Change of Plans

Met up with 3 of my bakery colleagues today for some catching up over dinner.



The plan was to do a bit of cafe hopping, and we had decided prior that we would do that in Holland Village, our main goal was to drop by Sunday Folks to have ice cream and waffles, because Sunday Folks is pretty hipster in my opinion, and we will worry about what we would have for dinner when we were actually there, I mean it's Holland Village, there are probably a shit load of other cafes there that serves savory food. Unfortunately, not everyone was up for that idea because distance was an issue for one of the girls, which I shall call Sandy. In the end, we settled for Raffles City, as suggested by my male ex-colleague, which I shall refer to as MeC.




When MeC suggested Raffles City in the Whatsapp group chat, everyone agreed, I wasn't really up for the idea but since Sandy wasn't so keen on travelling all the way from Tampinese to Holland Village, I begrudgingly agreed and started doing some research online to look for any possible cafes around the area we could visit. Raffles City is the probably one of the last place to find a hipster cafe, so I had a bit of trouble looking for decent cafes that were considered "hipster" and most importantly, worth the trouble to visit, but before I could offer up any relevant suggestion,  MeC goes....

'Let's go eat ramen!"

The plan I discussed with my other friend, let's call her Rei, before we invited MeC and Sandy to the meet up was originally to continue our cafe hopping adventures we (Sandy, Rei, me and another colleague) did a few months back when we visited Wheeler's Yard, so this meet up was sort of a continuation of our cafe hopping from that time, when I say cafe hopping, I mean visiting a cafe, having cafe-ish food like truffle fries , sandwiches, eggs benedict or whatever hipster cafes serve up these days as main course meals, not go to some generic ramen shop to eat ramen, so I asked MeC in the chat...

"Haha , are you craving for ramen ?"

What I really meant was...

"Really? Do you really have to eat ramen, like do you REALLY have to eat ramen?"

We wanted to meet up to visit a cafe to eat cafe food and drink coffee, not go to some Japanese restaurant to eat ramen, that's like saying....

Oh, since we can't go for our yearly Ski Trip (the main point is to go skiing) in Melbourne due to the recent tear in the ozone layer in Australia, let's scratch skiing altogether and just have a nice get together at Changi Chalet for 2 nights where we can have a 48 hours BBQ marathon!"

And he replies...

"Not really, I'm fine with anything, but ramen would be best."

So that means you really want to have ramen, alright, since no one had any suggestions or objections, and I wasn't able to find any cafes around the area, we all agreed to having generic fucking ramen, also since we hadn't seen each other in a long time, I didn't want to say "No, I don't want to eating generic fucking ramen!", so we all let him satisfy his cravings, even if it means completely changing our original outing plan, but I wanted to at least visit a cafe, so I went...

"After dinner,we can drop by Lady M for cakes and coffee.?"

Not hipster, but they serve really great cakes, and I really wanted to at least visit a cafe, and his reply was....

"Wah! Why not Llao Llao?"

and I went....

"Ugh, I hate llao llao"... because I really don't like Llao Llao

And he goes...

"Lady M a bit too atas (high class) for me, maybe we can go Tiong Bahru Bakery for coffee and croissant since it's at Raffles Place. We can also discuss ideas about my wedding cake!"

Lady M is located in Marina Square, that's the same place where the nearest Llao Llao is located. You want ramen, we let you eat ramen, but when I suggest to have cakes and coffee at Lady M, he comes up with all sorts of excuses to not have cake at Lady M, saying it's too atas for him is so stupid and invalid, there's no dress code should you choose to dine at Lady M, whether you are wearing a tuxedo or shorts and slippers, the service is still going to suck, because it's Lady M.

Talked a bit more on the chat afterwards, shared some ideas about what he could do with his wedding cakes in terms of decoration.  He really liked my ideas and said we will discuss them again during our meeting after dinner at the cafe, also said he will print out the sketches yada yada yada.

