Before I start, there is a commercial break, advertisement.
24 is great! Just finish second season, haven’t watched first and forth. The story line made me biting the edge of my coffee table. I would never watch 24 in TV, week after week, I could die of curiosity. I’d better buy the whole season and become a couch potato for few days.
Back to normal life. Chinese New Year has just passed. No fireworks, no angpau, no new clothes, no relatives, no cookies, but I loveeeee the looong weekend. Can I have it again? Why did I hardly cherished holiday season when I was at school? Now I miss it.
Saturday was a big day; we finally went sailing with Leo. Around midday, he picked us up in meeting point with his friend’s car. From there we went straight to Changi Village, one of Singapore’s popular hawker center and grabbed something for lunch. Changi Village is located near the boat terminal to Pulau Ubin.
Pulau Ubin adalah salah satu pulau yang masih termasuk wilayah Singapura. Pulau ini beken buat orang2 sini karena ‘alamnya’, biarpun sebenarnya, di Indo, keluar kota peloksok dikit, bisa nemu ‘alam’ ginian dimana2, hutan kecil2an, satu jalan, beberapa warung, pantai2an, udah. See? Tangerang juga ada. Bagusan juga Depok. Makanya gue pake bahasa Indo, soalnya mau nyela2, takut ditimpuk temen2 yang tersinggung.
Gue kesini dua taonan yang lalu, pengen tau, naek boat kecil bareng Hubby trus nyewa sepeda, kita sempet nyasar di ‘hutan’, dimana treknya ngilang begitu aja, trus ketemu komodo kecil2an. Jalanan naek turun, mirip UI, cuman ada sekali ditanjakan gue bela2in turun dorong soalnya sepedanya gak nanjak, sementara kanan kiri gue kuburan. Biar gak keren yang penting maju, maju, maju terus… gak mau stuck di kuburan. Hii…
After short lunch, we departed for Changi Sailing Club. It was located next to the sea of course. The sea here, we could never see free water. It’s either full of boat, ship, cargos, or we see other islands. We went to the parking area for boat. Leo grabbed one quite big in size and pulled the boat to the empty pavement. It was a nice boat, I don’t know what type was that, it’s about three-four meter long, it has middle and two sides. Leo told us about the boat, and some unfamiliar sailing terms. Pod, stern, bow, jib, bump (sp?), he started to get really busy, he went into the storeroom and carried sails, ropes etc etc. We acted busy and helped here and there, amused and confused, we assembled the sails, emptied the water in the boat, tied some knots and tied our logistic; Pocky chocolate, oranges, Iced tea, water and Kerupuk, hehhehe… everything had to be ready to go wet, we wore short booties and swimming trunk under T-shirt and short.
When everything is in place, we pushed while Leo pulled the boat to the platform shores. When it went into the water, we dragged the trolley out. It was quite tedious and half of us were dipping in the sea. After it done we jumped into the boat, we took charge on jib, which was the smaller sail, while Leo was behind controlling the main. For sailing, the boat never goes in straight direction, it faces the destination diagonally, either zig or zag. When it changed to zig or zag, the code is tag (sp?). It’s either me or Hubby in control of the jib. When I was in control, I sat in the edge of the boat and adjust the jib according to the wind by pulling or loosening the rope. If ‘tag’, I’d let go the rope, moved my butt to the middle of the boat, while Hubby sat on the other edge and tighten his rope, so the jib flew to the other way. Got it? I confuse myself. The one who sat in the middle had to watch out the bump, the horizontal metal that straighten the main sail. It’s located slightly above the neck for those who sit in the middle, so we had to bend down a bit while shifting the body, to balance the boat if it lifted to right or left. Sometimes the bump had to be shifted and it would swing fast to another side, so we had to watch out if we didn’t want to knock our head and created BONG sound effect.
Sailing is definitely different with what I have always thought. I thought it’s a relaxing activity, so we can day dream, read book and look pretty, you can do everything in slow motion. Apparently, it’s almost the opposite. When the boat started to move, I was shocked to learn how fast it could go. It was a great and windy afternoon. The boat ran as if it was a chicken with burning butt. I was sitting there shocked, not knowing what to do while around us were big cargo ships and sailing boats moving in various direction. The sea was choppy and it banged the boat upside down. Leo was very busy, pulled this rope, that rope; sometimes he bit it with his teeth while he tried to teach us what to do. After a while, we mastered the tagging method, and ‘butt outside’ method. If the boat is lifted on one side, for extreme result the boat will go capsize. We have to try to avoid it by shifting the body weight. To do so, the one who is on the edge needs to sit further out, until the backside is outside, and even lies on the back, so the body is parallel with the sea surface. Put the toe under the safety belt located in the middle of the boat and hang on tight to the rope, it’s GREAT FUN! I would surely love to do it again.
We sailed for almost four hours, passing through few small islands around Singapore and went around Pulau Ubin. Around five o’ clock, we went back and dragged the boat, cleaned it by spraying with water, let it dry and dissembled it. We sat there chatting, gossiping and eating everything we had, then we washed up and ate dinner in the club. Too bad we couldn’t see any fire works because we were too far from the city.
Except sailing, we spent most of the four-day holiday by sleeping and watching DVDs. Monday, we rode bicycle for two hours around the neighborhood. Since we hardly do any sport here, I must admit we had the sport withdrawal.
Body ache, butt ache, tired muscles.
Tsk tsk…. Old age. Old age.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.
- George Carlin.
A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.
- Spike Milligan
Babies don't need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I'll go over to them and say, 'What are you doing here, you've never worked a day in your life!'.
- Steven Wright
I have bad reflexes. I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys.
- Woody allen
A woman tells her doctor, 'I've got a bad back.'
The doctor says, 'It's old age.'
The woman says, 'I want a second opinion.'
The doctor says: 'Okay - you're ugly as well.'
- Tommy Cooper
