today is faris' birthday, and even if i do wish him happy birthday (like the kind people love to do by placing a big marquee with bolded red words at the start of a new entry), it is unlikely for him to see it.

i woke up at 730am, made my way to the health promotion board, and had my booster taken which i have missed. the last injection i had was when i was primary 6, and being at the young age of 12, i knew nothing. recalling the past, i remembered my science teacher crouching at the side of the chair i was sitting on, starting to yak about how ray parlour should be taken off the arsenal squad, how good ryan giggs and paul scholes is, and before he could establish another topic, the nurse poked me with an odd looking device armed with a sharp needle at one end. i remembered it wasn't at all, painful - most credit given to my science teacher who 'stood by my side' to distract my thoughts. that made me loosen my muscles, thus allowing the needle to poke through with ease.

but today, the case was totally the opposite. i had my first genuine injection - and taken without company. the pain was so excruciating, i refused to take off the cotton bud (then already became a harden solid cotton wool) when the nurse finally told me to. i kept on pressing the small (and i mean small) wound. i shouldn't even name it a wound - it is even smaller than the red dot we're living in on a world map. and if you think the prick shouldn't be painful since the 'wound' is so small, you're sadly wrong. that onlyproves that the needle is extremely sharp. before taking the injection, i had to go through the trouble of ringing my father up for his office's fax number, so that a immunisation consent form could be faxed to him, signed, and then faxed back to the health promotion board. the nurse took a great deal of time figuring how to use the fax machine. she even pulled a fast one on me by faxing the overleaf of the consent form, which was a blank white piece of paper. so, all the phone calls i made to my dad to explain the confusion will contribute about $2 for this month's bill.

after the injection, i took the train back to clementi and met up with danial and friends. we tried to book a maxi cab but to no avail - all the drivers of the maxi cabs must have been making good use of the vast space in the vehicle. so, we took 2 cabs and headed for pasir ris. our cab was stranded at pasir ris town, had to walk to a bus stop, take the bus down to the nearest shopping centre, and take a cab back to the right chalet we have booked. since the shopping centre was at pasir ris, the taxi stands were coloured with green camo designs - so many NS men waiting for cabs.! then finally, our turn came, and we headed for the right chalet beside downtown east. then, we did nothing in the room for 3 whole hours, before heading out to downtown east to prepare for our barbeque. more people arrived, making the place noisier and dirtier.











i didn't bother to take a lot of photos, because the time there was mostly spent talking to my friends. you know, the feeling's good - you get to do whatever you want in the room (playing soccer for instance), heart talk with your holmies, walk around the resort, all of these with a barbeque pit at your doorstep, literally. and of course the non-stop overflowing of food, courtesy of the chef of the day. at one point of time, our barbeque pit suddenly gave way. all the charcoals were spreaded across the floor and luckily nobody was burnt or injured.

these are charcoals on the floor, and not in the barbeque pit. after too much playing, we headed to REDHOUSE. does it sound like a pub, a mall nearby, the convenience stall at the entrance of the resort, or a posh eatery.? it is neither any of them. REDHOUSE is where people satisfy their drug hunger, bring their girlfriends and act intimately, practice street grafitti, and many other illegal stuff. the place was hard to enter - it required a lot of skill to do so. once inside, pitch black darkness will cave in immediately, leaving even those not wearing glasses or lenses blinded. and to top it all, the place was difficult to manoeuvre about, because of the broken walls, debris and rubble on the floor. we sang the birthday song for faris in the weirdest of place. we spent a tormenting 10 minutes inside this not-at-all-conducive-place-for-living place. the people behind us wanted out - but peer pressure finally convinced them.

after the visiting of the REDHOUSE, shahridan, andrew, calvin and myself called a cab because sighting a cab at the place we were at was virtually impossible. then i am here, typing about what happened today.