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simpxxstan · 4 months ago

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strangers to lovers with junhui

this is part of my 550 followers celebration event! find the rest of the members' headcanons in the event too as i post them through this month!

warnings: mentions of one night stand. very mildly suggestive tones, rest is only fluff!

thinking about strangers to lovers with tour guide!junhui who's your designated guide for your first overseas trip to singapore

it's a twelve-member group for the tour, but you're the only one who's travelling solo and of age less than forty. perhaps this is why junhui is naturally drawn to your side. ever since you got off the airplane, junhui has been tagging near you, although he doesn't forget the other members of the trip as well. he's a professional tour guide after all- only five star ratings in the last year. he's not going to make slips in his work just because of a pretty passenger.

and yet, he's oddly drawn to you. he's not staying at the hotel the group is put up at, and he's not even supposed to be there at the dinner for that night. and yet, he does go. he goes, wearing his best shirt, even as the rain pours on, and he makes sure to sit at your table. you look even more lovely after resting post that long flight, and jun knows, that he's lost it even before the trip has begun.

the first day is scheduled for the tour of the gardens by the bay. "i'm so excited to see the flowers! i really like flowers. i have my own garden, you know. well, it's not too big, but i try." you're wearing a blue sundress, and jun thinks you look like a flower yourself, but he can't say that. instead, he grins. "i've seen them so many times on account of these trips, and yet the charm isn't lost on me."

thankfully, the group isn't a very taxing one. everyone seems to be happy sightseeing on their own, as long as jun remains close at call. and jun takes full advantage of this to stick to your side. he maintains a healthy distance at the start to ensure you don't get uncomfortable, because the last thing he'd want is for you to think he's a creep. but then, you specially seek him out during lunch and sit on the bench next to him, the edge of your sundress fluttering and brushing against his body, and jun feels slightly more hopeful of reciprocation.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who's just what you need for your tired heart when you whimsically decided to go on this trip after an extremely exhausting month at work

not only is he excellent eye candy, but also so sweet to you. you're suspicious of his oddly cute nature for the first hour or so, but then you realise there's no point in suspecting him. you've been betrayed enough and you have nothing left to lose.

he's also an A class guide. you've never been on a guided tour before, so you don't have a metric for comparison, but he's certainly way better than what you had imagined him to be like. he's extremely friendly, and under all those silly jokes, he's very knowledgeable and good at his job.

for example, he takes you to a beautiful photo spot where you can get a perfect view of the entire city of singapore, but it's not half as crowded as the designated viewpoint. he knows the best restaurants and cafes to eat at, hidden away in alleys you can't spot even on google maps. he knows what's the cheapest rate at which you can buy souvenirs, and he helps you bargain too.

you don't know if this is behaviour towards all his guests on all his trips, but a fanciful part of you thinks he is slightly partial towards you and you want to relish that. it's been long since you've had the attention of anyone. and it works wonders for you and your mental health.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who sees you wear even prettier dresses and makeup from the second day of the tour

he wonders what may have brought about this change. perhaps it's your mind unconsciously reflecting the beauty of the city? there's so much he wants to ask you, but he cannot, because he's a professional. but no one can stop him from picking up observations.

for instance: he sees no ring on your finger, and you're travelling alone, and there's no one calling you at all. so it's highly likely you're not in a relationship, although he can't rule out the case of a very secure partner who doesn't call through the day and only calls at night, even if time differences are wild.

he hears you talk about the fact that you work late often and that's why you often don't have time to go out and wander as you'd like to. so it's same to assume you're employed and perhaps a corporate job (if the exhaustion in your voice while talking about it is anything to go by).

he hears you talk about family, but only in passing, not like you're close to them. he doesn't want to assume anything, but he can only hope you're not lonely. because then his heart would break ten times over.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who deviates from the trip schedule and takes you out to a night market to enjoy street side delicacies

"you mentioned once that you prefer street food to restaurants." he tells you while the two of you walk to the market. you gasp a bit, quite taken aback by the fact that he remembers. no other words come to your mouth except, "i do. thanks for this, junhui."

jun shows you all the delicacies of the market, and you make sure to try each. it's a whole lot of fun going around with him, because even though he may be shy, he's a great conversationalist. especially because he doesn't intrude or ask personal stuff, but is happy with conversations that flow naturally like two friends catching up after a long time.

"where do you live, jun?" "umm, near the outskirts." he runs a shy hand through his hair, "about an hour away from here." "an hour! it's already eleven and we have to leave for sentosa tomorrow at eight am! how are you going to rest!" he smiles in embarrassment. "it's fun going out with you. i have no one to go home to anyway."

because of the crowd in the market the two of you end up standing very close to each other. so close that you can see the exact spots of his moles and the way his front teeth are slightly jagged at the edges. his smile looks like the most beautiful thing on earth, further warmed by the stars in his eyes and the short brown bangs that curl around his pretty face. if you tiptoe just a little bit, you could kiss him.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who knows he missed an opportunity to kiss you last night

it's a six-night-six-day tour and it's already the fourth day. and while jun should be distancing himself from you, because he can very well see how this is going to end in a crushing heartbreak for him, he cannot find the strength to do it.

