The second installment of the 4-month back-lock.

Sun 4 Oct

I went to service and had cell group at Niwa Sushi. I've been buying salmon belly sashimi every time I'm at Niwa, but I think the only major dissatisfaction I have with the place is that the fridge is not cold enough. I think sashimi should be kept colder. Anyway, in the evening, I went down to Kaki Bukit to practise at the circuit. Strangely enough, I felt more apprehensive about the circuit than about driving on the road. Weirder than that, in the circuit I had more problems with normal parking than parallel parking! I think my instructor over-trained me on parallel.

Mon 5 Oct

I went to Rid's with my colleague to buy and sell some Magic the Gathering cards, and afterwards, my colleague kindly gave me a ride down to Eunos MRT station where I met my instructor for lessons. Tomorrow would be the driving test! However, he could not secure a circuit booking, so I drove around on the road. He made me practise filtering across 4 lanes near Eunos MRT station repeatedly, because I told him that stretch of road was what I was least confident of.

Tue 6 Oct

The highlight of the busy day was lunch at Old Airport Road. I didn't want to overeat, in case my stomach gave me problems during the driving test, so I had just a bowl of prawn noodles, although I did add extra noodles. The person apparently forgot, and when I queried, the cook immediately took out a bowl, cooked a new full bowl of noodles, and added soup. So I ended up with the equivalent of two bowls of noodles (but one order worth of prawns, of course).

After school ended, I rushed down to Eunos where my instructor had booked one more circuit session for me to practise. The strange thing was that I kept forgetting to stop at the stop lines. My instructor kept assuring me that I was fine, and just needed to stop being nervous. I think this had got to be the test I had least confidence of passing. Additionally, since my wife was not going to be able to drive soon because of her pregnant belly, I had the pressure of needing to pass. Now.

I was paired with a stern-faced stocky tester. He didn't say much, but just gave me instructions on what to do next. He commented that I was too far right when I parked (the normal one, not the parallel one), and he kept harping on it over and over. I thought I was a goner, but then he asked me to drive out, so I knew I had a chance. After I drove out, he directed me to the route that he was testing me with, and I was to make a left turn. There was one stupid car that stopped with hazard lights on right smack before that junction. I hesitated for a while, and my tester started berating me, and criticizing my indecision and judgment. He kept on belittling me all the way, and I just nodded and apologized away. By the time I was turning back to the driving centre, I was dead sure I failed. He motioned me to follow him to the debrief place, and then he criticized me once more.

Then he said, "Be more decisive when you are on the road" and passed me the report. And it said "passed"! I couldn't quite believe it, so thank God for that! I went to return the car to my instructor, and when I told him my result, he told me that I had nothing to worry about, although, he added, that tester I had was one of the strictest in the centre. Whew. I had not felt as much relief in clearing a test since probably the 'A' levels.

Wed 7 Oct

I managed to squeeze out enough time to go to 216 market to eat ban mian for lunch. I had to push off my colleagues' request that I drive out, and I told them that even if they dared to sit in my car, I didn't trust myself. Driving to school from home was still alright, because I was familiar with the route, and had my wife as navigator, though she behaved as a driving instructor more often than not. Haha.

Thu 8 Oct

I bought breakfast from Seng Ban Choon today, and only because sexy uncle wasn't there today. In the midst of the long day at school, my colleagues and I took a break and headed down to Old Airport Road for lunch again. In the evening, my wife and I went to White Sands for dinner. I bought some movie DVDs, and then we ate at Coffee Club, trying out their new pitas items on the special menu.

Fri 9 Oct

After a packed morning till noon, I went out with my colleague to a far away coffee shop, and ate at eBlackboard. The carbonara was still superb, and I had a full stomach before I went to pick up my wife to go to the gynae. This was the stage of pregnancy where there was no more ultrasound scan pictures to keep because baby was too big to fit the scan, so you would just see this big round patch of white that's the head and nothing else, so all the gynae did was to let you listen to the heartbeat of the baby.

Sat 10 Oct

This was a really long day. I started the day with my wife having a Superdog breakfast, which was good as usual. For lunch, I went out to Elias Mall to buy zi char back, and right after that, I laboured and cleared the storeroom, because the junk was just piling up. We needed to urgently reorganize so that when the maid comes, she could help us maintain. In the evening, I headed down to Marine Parade where we were going to have a tribe meeting, and our cell members went as well.

