a fine day
Today, I had what I consider to be a fine day and hence a pleasing day.
I slept till 9:30am, which is always nice. Then I visited my father at the hospital and I could spend more time with him since I am not rushing for work like in the weekdays.
After lunch at the hospital canteen, I went on to run the first part of personal admin tasks:
(1) paid up an outstanding bill on my mum's behalf, as she is no longer here to do it. I have been procrastinating on that since it did not seem urgent. So it is finally done. Yeh!
(2) went to IMM to search for a toilet paper holder that my maid broke last week, in vain. But I resolved to use back the old one, without the broken ornamental glass piece. Resolution felt good!
Having felt somewhat accomplished and no longer able to resist the draw of the sun, I decided to take a break and do something I really want to: swim in Jurong East. To my surprise, one has to pay $2 for entry, as opposed to the usual $1.30. I suppose it is fair as JE pool has lots of fun things. But it still surprised me as I was looking only for a vanilla swim. Well, actually the vanilla swim did not go through because they "closed" part of the pool for some diver guy to knock tiles out of the pool bottom, while the rest of the pool was still open for public swimming. So you can imagine that the water has the feel of a dilute powdery suspension..
Incidentally, I was pleasantly reminded that (knocking) sound travels much better than light in water. Such simple joys of science!
So instead of insisting on a vanilla swim, I decided to give up after 200m and cross over to the wave pool to muck around. It was exhilerating! I felt like a little boy playing on the beach again (something that I only did once or twice when I was actually a little boy). I made a mental note to bring friends over the next time to have more fun.
When I left the pool, there was only one remaining hour from 6pm. 6pm was the all-important time because it was the deadline for my 3rd and final admin task: to collect a Robinson's voucher from a downtown office (as a rebate for buying a printer two weeks ago). When I arrived there, the office was bustling with people and there was a long line. Luckily, there was an express lane for what I needed to do (although it was a good 10 min before anyone started serving the express lane). There was an irrate uncle complaining about how he was falsely assured by phone that there was stock for what he wanted, but only to find out there was none after he arrived. I was quietly thankful that I was not in his shoes. I was even more thankful that the girl gave me a $50 voucher instead of a $30 one which I thought I had deserved.
Dinner was at Kopitiam in Plaza by the Park, just opposite SMU (Singapore Management University), for I was moving on to the planned highlight of my day: a visit to the newly opened NMS or National Museum of Singapore! It offers free admission from 6pm to 8pm; otherwise one has to pay a hefty $10 per adult. At the museum, I was momentarily transported back to the good old museum-visiting days overseas. As is my habit, I took a leisurely tour of the premises besides looking at the exhibits in the Living Galleries. Both the building and the exhibits interest me greatly. In this instance, being by oneself did not mean feeling lonely. [Of course, having like-minded company is always a plus.]
I left the museum around 8.30pm and walked through the SMU park on the way back to my car. The SMU campus has turned out quite nice for having NMS and SAM (Singapore Art Museum) as its backdrop.
I returned to the hospital half an hour later to see my father again and finally left with the maid for home around 9.40pm.
I slept till 9:30am, which is always nice. Then I visited my father at the hospital and I could spend more time with him since I am not rushing for work like in the weekdays.
After lunch at the hospital canteen, I went on to run the first part of personal admin tasks:
(1) paid up an outstanding bill on my mum's behalf, as she is no longer here to do it. I have been procrastinating on that since it did not seem urgent. So it is finally done. Yeh!
(2) went to IMM to search for a toilet paper holder that my maid broke last week, in vain. But I resolved to use back the old one, without the broken ornamental glass piece. Resolution felt good!
Having felt somewhat accomplished and no longer able to resist the draw of the sun, I decided to take a break and do something I really want to: swim in Jurong East. To my surprise, one has to pay $2 for entry, as opposed to the usual $1.30. I suppose it is fair as JE pool has lots of fun things. But it still surprised me as I was looking only for a vanilla swim. Well, actually the vanilla swim did not go through because they "closed" part of the pool for some diver guy to knock tiles out of the pool bottom, while the rest of the pool was still open for public swimming. So you can imagine that the water has the feel of a dilute powdery suspension..
Incidentally, I was pleasantly reminded that (knocking) sound travels much better than light in water. Such simple joys of science!
So instead of insisting on a vanilla swim, I decided to give up after 200m and cross over to the wave pool to muck around. It was exhilerating! I felt like a little boy playing on the beach again (something that I only did once or twice when I was actually a little boy). I made a mental note to bring friends over the next time to have more fun.
When I left the pool, there was only one remaining hour from 6pm. 6pm was the all-important time because it was the deadline for my 3rd and final admin task: to collect a Robinson's voucher from a downtown office (as a rebate for buying a printer two weeks ago). When I arrived there, the office was bustling with people and there was a long line. Luckily, there was an express lane for what I needed to do (although it was a good 10 min before anyone started serving the express lane). There was an irrate uncle complaining about how he was falsely assured by phone that there was stock for what he wanted, but only to find out there was none after he arrived. I was quietly thankful that I was not in his shoes. I was even more thankful that the girl gave me a $50 voucher instead of a $30 one which I thought I had deserved.
Dinner was at Kopitiam in Plaza by the Park, just opposite SMU (Singapore Management University), for I was moving on to the planned highlight of my day: a visit to the newly opened NMS or National Museum of Singapore! It offers free admission from 6pm to 8pm; otherwise one has to pay a hefty $10 per adult. At the museum, I was momentarily transported back to the good old museum-visiting days overseas. As is my habit, I took a leisurely tour of the premises besides looking at the exhibits in the Living Galleries. Both the building and the exhibits interest me greatly. In this instance, being by oneself did not mean feeling lonely. [Of course, having like-minded company is always a plus.]
I left the museum around 8.30pm and walked through the SMU park on the way back to my car. The SMU campus has turned out quite nice for having NMS and SAM (Singapore Art Museum) as its backdrop.
I returned to the hospital half an hour later to see my father again and finally left with the maid for home around 9.40pm.