because there's something that you're doing that keeps dragging him in. perhaps it's the way you lightly clutch his arm while navigating through crowds. or the way you spot that he's left a seat next to you on the tour bus and you take it. or the way you let him have a bite out of your ice cream last night.

you're just friends. friends can share food. friends can share bus seats. friends can touch sometimes. and jun needs to keep reminding himself of this.

but it's oh so hard. "junhui? do you think this hat suits me?" "junhui, do you wanna go on this ride with me? it's a haunted house ride, and it's embarrassing but i'm a tiny bit scared." "junhui, we can share the umbrella, and you can give your umbrella to mrs myers. she needs it more than you do." "junhui, can you take a photo of me?" "junhui-"

he's sick of it, the way you're playing his heart along. but worse, he's sick of the way he's responding to it, like a loyal dog. because he can't help it. he will regret this closeness when he watches you leave, but he will regret not getting close to you too and taking a shot at destiny when he had the chance to as well.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who doesn't turn up for dinner on the fourth night

you wear your best dress that night, and even heels. but jun, the rascal (endearingly), the damn brat (even more endearingly) just doesn't turn up! not just that, he doesn't even text you or anything. just leaves you sitting at the restaurant, alone at your table for two, while the rest of the group enjoy their dinner. it's like a date that dumped you, but it's not his fault at all.

it's totally your fault for thinking you could even have a date with a boy you'd met three days ago and fallen for immediately. for all you know, he may have a girlfriend (even if there's no one waiting for him at home), he may have a doctor's appointment (although doctors don't generally work at night), he may be a criminal (pretty sure he'd lose his job then) or he may be a practiced playboy (but he's too shy for that)!

you barely eat anything that night. mr and mrs myers, an elderly couple enjoying their second honeymoon, ask you if you're quite well, because you look distraught and lost. "no, i'm perfectly fine! just not much of an appetite, i think i'll just sleep early tonight." mrs myers adds, "oh. have you heard from jun? funny that he didn't turn up tonight." "yes, well, no. i haven't- no. not heard from him. but why would i? like, he'd text in the group, right? not me personally?" she smiles in that mysterious way that only older women can do. "i thought he'd like to inform his girl. well, this is the tragedy of youth- no sense of timing."

thinking about tour guide!junhui who's confused at the way you're maintaining distance from him on the morning of the fifth day

is it because he didn't come last night? he has a perfectly good reason- his brother turned up suddenly, and he couldn't really desert him when it's been a year since he's seen him.

so, when jun finds you alone staring at the penguins displayed at the singapore zoo, he takes the opportunity to read your mind. "how was dinner last night?" you jerk a bit at his voice, but quickly mask your surprised expression. somehow, you look especially good today. the pale green shirt makes your skin glow, and jun is suddenly jealous of whoever your future partner will be.

"good enough. enjoyed the nasi goreng that they served us." he's feeling a bit bold, so he asks, almost too softly for you to hear. "did you miss me?"

you don't immediately reply, but he sees the way your shoulders freeze. jun's mind panics and he immediately covers it up by rambling no no that came out in the wrong way i didn't- " i did. i did miss you." your words shock him to no end as you turn around to face him. there's an equal vulnerability in your eyes that reflects his own state.

"really? i'm sorry, i am. my brother arrived last night. he was supposed to come next week but he said-"

and then you lean in and kiss him. kiss him on the the mole that's on his cheek. "y/n?" "you have a brother." another kiss on the mole near his eyes. "yes, but-" "is he like you?" another kiss on a mole above his lips. "not much, we're step-" "did you have fun with him?" another kiss on the mole nearly on his lips. "yeah, but y/n, what are you doing right now?" "i missed you, junhui."

thinking about tour guide!junhui who you're going too fast with, but you can't help yourself

not with the way you crave for his touch all morning when you finally see him after... twelve hours. it's a little concerning, how hard you're falling for him. to be honest, you've never experienced this. is this love? or is this just you being infatuated?

"y/n, you go home tomorrow." "i do, but i couldn't stop myself. is this wrong? do you not want this? have i read you incorrectly?" "no. i do want- fuck, i need this, y/n. but i don't know if i can have you, so i can't continue." "we can just have one night together."

fuck. that's the wrong thing to say, clearly, because jun's face immediately changes from a constrained elation to a dejected puppy. "is that all you want? a one-night stand?" "jun-" "because i don't want that. so it's best if we don't really do anything about this because you'll be leaving tomorrow."

you can hear the way jun's voice breaks towards the end of his sentence, and you lean forward to kiss him again. "i don't want just a one-night stand with you, jun. you're wonderful and all i've been looking for, and honestly? fuck one-night stands. i want to have a house and kids with you. but we know that can't ha-"

jun giggles, and breaks your stream of thought. you pause, smiling at the cute way he's giggling. "what?" "house and kids?" you blush, averting your gaze, but jun's hand cups your cheek. "you're so bold, y/n." you gulp, "i'm just being honest." but then jun stops laughing. "but you know we can't. even though every cell of my body is aching to touch you after knowing that you like me too, i... i can't. we live in different countries. we've known each other for not even a week. we can't do long distance, it won't work."