So we met up at Raffles City today, the 2 girls met up with MeC at his workplace first and I went straight to Raffles City from my workplace, I waited for a total of 30 minutes for them before they finally arrived.  Before we headed to the ramen restaurant, Rei and Sandy had to go to Guardian or something to get some girls stuff, so I got stuck with MeC, and he had to go to a pharmacy at Watsons to get some medication. I thought, since we hadn't seen each other in such a long time, there will probably be a lot to catch up on if I went with him alone.

But I really wasn't interested in being alone with him, the girls had already left and they were getting girl stuff, the last thing they needed was a guy following them into the pad section to discuss which pad had better support and absorption, so I had no choice but to follow MeC, he on the other hand was more interested in getting to the pharmacy than catching up with me, so he started trotting away to the pharmacy, weaving in and out of the human traffic, and left me lagging behind. 

When I finally caught up with him, he was already queuing up at the pharmacy, I asked him what medicine he was getting, in an attempt to start a conversation... he mumbled something I couldn't understand and the moment it was his turn, he went straight to the pharmacist without completing his sentence and started getting free consultation, not that it made any difference whether he completes his sentence or not because I didn't know what the hell he was mumbling on about.



It was only when he was at the pharmacist did I realize he was getting medication for a simple sore throat. He got his medication and went straight to the counter to pay for his item. I stood with him for about 20 seconds, we spoke a bit for only the first 5 seconds or so, if that's even considered speaking, and when I started to feel the awkward silence slowing creeping up on us, I went over to the facial cleanser area to look at facial cleansers, because starting at bottles of facial cleansers is better than awkwardly standing next to him.



I was at the facial cleanser section for probably a good 5 minutes, and usually if I am making someone wait this long for me, I will at least try to start a conversation with that person or ask that person to go to elsewhere first, not stand around and have them wait for me indefinitely, but that apparently didn't bother him because when he was done paying for his medicine, he walks up to me and says....

"I need to get hair wax.Where is the hair wax? Need to get wax?"

So I point out the wax section to him, I knew where it was because the hair wax section was near the facial cleanser, and how would I know that, because I've been standing there for 5 bloody minutes waiting for him. He grabs the hair wax and rejoins the queue again, this time another 5 minutes... when he was FINALLY done, he heads out without letting me know, it was only when he was outside Watsons did he start looking around, as if suddenly remembering he had just left someone behind, someone who had been waiting 10 minutes for him to get his stuff, TWICE.  I went up to him and told him that took a while (like a fucking long time) and he goes....

"Yeah, *mumble* *mumble*....I go toilet."

I had already waited 10 minutes for him, I was not interested in waiting anymore, so I asked him where the restaurant was, I will head there first since the girls were already waiting there, twice, he mumbles something back to me about the restaurant not being on the level we were at and before I could ask him for the specific location, he bolts right to the nearby toilet and left me on my own outside, waiting for him AGAIN. What the fuck? He treats me like I am there just for the sole purpose of waiting for him.

His personality really reminded me of this bloke I was stuck with during my 5 days OBS camp who was very self centered and wouldn't stop talking about himself, every single time without fail, like I'm his fucking psychiatrist.



When I try to talk to him about other stuff that doesn't circle around him, he will get bored, change the topic and start talking about himself again. ON AND ON AND ON~ and no matter how much I try to distance myself away from him, he's like fucking Pikachu, he's keeps following me.

Pestkachu

I am not Ash, I really want him to GTFO and quit sticking around me, it was so frustrating because as if feeling very homesick wasn't bad enough, I get stuck with a fucking moron like him, which made everything so much worst, and for the first 3 days I really hated OBS. It wasn't until the 4th day did I finally get a chance to pair up with my very good friend who was in another group for our kayaking, and that was when I finally started to enjoy the whole experience. I guess they aren't exactly the same, MeC and this Bloke from OBS, the latter is definitely a lot worst, like Worst Buddy of the Millennium Award would go to him, but there's definitely some similarities in the way they are able to tune out and ignore what other people are saying to them.

I digress, so when MeC came out of the toilet, he signals to me and we head for the escalator, he made no attempts at trying to start a conversation with me during our the escalator ride and instead, takes out his phone and starts checking his messages. It was only when we were about to reach the restaurant did he start trying to ask me how I was doing, so I replied and asked him how work was, unsurprisingly that conversation didn't last long,thankfully the restaurant was nearby and we were reunited with the 2 girls.

