A Passion That I'll Never Fall Out Of

Don't be misled by the title of this post - it is not about sex again. I've not written a decent post in the last several weeks. And when I say "decent", I mean it in all senses of the word.

Today, I am reminiscing on a childhood passion. As a 10-year kid, I loved roller skating. I can't remember how we got the skates but we had 3 pairs. These were first generation skates - the parts were mostly made of metal, including the wheels (rightfully called rollers). The only parts that were not metal were the leather straps used to fasten the ankles to the skates. One very famous manufacturer of roller skates then was Winchester which I believe was either a US or UK company. I heard it later progressed to making weapons:

The skates were extendable to fit almost all feet sizes.

Although I lived in an SIT flat and not a kampong, I was resourceful enough to find space to skate. There was a 50-m access corridor linking the 10 flats on each floor. This corridor did not belong to us but I used it like my very own skate park almost daily. Because the rollers were made of metal, the skates made a roaring sound on the go, with a decibel level that could rival an approaching fighter jet plane. Whenever I encroached upon the area outside a neighbour's flat which always had an elderly Indian man resting inside, his daughter Mary would always come to the door to stare at me. If that didn't work, she would shout at me, "Go away. Don't come this side. People want to rest." After that, I would stop just before her door and then turn back, effectively shortening a useable 50-m long corridor to a mere 30-m one.

Of course, when you first learn skating, it is inevitable that you will fall a few times. But the learning is in the falling. Children recover very fast and are not deterred by a few falls. Maybe they have a short memory.

So about 2 weeks ago, after we can't stand the constant prodding of a mutual friend and colleague MGC, Chris' and my resistance finally crumbled. Accompanied by MGC, we went to Peninsula Shopping Centre during lunchtime to buy ourselves a brand new pair of in-line skates each. Thanks to our patronage, the cash register at the shop registered an additional sale of $500 plus that day. To make the sport more challenging, the modern skates have all 4 rollers in a line, hence the name "in-line skates".

On 13 Oct 06 Fri, I had an hour to while away so I went to East Coast Park and put on my new skates for its maiden ride:

Along the way, I lost my balance and fell two times. Nary suffering a scratch even though I was not wearing any protective guard, I got up and continued skating.

Friday evening went past peacefully and Saturday was also uneventful. But on Sunday, my left ankle started to swell and it felt extremely painful when I walked. On Monday, I consulted a GP to get a 2-day MC. I asked him if I should see a Chinese sinseh. He replied, "If you ask me, then I will say no need." So I pretended that I didn't ask him and I consulted a Chinese sinseh after that. (Incidentally, did you know that Chinese tui na is called "traumatology" in English? I saw it being spelled as "travmatology" once. Maybe the letter "v" is used interchangeably with the letter "u" in some languages, e.g. have you heard of the Domvs Restaurant?)

In my opinion, the Chinese traumatologist or chiropractor is even more fearful than the dentist. He would rub, pull, bend and twist your ankle any which way he likes, without any care for your cold sweat, screams, squirms and pleas. Anyway I survived that too. At $20, I call it cheap torture. It is indeed a traumatic experience visiting a traumatologist.

Today my ankle is still swollen and in bandage:

Notice what a nice right foot I have.

Chris advised me to visit the A & E department of the CGH to get my ankle x-rayed. "You won't know if you've got a hairline crack until you've had an x-ray done", he said. He has a way of making people worry. He also said that he would be blogging about my experience. Chris certainly has a way to build his blog on other people's miseries, doesn't he?. In any case, I am putting up my own post on this. There is nothing like hearing it from the monkey's horse's mouth.

Although like Chun See, I am also not superstitious but I can't help but begin to wonder whether choosing to skate on Friday the 13th had anything to do with my falls and my sprained ankle. Still, skating is the other "s" passion that I'll never fall out of, literally. (No prizes for guessing what the other "s" passion is.) It is as if by premonition that I have commented on Chun See's blog earlier that skating can be a health hazard if you are not careful.

I also don't care if Chris decides to find another skating coach. But he better buy that helmet that I have been urging him to. That is because the only way to learn skating is by falling as I have explained and demonstrated. He may think that he has a thick skull but I don't want him to find out the hard way that the floor is actually a lot harder.