All of a sudden, Collin suggested mahjong, and that got Shups and Alvin interested. Collin needed to send one of his boys back, so he told us to wait for him. Alvin needed to settle some things as well, so Shups and I joined our pastor for a drink at a nearby coffeeshop. My wife drove back home first to rest, since I wasn't done yet. When Collin was on his merry way back to pick Shups and me up (all the way back from Sunset Way!) , Alvin informed us that he couldn't join us. I convinced Shups that since Collin was halfway across the country, we should still try to play, so we ended up playing 3-man mahjong at my house. Shups later regretted that decision because she lost quite a bit of money to Collin and I, with Collin being the big winner of the day. Guess the money covered his petrol costs of going from east to west, west to east, and after mahjong, east to west once more.

Sun 11 Oct

A typical Sunday. An interesting thing was the sour plum lime juice drink from the NTUC food court at Simei, which was really good. After cell group, I spent the rest of the day with Jadon at my in-laws' place.

Mon 12 Oct

It was the usual day at school, and I was at 216 market with my colleagues for lunch when I received a phone call from my mum. I thought it must be something trivial, but it was actually to inform me that my second aunt had passed away. Out of all my aunts, I was closest to her because she lived near my old place, and we went there occasionally, and there was a time when my mum was unwell and I stayed with her for a couple of months. I was quite shocked, because I didn't hear anything wrong with her except for the typical cataract and joint pains.

I drove my mum to the wake, and spent some time there. I was sad but could only shed a tear. Apparently, my cousins were prepared for it, and only later did I find out that my aunt was down with cancer, but nobody spoke of it before. I was wondering why I couldn't cry, and the only sign of my mourning was a perpetual feeling of gloom.

Tue 13 Oct

There was a short day today, and my head of science seized the chance to have a lunch treat for all of the science department, using up the remainder of some recreation funds (or something like that) reserved for such functions. We went to Tampines SAFRA to eat at Sakura restaurant. I whacked many plates of sashimi as usual, and today's Kobe beef (yeah, right) steak was done quite well that I had a couple of rounds.

I went with my mum to the wake again, knowing that I couldn't go for the cremation since it was in the morning during school time. My mum was suppressing her emotions in front of me, but at the wake, she let it loose. Who wouldn't? That's more than six decades of sisterhood.

Wed 14 Oct

It was raining, so when my colleagues were thinking of a place for lunch, I suggested somewhere nearby with sheltered parking, and we ended up at Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant. The food was still good, and it was served fast as it was still early. In the afternoon, we managed to pull off a quick game of mahjong at ZH's place, and I lost a bit there. When I play with those colleagues, I am always prepared to lose money, because I recognize that they are better players than me, with a lot more experience, especially since they always play with grossly higher stakes and need to be more strategic and careful.

Thu 15 Oct

I made several arrangements thinking that my IPT (IPPT Preparatory Training...I think only in Singapore will you find an abbreviation containing another abbreviation) was beginning today. In the end, I made a mistake, so I happily spent the rest of the evening doing grocery shopping and spending time with Jadon. He had been starting to walk, so it was tiring and fun to watch him now.

Fri 16 Oct

The highlight of the day was the grilled fish fillet at Blue Lagoon in 216 market. Superb stuff. Enough to lift my spirits as I went for consultations with my year 2 students. I think the fortunate thing for me owning a car is the fact that my workplace isn't that far from home, and my in-laws' place is near my workplace.

Sat 17 Oct

It was my mini (monthly) anniversary with my wife again. Generally we try to spend time together alone where possible on each 17th, and today was no exception. We had a simple Subway lunch, and did some shopping around. The late afternoon and evening was spent with Jadon, of course, but at night, my wife suddenly complained of hunger, and we went down to Hi Sshou at Elias Mall to have supper. Fortunately, they decided to entertain us even though the kitchen was officially closed, and we managed to have the piping hot food we wanted. The ramen was still excellent, and I had a very filling and therefore unhealthy supper.

Sun 18 Oct

I had service and cell group as usual, and subsequently I picked my mother-in-law and Jadon up and we went to visit my wife's grandma, and spent the rest of the day there. It is always a lively gathering there because on the weekends, the other aunts would pop by as well, and sometimes the cousins too.