Rei was a lot more interested in starting a conversation with me, so within a minute, we were catching up with each other about what we've been doing etc. I spend a good 10 to 15 minutes with MeC and we only spoke less than a minute, that's how "close" we are.

Halfway through our ordering, MeC decides to invite another one of his colleague over , an ex-colleague of Rei and I, because that person happened to be working nearby, I shall refer to her as S, so S came over and she was very friendly. We had our dinner, talked a bit more and headed out.

After dinner, we discussed about where to go next and I suggested Lady M, everyone was feeling full, so I thought we could walk if off by heading to Marina Square, which really isn't that far away, but MeC wasn't interested in walking "so far", and Sandy wanted to go home, so he suggested we go to St Marcs instead because it was close by, we can have our dessert there and split the bill for the ramen meal we just had as we enjoy our ice cream and coffee.




Walked to St Marcs and lo and behold, the place is packed to the brim, we all stood outside hoping to find an empty space for the 5 of us, and when none could be found, EmC goes...

"Let's go back to S workplace and we can sort out our dinner payment there."... because Sandy had paid by credit card earlier.

And that was it... dessert got cancelled, just like that,I had thought the point of going to the cafe, apart from having desserts and coffee, was to discuss his wedding cake ideas, but that was not the case because when we settled our bills, no one was interested in dessert anymore... and MeC was no longer interested in talking about his wedding cake.




We hardly discussed about his wedding cake, a topic he suggested that we gather at a cafe to talk about in the Whatsapp chat, and when Rei brought it up during dinner as a conversation topic, he talks about it for less than 5 minutes and that was it, discussion over, no need to try and drag out the conversation, just let it end there and have us embrace the long and awkward silence together that was only killed when S came along. He was the on who wanted to discuss the wedding cake, but he never brought it up, he was the one who said he will print out the sketch so we could discuss about the design further, the sketch was never seen, probably didn't even print it at all, all the rough ideas I discussed with him in the chat, he never ask me to elaborate further. If you are not interested in talking about it, why bring it up as a possible conversation topic in the chat in the first place?

I understand Sandy wanted to go home, so I thought Rei, MeC and I could have dessert and do some proper catching up, but after seeing how pack St Marcs was, he wasn't interested anymore and because Rei was a bit full, she just went with the majority and all 3 of them decided to go home and S went back to work.




In the end, we parted ways, my stomach still feeling a bit empty because I had skipped lunch thinking I had to save space for the dessert, it was quite disappointing, I enjoyed catching up with Rei but honestly, I think the meet up would have gone a lot better had I not suggested for Rei to invite MeC, would've probably been able to eat more interesting food.




I don't dislike MeC, I mean he was quite pleasant to  work with, but if given a choice, I would choose not to hang out with him outside of work because hanging out with him brings me no joy, that's why when he invited me to his wedding, (I'm assuming he just mass invited everyone he knew personally on facebook) I didn't bother to reply, because we are not close, I'm not willing to travel 3 hours into Malaysia to attend the wedding of someone I merely view as a work colleague.

A reprimanding lesson

Blogging in the office, if I was working for someone else, no doubt I would be getting fired.



I managed to pass my Final Theory Test last week on my first try and I was very impress with myself, it took me 2 tries to pass my Basic Theory, so I thought my Final Theory would probably take more than 2 tries because it's supposedly more difficult.




I guess it was sheer luck that I managed to pass, just like how I managed to snag a B3 for my Chinese O Level, that for sure is a fluke because my Chinese is horrible and I managed to score higher for my Chinese than I did for my English, makes absolutely no sense at all.




Anyways, I went for my Driving Practical Lesson yesterday and I guess my all my driving school luck was used up during my FTT because I got assigned a new and very unfriendly driving instructor.





The first thing he said to me was...

"WHAT?"