Driver Thinking Of Sex Rather Than Signals

I read an amusing article in the Straits Times today. It was entitled "UK drivers think of sex rather than signals". I quote part of the article below:

LONDON - Over a million motorists think about sex rather than the road ahead and millions more who don't indulge in intimate thoughts are worrying about work or thinking about their families.

Research from car insurer More Than published on Thursday found one in five drivers admit to concentrating behind the wheel less than 75 percent of the time, with 1.2 million thinking mostly about sex.

And sex wasn't the only non-traffic thoughts motorists have.

For 3.2 million drivers work was the main focus and for 2 million more it was family issues that dominated.

'Unsafe habits can be unlearned just as easily as they can be learned, but first, drivers must recognise the risk they face by not concentrating on their driving,' said Ms Lisa Dorn, director of Driver Research at Cranfield University of the findings.

This article could well be talking about Chris. I don't know what was on his mind when he mistaken my right signal for a left one and turned into the wrong road that day.

Sex Is Only An Incidental Topic For This Blog

Contrary to Chun See's accusation and Chris' assertion, I am not obssessed about sex. Annabel Chong is not my idol either, because at 33, she's too old to be a pornstar, let alone being my idol. (Source of Annabel's age - Singapore: The Encyclopedia, Pg 119. If you didn't buy it when I told you it was on offer at half price, then you will just have to trust me).

It just so happened that everywhere I looked recently, I came across sights that have sexual connotations:

In addition, for the past several days, the media were bombarding me daily about the trial of a university don who was accused of giving false information to the authorities. (For the benefit of those of you who did not follow this case, the don paid for sex had an affair with a China woman. Of course, the woman was young and pretty. And the don was indecently, filthy rich, successful and much much older. In return for regular sexual favours living in with him, she was paid handsomely by the handsome don. One day, the don found out that the woman was also living in with another man. Not only that, the woman was also married to yet another man. This led the don to think that the woman's marriage was a sham because no husband would let his wife prostitute herself sleep with another man for money. Furious and feeling cheated, the don reported the woman's suspected sham marriage to the authorities. The authorities investigated but found no evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, the authorities found that the accused had wilfully withheld or supplied wrong information to investigators to support his allegation of the woman's sham marriage.) So it looks like another case of commercial transaction gone terribly wrong followed by a revenge that backfired.

Today's New Paper also has two screaming headlines about sex on its coverpage:

1. Most Viet sex workers disappear after stringent checks in Joo Chiat. One says she fears getting caught because... "My S'pore boyfriend doesn't know I'm a prostitute."

2. 'Bra & panties' flasher strikes in Hougang. Teen in women's underwear picks on young girls. One victim flashed 3 times.

Of course, I know that quoting media reports alone does not prove that sex is all around us. My post usually comes with an anecdote. This one is no different.

Last Saturday at 3.50 pm, I was in the vicinity of Geylang Post Office. My wife wanted to buy an electric water jug from one of the shops. While she was negotiating the price (of the water jug) with the shopkeeper, I lingered outside in the five foot way. It was especially hot that afternoon and I am not talking about the weather. Two very attractive young women dressed in short tight skirts sashayed towards me. One was dressed in shocking pink and the other in green. Before they could reach me, the pink lady was accosted by a balding man who was much older than me. It seemed like the old man much preferred pink colour to green for the green one walked on but kept looking back at the pink lady. After a few minutes of negotiating the price (not of the water jug), the pink lady walked off with the old man:

If you blow up this photo, you may be able to see the tiny image of the green lady looking back in the centre of the photo.

The odd couple was possibly heading towards this hotel where it had a sign outside advertising hourly rates of only $10:

Now who would want a hotel for only an hour and what can you do within an hour? Read a novel, take a bath or a short nap? Nah, unlikely. The two women were obviously ladies of the afternoon night and they knew each other.

I just hope that the old man didn't forget his two C's:

1. His CPF (which is actually meant for his old age, that is right now for him); and

2. His condom (if he didn't wear one then he might not need his CPF because he could die from AIDS).

After I took the photo, another attractive woman smiled at me. Remembering that my wife was nearby, I quickly looked away. It's not that I can't, mind you. It's just that I won't.