Mon 19 Oct

Between the hours of work, my colleagues and I went out to 216 market to eat lunch. I had kway chap at Chris Kway Chap stall, and it was superb. I think this one beats the one at Old Airport Road any day, with or without the ridiculously long queue.

Tue 20 Oct

Today was a surprisingly unhealthy day, even though I was having IPT, which meant sufficient exercise by right. I had pork rib noodles for breakfast, and the yong tau fu opposite school for lunch because I was too full. Before I went for my IPT, I decided to have an early dinner at Wan Chai in White Sands, but I only shared fried rice with my wife because I didn't want to have too heavy a meal before the run. The first session was an IPPT test in order to measure the areas of weakness. I managed to clear all the static stations, but failed the running. The bad thing about the timing was that I needed to eat something light before the session to keep myself going, but if it was something light, I would be dead hungry by the time it ended and needed supper. I suspect that whatever weight I lost I probably gained in the meal after. Sigh. I went to Superdog with my wife for supper because she was feeling kind of hungry too, probably because of the pregnancy.

Wed 21 Oct

It was a long day at school. My colleagues and I made our pilgrimage to Old Airport Road, and I had the Whitley Road Prawn Mee again, to my tremendous satisfaction before returning to school and back to the work. In the evening, my wife and I headed over to Ikea Tampines to shop for some loose ends and furniture to hopefully organize some other parts of the house. We also popped by Giant to buy some groceries, and I bought a boxful of sashimi. The peculiar thing was the sashimi chef recognized me! And gave me a discount! The last time I came by to buy sashimi was at least a year ago. I thought he was just bluffing, but he could tell me that I only came twice (which was correct), and the last time I dropped by was last year. He said that he could remember most of his customers. Cool chap.

Thu 22 Oct

This was an odd day. Originally, I had meant to end the day early, and settle some personal matters together with my wife. However, at around ten, my student's mum called me. Now, I had previously helped her apply for a visa here, but there were several documents, and I agreed with her that it was certainly confusing. The visa application said that her stay here was granted, and the duration was about two months. However, the stamp on the passport implied that she could be here only for 30 days. Essentially, because she needed to extend her stay, she called ICA and only then found out that she had overstayed! This could turn out to be a major issue, so I drove her down to ICA right away, and got a queue number there, and waited for very, very long. While waiting, I made my way to Golden Mile Hawker Centre to eat my favourite char kway teow (the one with the ikan bilis), and when I returned to the ICA, it was our turn. We spent a long time talking to the grouchy guy at the counter who sounded like he was trying to shoo us away and refusing to extend the stay of my student's mum. After I talked to him nicely and politely (even though I was getting somewhat pissed off), he eventually relented, and gave her the extension that she needed. My student's mum was profusely thankful, and very embarrassed for giving me trouble, but I kept assuring her that it wasn't much trouble. It was, however, very time consuming. Haha, but hey, if I didn't help her out, she would be...an illegal immigrant??

Fri 23 Oct

I took childcare leave today to spend time with Jadon, and to settle many, many things, including buying baby's stuff, and going to Elias Mall to settle the maid letter. In any case, I had to delay our picking up of the maid even though she had reached because we hadn't cleaned up and reorganized the stuff in the spare room. Ironically, although if we did pick up the maid, she could help us clean up, the issue was that we didn't even know where to move some of the things to begin with. Anyway, the maid agency was nice enough and assured us that in the meantime, they would just send the maid to the training centre.

Sat 24 Oct

My wife and I ate at Subway for lunch, and went over to my in-laws' place thereafter. I decided to make a new pair of spectacles because the old one was quite scratched, and sometimes at night, I couldn't see too clearly if opposite headlights shone at me. Since it was crucial as I was now the official chauffeur, I blew a healthy $300 to get a new pair. It is always this beastly expensive because of my astigmatism, and the lenses alone cost me more than half the total cost.

Sun 25 Oct

My wife and I went to the full month celebration of my colleague's daughter, and we spent the early afternoon there. I think Jadon is relatively petite, because almost every newborn I have seen lately is much chubbier than he is. After that, we went to Parkway Parade for dinner at Koo Kee in the basement, and the food was still superb. We did some shopping at Mothercare, and bought many, many items for Jadon and the second one, whom we did not have a name for yet. We wanted a good name from the bible, and with God's confirmation, but there was none at the moment.