...when I was walking towards him to let him know I was his assigned student that day. Extremely rude but I didn't want to reply in kind , so I just told him nicely that I was his student that day, gave him my identification and showed him the necessary documents that I was his student that day, maybe dial down on the rudeness a bit because I am not an insurance agent on the street who's trying to hard sell insurance plans to you.




We both headed into the car and the first thing I did was try to start the engine, so I turned the ignition key really hard, but instead of hearing the "vroom" sound a car makes, I hear the instructor yelling at me...

"OI! OI! THE CAR STARTED ALREADY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? CAN YOU SEE THE DASHBOARD, THE CAR IS IN PARK!"

I admit, that was my fault. He then went on a rant about how I was damaging the car engine and what not, kept scolding me and throwing out rhetorical questions like..

"If the car spoils how? If spoil how? You know doing that will spoil the car engine."

I knew it was my fault so I just sat there and let him rain his scoldings on me as I kept apologizing, hoping that will make him stop. He did stop eventually and we drove around the circuit a few times, at this point, my mood was already ruined and I was feeling very very flustered and nervous because of his scoldings, so I just sat quietly in the car while he was at the passenger seat, probably quietly judging my abilities as a driver and also maybe worried about a potential accident that I might cause that would cost him his life.



When we finally drove out, he managed to calm down a bit and started talking to me a with a much more civil tone, telling me the amount of points I would have lost had this been a Traffic Police Test, and everything was fine and well for like 5 minutes, because 5 minutes later I had to do a jam brake on the car to stop myself from running an amber light. The look on his face when he realized what had happen was like the ultimate look of "I've had enough of this crap"

He then went on a rant about the dangers I have placed myself and on the other road users, blah blah blah, I apologized and he stayed angry for a while and at this point, I just found the whole situation hilarious because it's as if every time after he has calmed down a bit, I somehow manage to find a way to make a mistake to get him riled up again. the mistakes weren't as bad as the jam brake and "almost destroying the car engine" at the beginning of the lesson bad, just small things like not checking my blind spot or not signalling before turning. mistakes experience drivers always commit.




He was especially annoyed when I took my time to make a U-Turn at a busy road, this was my first lesson during peak hour, so I was very new to the heavy traffic environment. Every time he saw an opening for me to drive out, he goes....

"Okay, after the white van you think can?"

...and I would take a while to answer and by the time I did, he goes...

"Missed it, now need to wait again.... okay after the red car you think can?"

... and once again, I would take a while to access the situation....

"Miss again"

... and he just slumps back into his seat. I was at the U-Turn area for a very long time, I actually started to feel really bad for hogging because the cars behind me were starting to pile up, but thankfully, maybe because of a traffic lights, the roads managed to stay completely clear and I was able to make a proper U-Turn, the instructor wasn't happy with my progress so we repeated it a few times, it wasn't fun. The clock on the dashboard was set at a wrong time so I couldn't tell if the lesson was ending soon or not, which made it even worse.




I had a lot of problems as it turns out, never check blind spot, lane change was too abrupt, road hogging due to slow lane change among other life endangering problems. When the lesson finally ended, I was ecstatic, even though this instructor managed to pin point a lot of the problems I had with my driving, I really don't care much for his attitude, the reason why I think I was able to find his outburst funny was because I was in a good mood that day  for managing to pass my FTT the week before. Had I been in a foul mood that day things would have gone very differently, I might just stop the lesson midway and ask him to drop me off at my house because I've had enough of his bullshit attitude.



I don't work well under pressure, as evident from me almost running the amber light, I've never made that mistake before. The other instructor that I complained about, despite having an attitude, he never really scolded me, probably because I gave him a look when he tried to, but this one was constantly picking out my mistakes and reprimanding me for it, which made me very flustered and when I am flustered, I can't focus.




Now I just hope for my next lesson, a friendly instructor.




I tried to look up the instructor's number on the BBDC website, but for some odd reason, he's not listed as one of the instructors, that and also the fact that his number has 5 digits, as opposed to the 4 digits all the other instructions have. Those with 5 digits are normally reserves, but even so, they still appear in the list, so I must have been one lucky bastard to get him that day.