Another BIG walk...and my day is MADE!
21st July 2010 ~
I decided, almost on the spur of the moment, to sally forth into the outside world at 12:12 pm, ignoring the almost-ferocious beating of the Sun's harsh heat.
Heading for the bus stop that I thought I had seen outside Pantai Hospital, I take another shortcut for the first time ever, only to arrive at the spot outside the hospital to discover that there was no bus stop at all!(Or maybe it had been moved or removed)
My original plan was to go to the registered office of a listed company, whose AGM I intended to attend the next morning.
After waiting for a bus for almost ten minutes, my patience wore out and I headed on foot towards the registered office of the listed company aforementioned, with the general bearing determined by my recollection of the Google map I had used to locate the given address.
Buildings on the route offered temporary shelter, and I augmented these moments of respite by sneaking into bank branches, fruit shops and a newstand & bookshop for short moments to cool down while browsing.
Finally, seeing that the time was smack within the two lunch hours between midday and 2 pm, I decided to head to my favourite coffee shop to enjoy a delicious cuppa tea.
There I spotted a hunk in a rather teasingly tight blue shirt who was with some colleagues at a table behind.
I stole some glances at him using the reflection from the drinks cooler's glass door, and I think he may have taken notice of my searching gaze.
However, my confidence and common sense were too pragmatic to allow my hormones to try my luck, which they wanted to badly, given that this was my 27th month in partnerless solitude.
Anyway, I sipped my tea ever so slowly and finally, he went by from behind, allowing me to see his rather buff physique outlined by a rather too erotically deep shade of blue. As he turned right to head to his office/car, I could see that he had a very attractive face, with heavy eyebrows and the look that I would just dream of having. A hint of chest showed through his shirt and I suppressed an urge to get up and follow him, my tea having been quickly consumed in the ensuing seconds.
He turned slightly to look in my direction, but seemed to only be searching the glass display case in between us.
Shrugging my shoulders internally, I got up after a minute or so to head in the same direction where the betting shop was and bought the numbers 8998 and 3773,the first number being one which I had overheard a man seated behind me in the coffee shop utter about ten minutes before.
On the way, I looked out for the gorgeous hunk, but he was no longer anywhere to be spotted.
After my betting slip was snugly in my wallet, I headed back the same direction I had come from, in the direction of a large shopping mall which was close to the registered office I was going to.
Deciding to take an unconventional route, which also offered more sheltering trees and houses, I walked past small terraced single-storey houses that looked like they were all heading into their golden years.
I welcomed the gust of air-conditioned coolness as I walked through the doors of Jusco shopping mall.
Then followed a long walk up to the first floor, around it, back down to ground level, back up to first, and repeated.
I visited a jeweller called 'My Diamond' and pretended to be shopping for a diamond ring and/or necklace.
The girl humored me kindly enough considering that my attire looked more in place at a construction site, showing me the sparkling 13-diamond necklace that cost over $16 000.She said that a 20% discount could be given when I then asked to look at diamond rings.
Dissatisfied with a rather ostentatious multi-diamond ring that I first asked to look at, I then asked for a ring with the largest diamond the shop had.
She then took me to a corner where I was shown a simple-looking ring that had a 0.78-carat diamond selling for almost $17 000.
After small-talking her through the next 2 minutes, I then enquired about the unmounted solitaires in their own display cases under the same counter.
The largest one, a 1-carat diamond, was said to cost $40 000.
Satisfied that I could afford each and every item in that shop even though I was merely feigning interest, I then thanked her, said I would consider the items, and walked out, heading for a perfumery if there was one.
There wasn't any specialty perfume shop, but I visited the Christian Dior counter in the department store, and investigated a 100ml bottle of 'Midnight Poison' EDT that I had read good reviews of online.
The smell was quite enchanting, but I was put off when I saw 'patchouli' listed as the main ingredient; the night before, I had read that patchouli root was one of the known carcinogens in perfume, together with civet musk and other ingredients.
However, some of the scent rubbed off onto my left hand when I handled the attractive flacon, and it stayed with me for another hour.
On I proceeded to my intended destination, but it proved harder to pin down than I'd initially thought.
What Google maps seemingly showed to be one building turned out to be several rows of various double-storey shops.
