Saturday, July 02, 2005

A Friday night out

I was having courses in Orchard Road area on this Thursday and Friday.

For those of you not familiar with Singapore, the Orchard Road took its name from the many orchards in the area during Singapore's colonial era.

Here's a snapshot of its history, taken from http://asiatours.com.sg/sia1.htm:
In the 1830s, it was a country lane with bamboo hedges and trees. A tiger was killed there in 1846. However, falling prices and insects eventually wiped the orchards out. The land became valuable and wealthy Europeans and local towkays (big bosses) built grand houses there. Orchard Road became an elegant, tree-lined boulevard nearly a mile long. Gradually however, this changed until by the 1960s and 1970s, it had become a street of shops, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets.


Since the course ended in the evening, it was not practical for me to head back for office to clear work. If I had done soon, the office might have been locked up and I would need to unlock the doors of the office.

So yesterday, after the end of the course, I headed for several of the nearby shopping centres in Orchard Road area to get some items for my trip to the United Kingdoms.

I was browsing for a wind-breaker. I have one already, but I was hoping I could find another one which would be lighter, and yet able to protect me from the cold weather in Aberdeen, Scotland. I was told that it would be windy in Aberdeen in August.

I had dinner at the food centre at Le Meridien Hotel. I quite like dining there. It is relatively spacious, and it usually does not give me the noisy and crowded feel that other food courts along the Orchard Road tend to give me. I quite like the Korean food there, but I decided that since I had Korean food already for my lunch yesterday, I shall try the seafood fried rice from one of the stalls. This stall is supposedly famous for its seafood.

Prior to being at the food centre at Le Meridien Hotel, I was actually at this shopping complex named Plaza Singapura. When I checked out the food court, it was too noisy and crowded for my liking, so I headed for Le Meridien Hotel. If you haven't been to the food centre there, you may wish to check it out one day, especially if you are residing in Singapore.

After dinner, I spent much time window-shopping at this shopping complex called Centrepoint. Much later, I gave a phone call to Mystic whom I know was meeting an acquaintance in the Orchard Road area. She said she would call me after her meeting with the acquaintance. So I went to take a look at the shirts in this departmental store named Robinsons.

When Mystic was done with her meeting with her acquaintance, she gave me a call. Only then did I realise that she was at another shopping complex at least two or three bus-stops away. It was kind of her to offer to take the bus down to where I was to meet me up. I think it has been thoughtful of her to decide to take time to meet up despite her busy schedule, so I was appreciative of her gesture of friendship.

We ended up catching up with each other in a cafe. She said something like: I could find other ways to cope with things around me???? Or did she mean something else? Maybe I was not at the same frequency with her last night? I have been clueless, so I shall not attempt to guess anymore.

So here marks a Friday night out.

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