you place more of your face into the cup of jun's palm. "you don't need to remind me of it. i've spent all night thinking about it. i really like you, but it feels cruel to know i can't do anything about it. that's why... i want to spend these two days with you. just you. i didn't want to deny my feelings anymore. not when i'm leaving tomorrow and i have nothing to lose." you smile, a bitter, sad smile. your heart aches with each word of truth you utter, but it's your only option left.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who kisses you next, a warm, soft kiss that makes you forget your surroundings

the guard near you interrupts your kiss and asks you to keep your pda private, because this is a zoo for kids, and the two of you double over with giggling. "sorry!" jun says, before he whisks you away towards a secluded spot for bird-spotting and kisses you more.

his hands rap around your waist, and he thinks, he'd rather die here than live without you. because everything you're even better than what he's imagined. the way your soft curves mould into his hands, the way your chapstick tastes like honey, and the way your shampoo smells of vanilla. you're a dream, a cloud melted into reality for him, and he wants to do nothing but hold you close.

"junie-" you moan into his kiss when he bites your lower lip, and your body clings to his even more. it's an exhilarating sensation, and jun craves it. "do you wanna come home with me tonight? meet my brother? eat dinner i make for you? i'm a good cook i swe-"yes! don't have to convince me, jun. yes, it's always a yes."

so he does. after the day's scheduled trip is over, he comes up to your hotel room, and sits with you on the couch as the two of you drink coffee and he helps you back your bags. it's a constant ache in his chest- the reminder of you leaving the next day. but it's too domestic and fulfilling a feeling for him to not take part in it. after that, he takes you home, where you meet his brother, who thankfully hides into his room soon after, so that he can get you completely to himself.

thinking about tour guide!junhui who cooks authentic chinese food for you, things you've never tasted before because your entire knowledge of chinese food is through takeout

perhaps it's the newness of the fond, warm feeling fluttering in your chest, perhaps it's the way the two of you eat from one plate as junhui shows you how to pair side dishes and even feeds you from his chopsticks, perhaps it's the way he cooks for you from scratch, or perhaps it's just the deliciousness of the food itself. but you're pretty sure that this is heaven, and nothing can beat it.

later in the night, jun and you sit on his sofa, curled up under a blanket, as the two of you make mindless conversation, sip beer and play games on his phone. it's only after midnight, that the initial happy vibes die down and the melancholy takes over. "we could be pen-pals," he says, spooning you from behind, as the two of you fit tightly into his sofa. "we could do video calls and texts and all..." "you said you didn't want a long distance relationship. and frankly, neither do i." you turn around to face him, and your heart breaks at the way his eyes water up slightly. seeing him, you break into tears as well, and he pulls you into his chest.

"i know. but i can't bear thinking that you'll be gone tomorrow. forever. that this is the end." your sobbing only increases at his words, and you can feel his tears fall on your forehead too, even though your eyes are shut.

"let me take you back to your hotel now-" "no. let me stay. please, jun?" your eyes are red with the crying, as you look up at him. and he presses a kiss to your forehead, and keeps his lips lingering there. "whatever you want, princess."

thinking about tour guide!junhui who wakes up to the smell of coffee and an omelette getting overcooked

he finds that you're no longer next to him on his sofa where you both had cuddled and fallen asleep last night. instead, you're in his kitchen, feeding breakfast to his baby brother, who's chatting with carelessly, as if today isn't the day of the apocalypse.

"oh, you're up! morning, jun." you walk over to him and place a kiss on the spot between his eyebrows. "i made breakfast. do you like tea or coffee? i didn't know, sorr-" "y/n? you have to get back to the hotel." "huh? no, i - i actually got my stuff sent over here. the hotel valet were so kind." "what?" "yea-" "i know i said the airport's close from here but you're supposed to leave with your group, you know." "eh? don't bother about all that, let's just eat breakfast now. good that your fridge is so well-stocked!"

jun's brain goes into overdrive because he's still sleepy, so he escapes to the bathroom to freshen up. "how did you brush your teeth?" he asks you when he comes out of the bathroom. "i used my finger." "finger? eww." "hey, it's better than using your brush!" jun grins and sits down on the kitchen counter next to you. you hand him a bowl of cereal with chopped fruits, and an omelette. "how did you know i like cereal?" "because your brother told me, dummy."

and for a few minutes, jun is in bliss. the two of you sitting on the counter, dangling your legs, eating cereal and slurping milk, and stealing kisses in between. but it's soon ten-thirty on his watch, and his heart rings out in alarm.

"y/n, you should leave soon. your flight's at noon, isn't it?" you look up from your seat, where you're eating the last piece of mango from your plate. "umm, so. i cancelled my flight." jun's plate almost slips and falls. "you what?" "yes, you heard me right. i cancelled my flight." "why?" "because i need time to think! i want at least two more days with you, so that we can figure out stuff. whether us shifting to one city is possible and-" "what? y/n? really?" jun's eyes are as wide as saucers now as he stares at you. you smile. "well, it was the only way out for me to make peace in my heart."

and jun kisses you. because it's the only way he can rein in his heart which is dancing with joy at the prospect of merely two more days with you and you even considering shifting to one city as a couple. "are you even real, y/n?" "i ought to ask you that!" "i love you." you smile, a little shocked, but it's a sweet smile. "i love you too, junhui."

