on the other hand, it wasn't as though i had to work the next day, and not having been out for a bit, i was quite pleased at the prospect of dressing up to go out. i also expected to see lots of rj med people i knew, people i haven't (and wouldn't) keep in especial contact with, but am glad to catch up with at a social occasion like this. anyway, free tickets for lotr preview, why not? and the wonderful thing is that everything went better than i expected and went so well - by that evening i'd revived somewhat from the many recent late nights and felt extremely happy in my new red roses in the loft wraptop, and surprisingly, it took me just an hour to get to bukit batok, hooray for the nel, and i used the time to read quite a bit of sebald on the train. and if i felt that bukit batok was absolutely going to be the boondocks, westmall was a typical suburban mall, bright-lit, and pleasant enough if a little noisy, and they had a library too. our seats were very, very good, and the movie, well, what shall i say that you all wouldn't? and after that we went for a long (slightly over an hour) walk back to bukit timah (the weather was cool enough for it, i was in a walking mood, and the route pleasant) for prata and milo dinosaurs. (i had a thing called a bandung dinosaur. Q. if milo dinosaurs are topped with milo powder, what would bandung dinosaurs be topped with? the rather bloodcurdling answer to that is - milo powder also, although i grant rosemilk powder would have been equally unlikely.) and finally, when i came out of the prata shop, about 10 patient cabbies were standing around and i had a very friendly malay driver who made small talk with me on the way back, and travelling on an empty expressway i was home by 3.15... i am happy.
national health, trying to woo young doctors, booked the entire cineplex at westmall and gave all the final year medical students and the junior doctors a pair of free tickets to the preview of return of the king, and desmond asked me to go.
- will you be uncomfortable being in a cinema filled entirely with doctors and medical students?
and i am terribly, terribly glad i went, because i had a really fun night out. i nearly decided not to go! while i wanted very much to see it i am not a huge enough fan to rush out on the first day. besides, i don't work, so i could easily stroll down to tampines on an uncrowded weekday afternoon. to go to the 9.30 show means i would have to find a cab home well past one in the morning, and i didn't fancy having to find a cab at that time, with six cinemas full of people streaming out at once, and paying a midnight surcharge on an already hefty cab fare - the cinema was in bukit batok, and i don't think i've ever been that far west in my life, heh. besides, i came home late from su-lin's the previous night (we were watching wu jian dao i) and the night before that i'd been up till 6 writing my duke statement, so i wasn't the most energetic of people.
- hah! why should i be intimidated by the fact that i'm the only literate person in the cinema?
- oy!
- heehee