And one time that stood out was the day the 2003 "O" Level Examination results came out. I wore my Levi's jeans and a brown Esprit short-sleeved shirt printed with a snowboarder motif. Total value: easily eclisped two hundred dollars.
It wasn't the results themselves [but i did get an A1 in english language, frankly all i wanted, even if the rest of my grades were dismal], and what i wore was only a part of it. Cause after the whole shindig in school matt, xuan, jiun, someone i've forgotten and i went to the Cafe Cartel along East Coast Road and had lunch. We talked about results, they talked about junior colleges, matt told me i should try for Law & Management, i noticed that Gilmore Girls was showing on the television sets they had inside Cafe Cartel,
After lunch we [matt, xuan & i] made plans to meet at Somerset later for a gig that was playing at The Third Place. I had no idea where that was, and i'd never been to a gig before.
all i knew was that i wanted to go.
But it was hours away. And if i had to go home and be alone to wait it out i know that i wouldn't be able to make myself leave the house again. So i thought of places to crash. School was out, matt's was out, i decided to head into the city by myself and see if there was any of my interest to be held there.
I ended up mooching about library@orchard, a subway stop down from Somerset. When five o'clock came i headed down to Somerset and met up with matt. finding out xuan was going to be late, we headed to the Burger King across the road from the station, where i bought a large iced lemon tea, we chatted, and matt played Billards on my Palm.
When we found out xuan was going to head there on his own [his jam session with some people i didn't know ended late], we headed off in search of the bus service he told us to take, crossing two roads to get to the bus-stop on the other side of Somerset station. we couldn't find it. decided that it was probably to be found a stop downstream, so matt and i trudged through the foliage on the side of the road to get to the bus-stop down the road. you weren't supposed to be walking there, and i can just imagine the numbers of drivers, headlights dazzling the bushes, wondering that the two teenage boy making their way along the road, half on the dirt, half on asphalt, were trying to do. besides trying to maintain my balance on the dirt and trying to to fall, i was also looking up the bus service on the internet, on my Ericsson. i kept getting an error message saying that the service was not found, and i told matt, "if we get there, and it's not there, we're taking a cab."
matt was all, "really?", and when we got to the bus-stop and found that the service wasn't available there, i dragged him to the Wisma Atria cab-stand to wait for a cab. i remember seeing a Lexus ES300, matt saying that "it's a fucking Camry!", and i said something that must have sounded inane to him about how the Toyota Camry and Lexus ES300 are basically the same car underneath their skins, save for the engines, and then we got into a cab. the was the whole thing about how "Outram" should be pronounced, both matt and i thought OUtram, but it was only when, in exasperation, i tried OUTram that the taxi driver understood me. and then he though matt and i were japanese or korean tourists. ew.
then it was getting there [i paid for the cab ride, not that i minded, just in case anyone out there thinks i shouldn've paid for a cab ride i suggested, i did, okay?] the gigs, my nosebleed in the middle, leaving, walking a distance to Great World City, eating at the McDonald's there that was about to close, taking a cab ride, dropping matt off at City Hall, dropping me off at Chuan Park, and then the cab making a u-turn in Serangoon Avenue Three, receeding into the distance with xuan in it, signalling the end of the evening.
everything from arriving at The Third Place onwards was better fleshed out in the original blog post i made, which i am going to dig out and post here just because it's special. i just wanted to make a note to remember it, and look where that went. oh, and yeah. that bus service that xuan told us to take that night? terminated a long time ago.
found it, and posted it. click on the title of this post to access it, alternatively click here.
"I remember when the days were long
And the nights when the living room was on the lawn
Constant quarreling, the childish fits
And our clothes in a pile on the ottoman
All the slander and double speak were only foolish attempts to show you did not mean
Anything, but the blatant proof was your lips touching mine in the photobooth
And as the summer's ending
The cold air will push your hard heart away
You were so condescending
And this is all that's left
Scraping paper to document
I've packed a change of clothes and it's time to move on.
Cup your mouth to compress the sound
Skinny dipping with the kids from a nearby town
And everything that I said was true
As the flashes blinded us in the photobooth
Well I lost track and then those words were said
You took the wheel and you steered us into my bed
And soon we woke and I walked you home
And it was pretty clear that it was hardly love
And as the summer's ending
The cold air will rush your hard heart away
You were so condescending
And this is all that's left
Scraping paper to document
I've packed a change of clothes and it's time to move on
And as the summer's ending
The cold air will rush your hard heart away
You were so condescending
As the alcohol drained the days
And as the summer's ending
The cold air will rush your hard heart away
You were so condescending
And this is all that's left
The empty bottles, spent cigarettes
So pack a change of clothes, 'cause its time to move on"
- "Photobooth", Death Cab For Cutie
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