#simpxxstan #simpxxstan's 550 followers celebration event #seventeen fanfic #seventeen x reader #seventeen fluff #svt #svt x reader #seventeen x you #svt fluff #jun headcanons #svt jun #jun fluff #wen junhui #jun #jun imagines #jun x you #jun x reader #jun romance

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asherlockstudy · 3 months ago

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The plot hole of Wonderhole (E1)

Introduction

The Plot Hole

The Flight

The Simulation

The Desert Island

Introduction

I finally found the opportunity to start my ANALysis of Wonderhole (Rhett & Link Wonderhole compatible joke). If you have read previous posts I have made about their scripted content or even candid conversations they have had, my main object is to examine whether this new content belongs to the same category of the recurring - and treated as a symbolism of their reality by me - Rhink storyline like almost all their previous scripted videos (including stuff from 2015) and creations (i.e TLCOBC); what I have been calling "One Story" for convenience. One Story Masterlist can be accessed here. By the way, I will also not take into account what new thing Rhett IRL may or may not have said in order to mud the water because he has been doing it a lot lately and I am not sure it is 100% reliable.

I will say that I had to watch the First Class Flight more than once to determine whether this episode is actually part of the One Story or not. After a few rewatches I realised that what was confusing me is that Wonderhole so far has a critical difference from the previous videos. The previous videos usually take place in an undefined time or in the present and they are full of symbolisms of their past and present. Wonderhole deals mostly with the future. Therefore, there are two ways we can view this:

Wonderhole so far is not part of the One Story because it only minimally draws parallels from their lived past.

Wonderhole so far IS part of the One Story because even though it doesn't draw from the past a lot, it actually reflects their certainty or expectation for how their future will unfold depending on certain circumstances, so technically it is still part of their true One Story because it is the future that's coming towards them or the one that seems very likely to come their way.

I suppose it's easier for readers to understand this through the obviously futuristic Time Capsule episode, however here I will argue about how this is also the case with the First Class Flight. This episode is linearly distinguished in two great time segments: the present in which Rhett and Link fake a first class flight vlog and the future of them being deserted in an island three years from now.

The Plot Hole

This is the time I should explain the title of this post. There is a massive plot hole in the episode and it is an intentional one. The way we can tell it is intentional is because our attention is drawed multiple times throughout the video towards it. Here are some examples:

"Without ever having to leave Burbank" - Rhett

"Since this is a simulation-" - Link

"...to fake fly us to fake Singapore wearing a fake mustache" - Rhett

"Well, it tastes like it might be juice but it's a simulation!" - Rhett

Link: "We're moving"... Rhett: "Oh it almost feels like it hehe"

"I gotta say, this is the smoothest takeoff I've ever experienced" - Link

"Since Mythic Air flight 138 operated at a real world altitude level of zero feet above ground we're not anticipating any flight safety issues" - Flight Attendant

Get it? They were in Burbank in a simulation of a flight. They never left. They go out of their way so many times to make it absolutely clear they are not moving and they are faking the whole thing. So, how on earth did the disaster and its consequences prove to be real???

At this point we should also acknowledge that there is not any technical evidence, there is no footage - how could there be one after all - that the plane somehow crashed and Rhett and Link survived the fall and were washed ashore to some desert island. This is the general implication but like we saw it is a very faulty one because it makes no sense. Which means that if we want to be precise about what could have happened in those three years between the vlog shooting and them being castaways, there are two possibilities:

It is a fantastical story in which the lie somehow morphed into a truth, it transcended into reality and caused all these consequences or

the technical issue / fall in the flight was just part of the prepared experience by the Mythical Crew, like everything else. We stop witnessing before the fall but it doesn't mean it didn't stop at some point, Rhett and Link continued the vlog, returned home and they ended up as survivors in a desert island after making the real vlog in a later time.

Now, I don't have an opinion or preference on which is the better theory between the two but I think that as symbolisms they signify pretty much the same thing. In order to understand this, we need to examine what each segment of the video stands for.

The Flight

This is very easy. The whole segment of the First Class Flight symbolises Mythical and, most notably, GMM. Everything that happens in this vlog is a conflation of all the most typical GMM formats and running jokes together.

Counting, we have: 1) the Mythical Crew crafting and the attention down to the smallest detail, 2) not consuming alcohol due to youtube rules, 3) their whole experience is curated by the Mythical (Plane) Crew, 4) precautions taken for dangerous Link, 5) Link interrupting the pilot (Stevie), 6) Mythical kitchen outdoing itself, 7) Rhett and Link tasting stuff, 8) Link typically going for what Rhett wants / has, 9) Link being super picky with the food, 10) Link not ceding to compliment Rhett to save his life, 11) Link oversharing and then Rhett making him feel worse for it, 12) Link's sexual but meaningless jokes (coconut in the pants / mile high club), 13) Link being extra particular about getting the perfect angles and shots, 14) Rhett and Link made to do something intimate together with stupid excuses just for the shippers (changing together, touching butts, sleeping together), 15) Link being grossed out, 16) indirect reference to Link's much discussed herpes, 17) Mythical grooming products, 18) doing something physically strenuous but ridiculous, 20) feeding each other, 21) smelling stuff blindfolded, 22) Rhett winning and / or doing something impressive, 23) Rhett winning the prize (here, picking what TV show to watch), 24) synchronizing in everything.

They squeezed in this "vlog" everything they typically do in Mythical episodes. The plane and the flight stand for Mythical, this space Rhett and Link have carved around them and it is what has made them rich and, to a degree, what keeps them secure. Also, the fact that it stands for Mythical is not subtle at all actually:

And in case you did not realise, THIS IS MYTHICAL.

The presence of their company has not been so emphatically stressed in other videos and it makes sense both at face value and subtextually because this is of course who is behind the making of this supposed vlog according to the plot, however we will see now why this matters a lot as a metaphor as well.

The Simulation

This is actually part of the Flight segment but I really want to talk about it on its own because it is the most essential part of the video. I believe this is why they made that video and this is also why it is the first episode of Wonderhole.

Like they clarify, this is not a vlog. It is a test video in place of the actual vlog they wanted to do but weren't sure the fans would approve of. So, they decided to test the waters by spending budget to frivolous Mythical simulations in order to minimize the risk and check the fans reactions, before proceeding with the actual vlog. I have explained many times that this is exactly what I believe it is happening with all their scripted content, especially the recent ones (TLCOBC onwards) and this is what is happening with Wonderhole too. This is the first episode because it is the warning, if you will, regarding what Wonderhole truly is. In short, this first episode is the shrunk simulation of Wonderhole itself, if not their situation for quite some time. Don't forget that last year Link had said there was a very specific question they wanted to get an answer to in regards to people's response to their scripted videos and by the end of the year they both concluded that aside from the positive reviews they had not received the exact response they wished for. (This is why Wonderhole is also going to be bolder than last year's videos, you are seeing this already. Because there is more despair to get the specific response.)

This explains why it didn't matter whether Rhett and Link survived the plane crash either through a fantastical transcendance to reality or in a later time but we do not see it; because it means disaster ensued either because they danced too close to the fire with their simulations / scripted content and people realised it had to be real or because they ignored alarming cues from the audience, went through with the "real" content and that's when the disaster took place. Both are possibilities and whichever one is the one that happens, in their minds the result is the same: they end up stranded and forgotten in a desert island by themselves.

Before proceeding with the final segment, there are more significant layers to the simulation. There are three times when Rhett and Link hear a concerning noise from the plane: when they touch butts in the bathroom, when there is an implication for Link's herpes and when they are together in bed. So those sobering noises happen in moments of relatively more intimacy. Rhett and Link then watch a trash reality show with a frankly weird premise, hot singles go to underdeveloped countries to perform surgeries as complete amateurs?! Wow. Perhaps there is meaning to it but I couldn't find it. The interesting thing here is that even this reality show has the element of practicing something dangerous through simulation. The show host tells the players they have the chance to perform a surgery in a practice before being exposed to the real thing. This is exactly when chaos unfolds, the show is paused and the pilot screams in panic. And at that moment we have what I think is the most important, the most telling screenshot so far:

Rhett and Link then embrace, waiting for the end, while they confess to each other things we all know. As they are looking for something super special to confess, Link says Rhett's balls are hanging out at that moment too. I don't think there is a sifnigicance to this unless the implication was that Rhett had removed his pants while we were unsuspectingly looking at the reality show! But, honestly, I don't think we got the equivalent of the announcement this was an allegory for. They didn't push for anything more there other than the notion that it was time for a most pivotal confession.

Lastly, let's also examine Link's quote early in the episode: "We like closing one eye, because it immerses us in something that's not really happening". This can be interpreted in various ways. Does it mean that we close our eyes in order to see something that is not true or does it mean that if we opened our eyes, then we would see what is really happening? These may seem similar but there is all the difference in the world between them.

It is very interesting however that the theme recurs later with the reality show: the participants perform eye surgeries like cutting cataracts, so there is this repeated theme of wanting to improve what one's eyes see. Alas, they are amateurs which means the surgeries are likely to lead to disaster before they lead to the much desired "eye opening".

The Desert Island

Believe it or not, this is in my opinion the least important segment or, maybe, the one least packed with information. That segment expresses their conviction of how they will survive a potential disaster. They appear removed like recluses but they stick together. Of course, their big longing will be to keep making videos, even if they don't have the means anymore or even if nobody cares to watch. This is about their professional life. Then:

"When left alone Rhett and Link exhibit all sorts of strange behaviours"

Aside of hopelessly trying to work and create, we are presented with what their life is likely going to be privately post-plane crash / disaster. Almost everything we see involves a level of physical intimacy; Rhett massages Link, "their" version of poker (which involves nipple stimulation), trying to make wine (like the notorious wine they made in puberty), skygazing together, checking each other for dermatological issues, sharing their thoughts and the classic joke of changing SOS to SEND TACOS, an indication that they are having enough of a good time to not really try to be rescued and return to their previous lives, with their old job and families. Oh, and having sex with the sex bush. This is the boldest imagery in this episode because we see them... uh...rub themselves on the sex bush (at the very least), not only in each other's presence but also while clasping hands. I don't think I have to tell you this but this is canonically engaging in the same sexual activity because it's like they are masturbating while holding hands. Now, if Rhett considers this a wild leap of logic indicative of "us the Rhink shippers", I don't know what to say.

There is also a very interesting lyric in their song. Watch how it is phrased:

"Sharing peanut butter because we are peanut butter lovers, lovers as in, we're both loving peanut butter. Not that we are making love with one another... We got a bush for that."

What exactly does this mean? We are making love with a bush instead of one another or we are using the bush to make love with one another and not the peanut butter? It sounds more like the former one but the imagery suggests the latter. I don't know. It could also mean that they are really tiptoeing around each other while still keeping their sexual life straight. We are not making love with the peanut butter (gay sex), we have a bush for that (straight sex). But then we see that in the bush they are really pushing the limits between them. It could be all of these things.

Bush aside, what does the peanut butter symbolise on its own? Link denies he is aroused by it but he readily admits he wants to "eat it out" and Rhett follows immediately, the more Link opens up. Again, we see once more Link to be the first one to voice his desire and of course Rhett jumps at it at a moment's notice. This is the case also in Digging the Medium-sized Hole, in the Puzzle, in the Brown Diamond. But then we have this strife caused between them as they cannot decide who should take the "first scoop". Like, who will break the seal of the peanut butter? To be honest, I think this is the drama that anal might have caused between two ex-Christian very traditional dudes. Like, who takes one for the team. Both of them claim the position of sticking their spoon to the peanut butter. Link has the argument that he should be the one to do it because he is the guy into peanut butter while "what Rhett really is is a bean guy" (bean is a slang for clitoris, so he's more into female genitalia, more hetero than Link). Rhett on the other hand doubts Link's versatility in sex (has happened IRL as well) so he doesn't want to cede the position of control to him.

Link: I got a lot of novel grill ideas. Rhett: Like what? Link: Like, the grill that uses the heat generated from rubbing your hands together. Rhett: ...And then you place them on the food?! Link:...... Yep. Rhett: So, the Link Neal Grill is just hands?!

Link is shamed for being too vanilla.

After a lot of talking it out, their eyes are opened to what they wanted all along. Link admits Rhett might like peanut butter just as much and Rhett admits that Link might be as competent in this as he is (find the peanut butter). They decide to each take a scoop from one side of the top and then enjoy it together. I mean, none of this is a great analogy but the most plausible scenario is that in order to overcome their conservative inhibitions and their sense of pride, they had to both agree to engage in this in absolutely equal terms. In short, to switch. Which I totally believe could be the case in reality as well.

The way the sex bush contrasts with the peanut butter makes it all rather confusing because we can also tell this does not proceed in a chronologically linear way at all, let alone that we have a blend of past and future here. But don't worry too much because the result is the same. By putting the peanut butter on leaves from the sex bush and then consuming it, they have canonically exchanged sex fluids. I could have said this from the beginning of this segment and save me of all this struggle.

#rhink #rhett and link #wonderhole #randl #rhett and link's wonderhole #r&l #one story #mythical

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apricitystudies · 2 years ago

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what i read in nov. 2022:

(previous editions) bold = favourite

class, race, & labour

leaked audio reveals queensland police staff in racist conversations, joking about violence to black people and protesters (australia)

investors sold somali families on a fast track to homeownership. the buyers risk losing everything (usa)

duplicity and destitution (sierra leone)

how a wealthy cleveland suburb profits from ticketing black drivers (usa)

gender, sexuality, & intersectionality

the bad guy list (usa)

what’s it like to come out as gay to the singapore armed forces?

how western feminism imposed itself on the world

women are not barred from racing in f1. so why can't any crack the grid?

377a repeal: singapore turns page on dark lgbt history

politics & current affairs

‘i hold china accountable’: uyghur families demand answers

israeli police kill palestinian as violence surges in west bank

how to move a country: fiji’s radical plan to escape rising sea levels

indonesia set to penalise sex outside marriage

what happened to rezwan (usa/afghanistan)

history, culture, & media

gazawood dreams

the unbearable lightness of buzzfeed

pakistan's lost city of 40,000 people

the three lives of warsaw’s neon (poland)

to see beyond

the fifth element (paraguay)

#studyblr #studyspo #academia #reading list #reading lists #student #university #productivity #bookblr #myresources

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inchidentally · 11 months ago

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tricky asks below! pls do not rb as that removes the readmore for some reason and I want to keep these out of tags <3

the fact that we're having to to discuss friendzoning about two friends anon we're really in it now aren't we

I want to take a moment direct ppl to this interview if they like Carlos tho bc his interviews are always so intelligent and thoughtful. you also get a much more authentic persona out of him when he speaks in Spanish. there are more videos on that account from that interview too.

I love that he listed Checo and Fernando so highly bc of course he gravitates toward ppl he can speak to in his born language. the three of them personality wise are pretty different but whenever they move toward each other you can tell they're in compatriot mode.

but yea what he said re Lando and racing is exactly what Lando says - and what nobody ever wants to post except begrudgingly. the 'bromances' are dressed way up by fans and media but there is no deeper narrative and it's not that serious. when they're driving, all friends disappear bc winning is the only reason to even be in F1 let alone the only way to stay in it for certain. even the comments on videos like that are next to nothing bc they're not "shippy" videos. but it's authentic and true that these guys are F1 drivers first and foremost and wayyyy after that it's nice to have some regular buddies to hang with. we should all be able to put shipping aside and appreciate the actual drivers these guys are and the fact that they can put aside their intense competitiveness to be so friendly.

asgfkasgfksag I love that last part anon. fr I've found it so funny that the larrie carlandos class Oscar in with all the women they despise bc it threatens their ship. it's like sexy Brazilian woman, sexy European woman, sexy IG Baddie, and... Oscar.

that's wild though about lestappen having their own larries. how in the hell do ppl look at Charles and Carlos and even bother pretending they dislike let alone hate each other. we literally have real life F1 examples of teammates who are neutral/uninterested in each other w KMag and Hulk and teammates who bitterly hate each other w Ocon and Gasly. if Charles and Carlos were even in a dislike/disinterest category we wouldn't see them giggling and touching right up to the last day at Abu Dhabi this year. and side note but we also wouldn't see their gfs enjoying spending time together during races and events either, which Alex and Rebecca do.

I've seen that too it's insane. when has Lando NOT considered Silverstone the most important race on the calendar for him?? and nothing will beat his high over that podium until his actual win, nothing. (the fact that he kept saying how Oscar deserved to be up there with him was just the icing on the cake)

and like can they please just remember here that Lando was excited and happy on that podium in Singapore for himself as well???? that his own result meant more to him than a Ferrari driver?? yes he was happy for Carlos but Lando is sort of an actual F1 driver and if he could've knocked Carlos' ass aside and gotten that top spot for himself he very. much. would. have!! and that the double podiums that followed meant more to him bc y'know the team he drives for get more points?? carlando is a miniscule part of Lando's F1 career and Carlos is less a part of his life than Max V in terms of drivers who spend non-driving related time with him. after that being George, Alex and Daniel. and then Carlos.

yea honestly I'm not sure if the larry element has always been in carlando fandom and the latest Netflix/Liberty Media commercialization of the ship has just amplified it or if these are a bunch of new ppl who only go for the unhinged accounts. but that side of the ship literally view Lando as someone who responds to Carlos and does nothing else so huge shock that they try to override his actual choices and his actual race weekend with Carlos literally years after Carlos left him for Ferrari.

I'm guessing it's enraging watching Carlos do with Charles all the jokey sexual/romantic things they kept wanting him to do w Lando but sorry folks for all that we slow down certain moments and obsess over them sharing an umbrella to walk down the pit lane it's literally brotherly behavior. I've got another anon who brought up my tags of carlando being Charles and Arthur and it straight up is. all the physical carlando stuff is what they do. and I say this as someone who fully does twist all those carlando moments into something romantic/sexual lol. but gotta be able to keep that line between reality and fantasy.

fortunately Lando is chronically online enough to brush this crap off and Carlos just sees the carlando fan stuff as decent publicity. but fingers crossed it doesn't escalate even further to Sky Sports or F1 pushing it and fans getting so crazed that Lando or Carlos has to put their foot down. if it's already swamping McLaren social media and Lando's fan accounts then expect it to get even worse.

the lack of Oscar's presence in all of these places is probably the lamest thing bc good lord the guy has a long term gf can they all admit that as Lando's ACTUAL teammate he has more relevance to Lando's career than any former teammate? and can McLaren please get their act together next season and bring back Unboxeds and stop splitting up Lando and Oscar content when they never did this with Carlos or Daniel?? sorry Oscar ain't a wacky character but we all happen to love his dynamic with Lando.

you just answered that question anon and it's exactly why I can't believe they want carlando back as teammates. as things are we get to have a nice sprinkle of carlando content throughout the season and no drama! do they truly want silly challenges videos so badly that they want to watch the entire friendship sink like a stone now that Lando would be challenging and beating Carlos AND that now it would be Lando as first driver and not Carlos? the Sainz family's warmth is there bc they never had to see Lando as a direct competitor or hindrance to Carlos' success. they'd turn on him in a fucking second when Carlos didn't get an update and Lando did or Carlos wanted to change the car but Lando didn't or Lando was the reason why Carlos missed out on a podium. the main reason why Charles and Carlos work so well through the drama is that they're such similar people and can keep a level head and distance from it all. Lando is n o t h i n g like Charles' personality. Lando cannot translate frustration and misery into anything, it just sits with him until he does better. Carlos literally said he didn't know what to do with Lando when he'd get into those funks. imagine all the god awful repeats of that carlando "breakup" clip from 2021 bc Lando can't hide anything on his face and he'd be fed up with Carlos or his family or himself and christ.

it would be so. so very bad. can they at least be happy that Lando's got a nice placid easygoing guy in Oscar as a teammate and carlando content still rolls in.

