Finally, after the last cycling trip for some three months, my classmates and I went cycling once again on the last day of the examinations (3/11/2008).
Some went rollerblading, a group thought ryan how to cycle and another group went cycling, which eventually split up into two groups which went into different ways.
For easier references, I shall label these groups
Rollerbladers: Gen, Cheryl lin, Kat, Pyq, Nick, Ethel
Teachers: Cmc, Christine, Ryan
Beach-goers(they went to the beach halfway and turned back): Angela, Nar, Ben, Emman
Adventurers aka losers (We got kind of lost): Dillon, Cheryl lit, Jk, Charlene, ZF, Joelle
For a start, here a some statistics of my group.
Distance cycled: 36-42km
Time taken: 5 hours (due to some major yet interesting problems encountered on the way)
Time we SHOULD have taken: 3
Number of people who got injured: 3
Number of damaged bicycles: 3
Number of times one of our bicycle chains dislodged: 3
Looks like 3 is a lucky number:)
It started as a typical cycling event, when we cycled and rollerbladed leisurely. Slowly, the distance between people increased and we could not see many people around us. As jk, joelle and I approached the tanah merah side of east coast park, a light drizzle fell. That was not exactly the hard part, the hard part was the wind which we had to cycle against. I took out my umbrella for fun and sheltered myself from the rain while cycling, one hand holding it, and the other onto the bicycle handle.
However, the wind was too strong for the upright umbrella to take it, and it turned inside out. I stopped and tried to fix it, but my efforts were in vain. Just when I was about the give up and keep my umbrella, I had an idea to use poison to cure poison. I faced my umbrella infront, such that it looked like a radar and cycled really fast. The wind blew it back:)
We reached changi coast road and cycled and cycled and cycled and cycled and...you get the idea. Charlene was not very fast at first thus joelle waited for her. Now that made them the last people so I waited too just in case. And in front waiting were dillon, cheryl lit and jk near the end of changi coast road(we took very long to catch up). When we caught up, we started cycling together.
Nothing much happened as we cycled along towards changi beach and joelle suddenly became very sad for some weird reason; I guess its just no one talking to her. We saw the beach-goers playing at the beach ahead and thinking that they would catch up with us eventually, we just cycled on.
We rested at changi village. We were around midway of the park connectors to east coast and thus we decided to continue on. Time elapse was 1 hour 40 minutes and at this rate, we probably could make it in around 3 hours provided we cycled fast, but this was not the case...
Changi village was full of up and downs. As we rolled down a slope, we cruised along the track when I heard a crashed. Joelle fell off her bicycle while going down the slope and she rolled down. Probably she thought the slope was so fun that she did not brake. She landed in a sitting position and laughed hysterically with 3 minor injuries on her limbs. Her bicycle gearings were damaged too. That was very dangerous...and thank goodness she was lucky that she was not hurt too badly.
After washing her wounds, we proceeded and soon we reached loyang avenue which was still 'slopey' (full of slopes). Pushing the bicycles up long slopes was tiring.
Some where along the avenue, Joelle's bicycle chain dislodged and I went to fix it based on my experience the last time mine did. Great, and I thought that today would be a nice and 'black-hand-free' day. However, worse was about to come.
We passed by my home (Just when we passed by pasir ris drive 2 while cycling along pasir ris drive 3), and loyang point, and it started to rain. It did not stop and the rain was escalating, drenching all of us worse than ever. I could not take the cold and took out my umbrella, which turned out more of a hinder to getting to the nearest shelter. We went pass downtown east and lightning split the sky just like how my pants split in school earlier this year; and thunder roared louder than my chemistry teacher's voice. I held the umbrella at a 45 degree angle ahead of me and rode towards the bus stop, but jk was no where to be seen. We looked around, but no one could find him. I turned back and went to find him.
The road ahead was a fog. Pedestrians were just blurred images of a low resolution graphic. My only guidance was the traffic lights ahead, their circles of light breaking through the inpenetrable rain.
I reached the junction but jk was no where to be seen. I turned back and saw joelle along the way in the rain. Apparently jk was safe already and thus we tried to run back to the bus stop under an umbrella and pushing a bicycle which was not that easy, and I slipped and fell halfway there. I got up immediately and we moved back to the bus stop as fast as possible.
My knee was cut and there was quite some blood. My lower torso was also scratched but fortunately there was not any blood. I can't imagine my stomach sking bleeding.
Now, someone said that jk was here, and now he disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. Surely he was not left behind, that means he proceeded on his own in the rain. That is very risky in a thunderstorm and we were all worried for him.
The rain finally diminished and thus we continued on our way. We met jk and he said that he thought we did not stop cycling thus he continued...how blur. I was keeping my umbrella when a blinding flash appeared accompanied by a thundering thunder of thunder. Oh dear, its starting all over again. We rushed towards the nearest shelter once again, which was in pasir ris town park. We had better not continue anymore until the sky fully clears of dark clouds.
Our bags were wet. Really wet. Lets see what I have in my bag...
-Soft toy kangaroo
-Library book (Paperback)
-Shirt
-Graphing Calculator
-Handphone
-Stationery(safe in the plastic bag)
Oh dear...
The sky cleared after 15 minutes. Pasir Ris, being an area of low lying land, was utterly flooded. I realised that the rain had washed away the grease stains on my hand from fixing the bicycle chains. As I cycled, my bicycle splashed into a big puddle, at least being 10cm in depth. It was around 2 metres across and yes, this was time when I got my shoes and socks really wet. Uncomfortably wet. I was quite surprise to see such a big puddle, and as I looked ahead, this was not the only one. Many more were ahead, with one of them covering an entire stretch of track. We reached the end of the flooded track, when we heard that dillon got into some kind of trouble. He fell into a puddle and his bag too, with charlene's handphone inside. At the same time, his bicycle chain got dislodged. Oh well, once again my hand is going to get dirty, but it did not matter.
In dirt-stained and soaking clothes, we proceeded. We went over the TPE pushing our bicycles tiringly across the overhead bridge, and just after I got back onto my bicycle after that, the chain fell out. I have too much experience in this already...
We cycled across tampines, across many streets so each time we saw a traffic light ahead, I'ld go 'oh great' and slow down my bike impatiently. We reached bedok resevoir and crossed another expressway. My first thought when I saw it was that it was the ECP and just across it would be east coast park, but it turned out to be the PIE only. How depressing.
Across the expressway at one point, just ahead of the track was a busy road, upper changi road east, and it appears that there were no traffic lights nearby. I didn't know what to do as I have never crossed a major road without a traffic light, until Joelle said just cross it when there are no cars, and stupid as it might seem, but I thought in my mind, "Oh yea when there are no cars we cross the road". This is what happens when people start to get mentally tired. And I must point out that its a terrible design of that track... Can't they at least lead us to a traffic light?
For some reason which no one ever realised, after we crossed the road, although the continuation of the bedok park connector was directly in front, we all turned and started to ride along Upper Changi Road East. I guess its just about our tiredness.
Then dillon said，"Oh I know this place, this is Singapore Expo." and someone else pointed out that the cycling track is just ahead, and we all started cycling towards simei. We only realised when we found out the track keeps on going straight. We turned back.
We got back onto the right track, when we realised that jk was still at the back. He collapsed on the floor with his bicycle. We turned back and found out that he had leg cramps. We surrounded jk, other than charlene who was taking care of the bicycles ahead.
Jk asked, "Where's Charlene?" At that time, I suddenly reminded of those shows, in which a dying hero wants to see his girlfriend for a last time. Oops sorry hope I offend neither of them.
Jk called his father, but after some time all of us just cycled on. All of us were confused. Finally, we reached Upper East Coast Road where jk talked to his father again. When I asked him later he told me that he told a lie that we were lost, well actually it was kind of true, but still...because he did not want his father to worry too much.
At last, East Coast Parkway! Another irritating thing is that to get to the underpass, we had to cycle along it for some distance, and when we reach the park itself, we have to cycle back in the opposite direction. We reached the underpass and to make things worse, the designers knew that there would be cyclists, yet there were no ramps, only staircases.
Reluctantly, I dragged my bicycle down the steps, or I should say that my bicycle dragged ME down the stairs. On the other side, a kind man and dillon were helping to carry bicycles up. It was quite slow, so I decided to carry it myself. Heaving it onto my shoulders, I managed to get the bicycle up, but I did not know how to put it down ironically. Out of a weird instinct, I flung my bike onto the ground. First was joelle's bicycle gearing, second, jk's bicycle handle that got bent as he crashed into a pole somewhere along the road. Crash. Third bike down. My bicycle landed on the handles and the bell automatically disassembled itself.
It was tiring and I was totally worn out by the time we reached the bicycle rental shop. Nevertheless, it was a good experience, and finishing the eastern park connector network finally, I had quite a sense of achievement. This trip is my standard of a wonderful outing it had been.
