Better days

I've been spending an hour or so walking around a place of choice as some sort of citizen-tourist after booking out these two weeks. Spurred on by interesting photos of Singapore I saw on the internet and all over Instagram, I decided to go on similar, sporadic photography trips of my own, and they've turned out to be surprisingly fulfilling. :) Up till recently, I was accustomed to a mindset of convenience and practicality when it comes to travelling in Singapore, always either taking the usual public transport routes to get to the same few places I usually frequent, travelling for the sake of meeting friends and accomplishing tasks rather than as an end in itself, or choosing to be driven around by car whenever we go out as a family. Though such habits have nonetheless made me well-acquainted with generally many places across Singapore (for after all, it's still a little red dot on the world map), there remains places I have never bothered to set foot in or explore properly. So on Wednesday, I walked around Taman Jurong Estate and the immediate vicinity surrounding Lakeside station, and just yesterday, I travelled by foot from Tanjong Pagar station to Chinatown, with the aims of simply taking in the various sights and sounds, and finding new perspectives from which to document Singapore. Being alone with myself and visiting the places I'd like to properly see and explore without being detoured by a partner proved to be more enjoyable than I thought. Of course, going for photography trips with friends – especially with those who have similar interests – can definitely enrich the experience, and it's been great having a few of them willing to participate in such journeys with me. Glad to have invested in a hobby of some sorts in which I can both enjoy at my own leisure and utilise as an avenue for bonding. :)

In other news, some updates dating from a few weeks back till today:

Some photos from the Friday four (!!) weeks ago. Had an impromptu photography session with Rashid & Sylvia at Fort Canning Park and National Museum of Singapore before chilling with some drinks at SMU, followed by a men's meeting organized by my church with some of the guys from E391 which turned out better than I expected. Managed to bond with a few other guys from EC Zone through a food hunt for which we pretty much failed terribly, but it's alright – there wouldn't be an opportunity for us to meet otherwise, and it was humbling learning about their personal experiences and backgrounds. Admittedly, I was skeptical about the whole event at first, but of course, I didn't  regret turning up after it all ended. :)

Labour Day (three Thursdays ago) was spent with Yi Ren & Sheryl at the Marina area. Initially we met up with the intention of cementing our plans for a short trip to KL (which thankfully has already been settled as of now), but it just ended up being one of those random walks round town for gazing at the same old city lights and having the same old idle conversations. It was a good respite from the stifling atmosphere back in camp though, speaking of which that particular week wasn't too bad, actually. Had a recce skills evaluation which my team fared pretty well in – something completely unexpected considering the lack of training prior to the test.

For my night out on Wednesday, I planned to meet Rashid & Sylvia for a short catch-up session. Was initially keen on catching the new Spider-Man movie with them, until Sylvia said that she's already watched it... much to no one's surprise, actually. After all, when it comes to watching Marvel movies together, chances are at least one of your friends have already watched it before /shrugs.

With the movies crossed off our already short list of things-we-could-do, we decided to settle with coffee, which brought us to our next challenge – settling on a nice and accessible café to meet. There's a considerable number of cafés that dot the West Coast and Bukit Timah areas near my camp, and I personally have been wanting to try a few of them, notably those near NUS such as W39 Bistro & Revolution Coffee. But in the end, after much light bickering, we decided on D'Good Café at Holland Village, which wasn't exactly among the first few cafés I would think of, but that's just me, because I didn't know that it would be Rashid's and Sylvia's first time at Holland Village... MUCH to my surprise, hahaha. I guess Easties will always be Easties, well unless your camp just happens to be at the other end of Singapore.

Brief as the meet-up was, it was great seeing them again and laughing over the same old stupid things. The waffles from D'Good were good, too – underrated considering how many hobbyist café-hoppers seem to always gush over the waffles from the same few cafés while notably leaving this one out. It's not exactly incredibly crisp with a burnished layer on the outside while fluffy and cottony on the inside like how the food reviewers would put it, but it's definitely good enough to merit a couple of positive reviews.

Headed to Coffee Bean with Rashid after that, where he had his breakfast-for-dinner, rather strange considering how he messed up his order of meals for the day hahaha. Then again, it just goes to show that anytime is a good time for dessert. :) Talked about their upcoming trip to Krabi over his meal, and felt a little regretful that I couldn't make it. Nonetheless, the upcoming short getaway to KL with Sheryl & Yi Ren should compensate for all that I'm going to miss.

Overall, I would say that my days have been slightly better as of late? It comes as a stark contrast against a few weeks ago, during the period when I found myself contemplating my existing friendships and the problems faced when it comes to maintaining them. I'm trying harder to keep everyone in mind right now, and hopefully the efforts will pay off in the long run. As much as I'm better off on my own most of the time being the introvert I am, and despite how I'm an adaptable person who takes changes in my stride, I have to decide that I still do need some of the people I've met in the past as my close friends. I shouldn't be too eager to let go, to dismiss the distance that results from a lack of effort as differences that can no longer be reconciled. And as I work harder on this aspect of life, I definitely hope that I'll be seeing yet another opportunity for personal growth.