it's not like that, though. I hope that when people are happy together, it feels as though someone keeps piling seconds and thirds on their plates.

That is what I have learned: Sex is destructive. Love is nothing to be fooled with. I learned that I was dangerous, not to be trusted. I wondered if my parents were right, with all of their stiff lovelessness. Maybe they knew better. My parents don't dole out love for the deserving or the undeserving. I was learning that love could cost me.

You could say all you liked about reason and logic and common sense and imagination, but when the chips were down, the one skill you needed was the ability to think about absolutely nothing whatsoever.

There is a comfort in never making an effort, but it's a lonely comfort. What keeps you going is the knowledge that you're only playing with only four cards showing. But when you see other people succeeding with their mediocre hands, you have to make a decision. If you turn over that final card you're certain of victory, but it also means you have nothing in reserve.

I’d gone through life believing in the strength and competence of others; never in my own. Now, dazzled, I discovered that my capacities were real. It was like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat.

Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as mere consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship.