warning: this is going to be very long. I hope it isn't as boring as dreadful edmund blunden. my greatest fear in the world is writing like edmund blunden and making lit students want to commit suicide over dead boring accounts of what ever.
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It was a very bright and hot day. The sand was a light off-white colour and reflected much of the sun light, making the glare more intense. They had cordoned of much of the beach in preparation for the party so we had to walk close to the shore, which was difficult. After a while, crystal, zel and I took our slippers off and walked along the wet sand, where the waves touched the beach.
The sand was so soft. It was a fine powdery soft; like silk. It was almost like walking on air. And it was quite warm, because of the sun. we crossed a lopsided bridge, and dropped our things off in the shade. some people busied themself with sun block or tanning lotion.
The water was.. well I guess you could call it gorgeous. I'm sure there are plenty of other beaches out in the world where the water is clearer, more pristine and more blue, but we're in Singapore so you take what you can get. The water was clear. There was a lovely gradient leading away from the shore. It started out with a sandy beige, which melted into a brilliant turquoise and darkened to a blue. we splashed around for a while and played circle of truth in the water. the boys took their shirts off.
some of the girls, me included, decided to dig a hole and bury kenneth's shirt like the last time; almost like a tradition for every time we go to the beach. unfortunately the tide came in and washed away our markers. when he wanted to go buy food, he of course needed his shirt lest he get arrested for indecent exposure and made children cry. we realised we didn't know where it was. so started a mass excavation of the beach in search of kenneth's dark gray t-shirt which was buried along the shore a short distance away from the large boulders. he borrowed zhenrong's shirt and went off to eat. angry.
all of us, and this is what I loved about it,
all of us present started digging around in the sand and discussing and straining to remember and strategising our digging to find the dark gray t-shirt. amos said to dump the sand above the hole so the water didn't wash it back in. david was digging with his feet, because it was less painful. xiangning said it was under water. some one said it was buried deep, some one said it wasn't. we messed up the beach. we broke nails. we got abrasions on our fingers ploughing through the coarse sand. dark clouds were gathering in the sky and there was thunder. crud. in our frantic search, I finally tugged on some soft material and pulled out the sandy shirt. and everybody, upon uncovering the lost gray t-shirt [at last!], cheered.
I guess we were all quite drained after that. we decided to pack up and head to palawan beach. some of us bought iced coffee along the way; very yummy because of the whipped cream. hafiz bought lunch for us on the way in, so some of us ate at the benches and talked about things. when I went back I found, I can't really remember, qinyi? holding a clear lump of gellatin in her palm. Apparently it was a dried up dead jellyfish. a very moist dried up dead jellyfish. It looked more jellyfish-like when we dumped it in a pail of sea water. so proceeded a long debate on whether the transparent blob really was a jellyfish or not. it didn't have any tentacles or stinging devices. It had that typically jelly fish iridescent look in the water. no visible organs. it had the wrong number of sections. It had patterns on the side that looked jellyfish-like. However, during the debate over whether it really was a jellyfish or not, zhenrong tore the unfortunate lump in half.
I stood on the beach where the waves crashed and contemplated old sec four physical geography: constructive and destructive waves. despite the large amount of people: screaming children, irritating couples, some obnoxious teenagers, parents, uncles, aunties; I felt really at peace standing on the beach with destructive waves crashing over my feet.
Crystal found another mutilated jellyfish that was foetus-shaped. she delivered it into my care along with shells she collected while I talked to Samuel. The sun was low in the sky. Samuel found a flat rock on the beach and skipped it. and so, I rediscovered the simple pleasure of skipping stones. The last time I skipped a stone was eight years ago when we were at Chesapeake bay. it was a very nostalgic moment. Vivienne and I started gathering stones where the sand was dry and bringing them to the water and skipping them. later on I found, just sitting there waiting for me, the perfect skipping stone on the edge of the water. It was a smooth glistening black stone and was quite flat and relatively oval shaped. I decided to keep it.
We went to vivocity for dinner. Most of us went to eat at Banquet, but Sam, Vivienne and I went to Carl's Junior. Samuel, being obsessed over Carl's Junior like a deprived starving african child sunken in extreme poverty, was eager to eat a very very very large juicy burger which he finished in five minutes. he seemed very satisfied and pleased with himself. I would be too, I guess.
It was a really good day. thanks for such a nice day.
After dinner I took the train home with kenneth and amirah. I saw Barry on the bus but he didn't recognise me. I was secretly running to catch up with him when we got off the bus, but he walks so fast and his house is near the bus stop. pity.
