Saturday, April 26, 2008

(st)Rolling on

Note: I was told that the photos didn't load on IE. So this is ECP reloaded :P
Its exam time again. And as usual, the undergrads get uber stressed out (or so some believe :P) and decide to go and freak out. Today was one such day. Its been a gruelling semester, so what the heck, now that we have finished a week of tests, assignments and submissions, we deserve to go out! We (clueless and I) decided to go to the East Coast Park (ECP). I was majorly thrilled!

After roaming about the beach and staring at the ships in the sea, we decide to go to the rental place. Maybe rent a couple of bikes and cycle along the beach. But right next to the cycle rental place was the in-line skates rental place! Ten dollars for two whole hours!!! (Confusion is nothing new :P). I could skate, but I had no idea how to use the brakes on the skates! The last time I tried to use them, I couldn't sit properly for two weeks : After much debating (clueless supporting the skates saying "you get to cycle at home too! But you have out grown your skates! make use of this chance!"), it was decided I would rent the skates and skate by the side of Clueless' rented cycle.

A mixture of excitement and nervousness shot through me! Its been years and years since I last went skating! I didn't know if I'd be able to find my balance. And for two hours! Thats tedious! Brushing all those feelings aside, I got the skates anyways. And lo behold! I remembered how to skate! Er... I wasn't perfect... I was wobbly and gave Clueless multiple heart attacks everytime I tripped slightly or was at the verge of falling down. Poor thing! She was a lot more nervous about me falling than I was!

Anyways, after skating for about half an hour, I found my groove (everytime I declared to clueless that I got my groove, I'd lose it again and wobble around, scaring everyone within 2 metres of me. A good way to clear the road and make room for myself :P). For the first half an hour, I looked only at the road... in front of me, to avoid other skaters and cyclists, and down below, to avoid the drains, the speed bumps and other irregularities on the road. After finding my groove (:P), I ventured a look around me. It was wonderful! I was sailing effortlessly along the beach! It was beautiful! Definitely more beautiful than the view of the road!

I was so taken by the sights around me (even though many consider them to be rather unremarkable). Maybe it was the skates. Maybe it was the feeling of gliding around on wheels, the effort of going uphill, the excitement of speeding downhill (by the way, I didn't know how to stop myself... I was too scared to use the brakes so clueless had to go ahead of me, stop her cycle and stick out her arm for me to grab :P) or just the wonderful weather. But everything around me looked ten times greener and very beautiful.

I took out my phone and clicked away as I clumsily manoeuvred myself along the road, wobbling and clicking along the way, much to the amusement of the people around me :P From here, I will let the pictures taken by me and clueless do all the talking :)

Ready to roll! Clueless and I were absolutely fascinated by how "cool" and movie-like the protection gear was!


The trail. You can see Clueless on her bicycle in this picture :)

More of the trail! Notice all the trees and greenery around! It was so lovely to see this place in Singapore! Such a welcome relief from all the shopping malls and highways of the island!


Random structure with flowers. The photo kinda ruins the effect of the flowers :(


Pwetty flowers along the trail! Reminded me of some of the gardens in India


Clueless trying to capture me in motion. She just missed me! Almost :P

Green meadow. I would have loved to just sit under that big tree and laze around :)

On a pier along the trail. People were fishing! I have never seen a fishing rod in real life! Fascinating!

Looks like the coast line of those exotic islands that they show in movies and on television shows where castaways live. I can't believe this is a part of Singapore coastline! Awesome!

More fishing rods



I love water bodies! So beautiful! I guess its some sort of hydrophilia :) But this one was really nice to look at while gliding past it


But then again.... We're still in Singapore. No natural beauty is complete without the construction cranes which seem to be "natural" around here :

And just when I thought I was one with nature and had gotten away from the city proper with its criss-crossing highways and cars. Ah well... Highways are a part of nature around here. It was too good to be true :-<

Artistic shot of the cranes. Doesn't make them look any prettier, does it? :P
Ah.... finally! Away from the construction and roads and all... at the beach. Clueless and I agree that for some reason, I look like a sea horse in this picture :P (by the way, Clueless, I love this shot!)

My pathetic attempt at an artistic shot of Clueless :P She is a better photographer than I am! :D (lucky me, I get to be in more pictures :P :P :P)


It was a wonderful evening, gliding around the park for almost two whole hours! It was quite the work out. When we gave up the cycle and the skates at the rental place, it seemed like we had given up our leg muscles too! And for me, after all the skating, it seemed like I had given up a few inches of my height too :P

The biggest surprise? After letting my skating skills rust away for all these years, I didn't fall down even once this time! :D :D :D Its good to get back in the groove ;)

6 comments:

Anusha said...

Glad to know you enjoyed the evening! And now you can tell everyone you've been to ECP! :)

And I'm not a better photographer than you - you just make a better subject for photographing. (You just had to go put shots of me in my multicoloured tee, didn't you? :P) And now that I see it in better quality, I don't see the sea-horse effect of the sea-side picture that much. :)

The weather really was great the whole of the day, so I really should thank the rain gods of Singapore that they chose to spare us for the day and gave us some lovely breezy weather!

Anonymous said...

Where are the pictures? I cannot see them, there is a big X in the place of pictures :(

soleil said...

I can't see the pics either! :(

"everytime I declared to clueless that I got my groove, I'd lose it again and wobble around, scaring everyone within 2 metres of me" - You have a higher centre of gravity so it must not have been easy especially after so long!

soleil said...

Yay! Now I can see the pics :D Though I can't see your faces, seeing you in pics makes me miss all my dudettes back home!

Sayesha said...

//Clueless and I agree that for some reason, I look like a sea horse in this picture :P

Hehehehe! I thought you looked like the Merlion in that pic! :P

Macho Girl said...

#clueless
Yeah... surprising weather! It usually rains on weekends, doesn't it? Much to the disappointment of the cricket dudes :P

#Doublehead
There was some problem. Check it out now :)

#Soleil
We miss you too!!!! haha... higher centre of gravity huh.... interesting. I didn't think of that! :) :P

#Sayesha
Heeeeeyyyy.... um... ok... now that u mention it, yeah, I look like a merlion. Especially since i am standing by the water :P