Sunday.

The washing machine at our place finally gave way today – we are going to get it fixed, and hopefully that thing is going to at least last us till we go back to Singapore.

Went cycling this evening and I think it was a good workout. I cycled for about 2 hours today, having dinner along the way. The route was relatively long:

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I was kinda happy that my bicycle didn’t give way after the ride. I was slightly worried that my bike was going to disintegrate after the ride, but it survived the ordeal and I was way chuffed.

Bought a set of Chinese drama DVD just now and I had a very nice evening watching some parts of it. I could have saved the money on that and just watch the telecast on TV, but I was just way too keen to watch the subsequent episodes and knowing that the DVD is available I’m not going to wait for it to get shown on TV. It’s a great series, and I think when I go back to Singapore I’m going to spend some time watching it from the start till the end. Of course I could watch them here in Shanghai, but my laptop doesn’t seem to react to DVDs well, and I don’t have a DVD player at my place, so perhaps I’ll leave the watching back to Singapore.

Work again tomorrow. Let see would I have to go Hangzhou again this week. You know you are really getting familiar with the place when you can start taking buses to go round places.

Computing Club elections are coming up and I’m very happy to see some of the people who are running. I would like to think that the club is going to be in good hands by the time I go back to Singapore, and that’s very comforting. All the best to everyone running for the management committee!

Skirmish.

The juniors in Pudong held a housewarming gathering for us and I must say that it was a very nice evening out meeting everyone. The food was great too, so thanks to all the people who have been busy preparing the whole day!

Then it was off to People’s Square for a karaoke session with some of the other Singaporeans. We were walking towards a coffee house when suddenly we saw this drunk punk trying to be funny with the girls among us, and obviously we weren’t too impressed with that joker, so we used stern words and told him off. Apparently it’s either he’s too drunk to understand Mandarin, or he was just out to create trouble, he came charging for us and I was kicked on my back (I think that punk was really drunk cos that ‘kick’ felt like a tap on the shoulder or something – it didn’t even hurt), then he was hurling abuse at me and my friends, before he conjured up and hit me a few more times. I was trying to keep my cool and just shouted at him back and the whole group of us just moved on. That punk must have got his pride hurt before he failed to get anyone of us to beat him up again so he came back for me and hit me again. This time round he did use a bit of force and my spectacles flew off and he did hurt my left ear a bit. This time round I wasn’t going to let him off – I charged up at him, only to get held back by one of my friends. That drunk punk’s friend was hopeless in trying to get his friend away and he was almost like insisting that we were in the wrong because we were trying to pick up a fight or something. I shrugged off whoever that was holding me and went up to the drunk punk and gave him a punch in his chest. That punch was enough to send him take a few steps back. He was trying to retaliate, but two of my other friends managed to grab hold of him, and one of them asked us to pin him to the ground, so I used my strength (haha, that’s the good thing about being fat) and pin him to the ground, not allowing him any space to move. At that point of time the only thing on my mind was to get the police, so I asked my friends to dial 110 and call for the cops. Now the drunk punk and his friend really got scared and started saying the nice things about letting the matter rest and they will leave the scene. I wasn’t too willing, but I think we didn’t really want too much trouble, so we let them go. Minutes later the cops did come – they asked us a few questions and upon hearing that we are Singaporeans, re-assured us that Shanghai is generally a very safe place. I almost wanted to laugh.

Honestly speaking, talking about the incident, I didn’t feel angry throughout the entire malee, not even when I threw a punch at that drunk punk. My mind was just blank. It didn’t sink into me that I was hit quite hard after awhile when I started seeing a few stars. But this whole incident re-affirmed my opinions about Shanghaiese. Most of them are just sad low-iives that think they can get away with pushing their weights around, shouting at people and beating people up. Once they find someone who really retaliates and really call for the cops, they start to get so scared that they must have peed in their pants, asking us to let them off. How can I get angry with such people who lead such a sad life?

Another thing I gathered from the incident is that I noticed that my temper is really getting better. If it was the me back in Singapore, I would have beaten that guy up so badly that his mum would not recognise him. But today I was just keeping my cool to an extent that I think I’ve kept too much before lashing back at that punk. Even my friends commented that they “admired” me for how cool I was in that situation – they would have thrashed him silly if it were them. Well, let’s just say that perhaps my temper did change.

Those punks did spoil my mood a little, but up till now I am still not angry. In fact I’m finding the entire skirmish (I wouldn’t even say it was a fight cos the amount of blows traded were not proportionate) bloody hilarious. But whatever it is, I’m sorry to all of my friends who were either frightened or affected.

And before anyone of you out there starts to worry – I’m not injured and am feeling well. Honestly like what I said, that punk’s punches… totally cannot make it. Moral of the story, if you are drunk, don’t try to pick up a fight. If you want to pick up a fight, pick someone your size. Because if you try to pick up a fight with someone bigger than you, your best punches are still never going to hurt him or cause him to lose a few teeth. Chances are you will be the one ending up getting hurt.

Stupid people.