After walking along three rows of shops fruitlessly, I asked an employee of an Indian food stall if he knew the named location; he didn't, but gestured to a Malay man seated at the only occupied table in the restaurant,claiming that he would definitely know where I should be headed to.
Suppressing a wee bit of trepidation, I approached the Malay man with my inquiry. He gestured in a roughly North Northwest direction and said 'belakang McDonalds'.
Thanking him and walking on, I then tried to reset my coordinates, and ended up going along a route very familiar to me as I usually traversed it in a car, but now was going about it on my own two-legged engine.
After about ten minutes, a kilometre and a half, and crossing two roads, I saw the so-called Golden Arches marking the 24-hour burger joint that I hated and yet adored so much.
As I walked past the petrol station neighbouring it, I found to my great dismay that the specified location was a building getting off the ground, with the third floor still being completed.
At that point, I told myself to just attend the AGM the next day and hope for the best, with heat exhaustion beginning to set in.
But my hope wasn't totally extinguished when I turned back the way I had come to see another row of shops that I knew about but hadn't yet traversed.
Keeping these fragments of hope in my bosom away from the heat, I walked slowly along this row, and spotted the name I was looking for on an envelope in a mailbox outside an office. I walked on, past car repair shops, interior decor outfits, and stumbled upon a name I had associated with registering listed companies : Symphony.
The moment I entered the office, the fragments of hope in my heart blossomed into conviction that this was, after all, the place I was seeking all along.
When I mentioned the name of the company whose AGM I was attending to the lady at the counter, she turned to an unseen colleague in a back office and repeated the company name out loud. I then looked through the lists of the hundred or more companies the office serves as a registry for, and spotted the one I was looking for.
After waiting a little while, the lady from the back office came out to hand me an annual report and some instructions on what to take along.
Satisfied that it was mission accomplished, I headed back out into the Sun clutching the orange, white and green booklet and retraced my steps back home.
Along the way there, I had suddenly remembered that it was Wednesday, and that a student was arriving at 2 pm for a class.I gave up on the idea of returning immediately to attend to him, justifying it with the fact that he had not come for over six weeks without notification.
Well, when I finally returned home, tracing 228 paces from one end of the road to the other, there he was, still waiting for me! It was a miracle that he had waited so long, unlike the previous week!
I decided, almost on the spur of the moment, to sally forth into the outside world at 12:12 pm, ignoring the almost-ferocious beating of the Sun's harsh heat.
Heading for the bus stop that I thought I had seen outside Pantai Hospital, I take another shortcut for the first time ever, only to arrive at the spot outside the hospital to discover that there was no bus stop at all!(Or maybe it had been moved or removed)
My original plan was to go to the registered office of a listed company, whose AGM I intended to attend the next morning.
After waiting for a bus for almost ten minutes, my patience wore out and I headed on foot towards the registered office of the listed company aforementioned, with the general bearing determined by my recollection of the Google map I had used to locate the given address.
Buildings on the route offered temporary shelter, and I augmented these moments of respite by sneaking into bank branches, fruit shops and a newstand & bookshop for short moments to cool down while browsing.
Finally, seeing that the time was smack within the two lunch hours between midday and 2 pm, I decided to head to my favourite coffee shop to enjoy a delicious cuppa tea.
There I spotted a hunk in a rather teasingly tight blue shirt who was with some colleagues at a table behind.
I stole some glances at him using the reflection from the drinks cooler's glass door, and I think he may have taken notice of my searching gaze.
However, my confidence and common sense were too pragmatic to allow my hormones to try my luck, which they wanted to badly, given that this was my 27th month in partnerless solitude.
Anyway, I sipped my tea ever so slowly and finally, he went by from behind, allowing me to see his rather buff physique outlined by a rather too erotically deep shade of blue. As he turned right to head to his office/car, I could see that he had a very attractive face, with heavy eyebrows and the look that I would just dream of having. A hint of chest showed through his shirt and I suppressed an urge to get up and follow him, my tea having been quickly consumed in the ensuing seconds.
He turned slightly to look in my direction, but seemed to only be searching the glass display case in between us.
Shrugging my shoulders internally, I got up after a minute or so to head in the same direction where the betting shop was and bought the numbers 8998 and 3773,the first number being one which I had overheard a man seated behind me in the coffee shop utter about ten minutes before.
On the way, I looked out for the gorgeous hunk, but he was no longer anywhere to be spotted.
After my betting slip was snugly in my wallet, I headed back the same direction I had come from, in the direction of a large shopping mall which was close to the registered office I was going to.
Deciding to take an unconventional route, which also offered more sheltering trees and houses, I walked past small terraced single-storey houses that looked like they were all heading into their golden years.
I welcomed the gust of air-conditioned coolness as I walked through the doors of Jusco shopping mall.
Then followed a long walk up to the first floor, around it, back down to ground level, back up to first, and repeated.
I visited a jeweller called 'My Diamond' and pretended to be shopping for a diamond ring and/or necklace.
The girl humored me kindly enough considering that my attire looked more in place at a construction site, showing me the sparkling 13-diamond necklace that cost over $16 000.She said that a 20% discount could be given when I then asked to look at diamond rings.
Dissatisfied with a rather ostentatious multi-diamond ring that I first asked to look at, I then asked for a ring with the largest diamond the shop had.
She then took me to a corner where I was shown a simple-looking ring that had a 0.78-carat diamond selling for almost $17 000.
After small-talking her through the next 2 minutes, I then enquired about the unmounted solitaires in their own display cases under the same counter.
The largest one, a 1-carat diamond, was said to cost $40 000.
Satisfied that I could afford each and every item in that shop even though I was merely feigning interest, I then thanked her, said I would consider the items, and walked out, heading for a perfumery if there was one.
There wasn't any specialty perfume shop, but I visited the Christian Dior counter in the department store, and investigated a 100ml bottle of 'Midnight Poison' EDT that I had read good reviews of online.
The smell was quite enchanting, but I was put off when I saw 'patchouli' listed as the main ingredient; the night before, I had read that patchouli root was one of the known carcinogens in perfume, together with civet musk and other ingredients.
However, some of the scent rubbed off onto my left hand when I handled the attractive flacon, and it stayed with me for another hour.
On I proceeded to my intended destination, but it proved harder to pin down than I'd initially thought.
What Google maps seemingly showed to be one building turned out to be several rows of various double-storey shops.
After walking along three rows of shops fruitlessly, I asked an employee of an Indian food stall if he knew the named location; he didn't, but gestured to a Malay man seated at the only occupied table in the restaurant,claiming that he would definitely know where I should be headed to.
Suppressing a wee bit of trepidation, I approached the Malay man with my inquiry. He gestured in a roughly North Northwest direction and said 'belakang McDonalds'.
Thanking him and walking on, I then tried to reset my coordinates, and ended up going along a route very familiar to me as I usually traversed it in a car, but now was going about it on my own two-legged engine.
After about ten minutes, a kilometre and a half, and crossing two roads, I saw the so-called Golden Arches marking the 24-hour burger joint that I hated and yet adored so much.
As I walked past the petrol station neighbouring it, I found to my great dismay that the specified location was a building getting off the ground, with the third floor still being completed.
At that point, I told myself to just attend the AGM the next day and hope for the best, with heat exhaustion beginning to set in.
But my hope wasn't totally extinguished when I turned back the way I had come to see another row of shops that I knew about but hadn't yet traversed.
Keeping these fragments of hope in my bosom away from the heat, I walked slowly along this row, and spotted the name I was looking for on an envelope in a mailbox outside an office. I walked on, past car repair shops, interior decor outfits, and stumbled upon a name I had associated with registering listed companies : Symphony.
The moment I entered the office, the fragments of hope in my heart blossomed into conviction that this was, after all, the place I was seeking all along.
When I mentioned the name of the company whose AGM I was attending to the lady at the counter, she turned to an unseen colleague in a back office and repeated the company name out loud. I then looked through the lists of the hundred or more companies the office serves as a registry for, and spotted the one I was looking for.
After waiting a little while, the lady from the back office came out to hand me an annual report and some instructions on what to take along.
Satisfied that it was mission accomplished, I headed back out into the Sun clutching the orange, white and green booklet and retraced my steps back home.
Along the way there, I had suddenly remembered that it was Wednesday, and that a student was arriving at 2 pm for a class.I gave up on the idea of returning immediately to attend to him, justifying it with the fact that he had not come for over six weeks without notification.
Well, when I finally returned home, tracing 228 paces from one end of the road to the other, there he was, still waiting for me! It was a miracle that he had waited so long, unlike the previous week!
posted by DP at
2:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home