I could def see the fact that Oscar is neither older brother or younger brother age for Lando and they do all the same gen z references and the same hobbies is probably part of whatever they perceive as a "threat". like it's still such a reach but it would explain the way Lando fan accounts try to post as little Lando with Oscar as possible but dredge up 2019 slowed down Carlos shoulder bumps and shit lol.

truly I personally don't know if the Oscar and Carlos dingdongs play much of a part for carlando fans bc honestly Carlos has quite a few regular enemies on the track alsgfjlsagf. by this time they've got to know that. Carlos sometimes can't drop the red mist even hours after a race so Oscar just happens to have come in for a share in his rookie season! but especially with how much Carlos has actually seemed to chum around with Oscar before and after drivers parades etc (even ignoring Lando a couple times to do so !!!!!! gasp horror etc)

side note that I'd honestly be glad if Oscar chose never to get into golf bc ohhhhh the shit fit if he went golfing at the same time as Lando and Carlos. even though Lando golfs with tons of people and they always play in fours anyway.

I still personally think that the mostly straight women who buy into the bromances to the point of thinking this is how gay relationships actually look are pretty cold toward Oscar bc even Lando has said that Oscar's brought out a new level in Lando's driving and that he likes how calm Oscar is. so the fact that Oscar and Lando aren't fake gaying it up and they're also not doing a bunch of physical touch that can be edited and slowed down to look gay to those women has got to look like Lando being I guess unhappy or like they have no chemistry. so they'll allow that Oscar can be cute sometimes and maybe sometimes he can be cute with Lando. for a treat. but that in their mind Lando is meh about Oscar and is just dying to have the guy back who... actively chose to leave ??

I never saw that cartoon but I remember one from the summer that had Lando and Oscar together in a boat - SHIP CONFIRMED???? CARLANDO OVER??

jesus christ thankfully the drivers never see these comments.

and yikes at the meltdowns over that Carlos trip to Monaco bc he was with Rebecca the whole time and rumors were that they were looking at apartments. I do hate myself for liking gossip but it's literally in a sit back and enjoy the madness way lol.

askfgakg anon are you by any chance part of the sainz family?

(if I didn't answer your ask here it's probably bc it's something I'd rather discuss privately/don't want to stir up in fandom. feel free to message me tho <3 tumblr may also have devoured it bc it still does that sometimes)

#inchreplies #wank adjacent #do not reblog

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yunhsuanhuang · 1 year ago

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You Look So Good In Blue | Y.H. Huang

Inspired by Child Ballad 16.

When a teenage fling mutates into something vast and terrifying, two seventeen year olds at a certain mid-tier college in Singapore make a desperate plan to control their future, earn their parents' love (or at least respect), and get the hell out of this school for good.

i. the daughter

It's whispered in the kitchen, it's whispered in the hall

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair,

The king's daughter goes with child, among ladies all

And she'll never go down to the broom anymore.

It's whispered by the ladies one unto the other,

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair,

“The king's daughter goes with child unto her own brother–

And they'll never go down to the broom anymore.”

Sheath and Knife, Maddy Prior

/r/sgacads

is st cecilia rly a pregnancy school?? [o levels]

/u/anxiousorange

hiii sorry for the 29583th school admissions post today lol but i just got my o level results back and they’re pretty ok ^_^ so i was thinking of going to st cecilia junior college since it’s near my house but the more i hear about it the more i want to reconsider… like apparently the people are very party type which is not really my thing?? and ofc everyones heard about how its got the highest pregnancy rate in sg o_0

is this true? or just say say one

comments (8)

/u/academicweapon

As a SCian it’s not true LOL none of us get bitches

/u/theatrekidaf

skill issue

/u/sharpsdisposal

we’re too busy failing physics :/

/u/zombiegrave

q: how many scians does it take to change a lightbulb?

a: none. they like it better darker

/u/aw_bass34

Q: What’s the only test SC girls can pass?

A: Pregnancy test :P

/u/gregorythomas91 [s]

Damn old rumour, probably from 1990s, 2000s around there. But it’s not really unfounded. Especially with what happened in 2008.

/u/anxiousorange

what happened? im scared lol

/u/gregorythomas91 [s]

You haven’t heard meh? It was a big deal back then, I'm shocked they've covered it up that well. Let me try and remember.

You never told me what really happened over those few blistering months in 2008, but I guess I wasn’t alone in that. Even when the newspapers shoved a mic in your face, even when you were being grilled by the lawyers, even when you were standing on that trap door, waiting for the drop– what really happened was a secret you’d bring to the grave.

So it’s all inference and extrapolation and linear correlation– sue me. How else am I going to make sense of that moment? How else do I come to terms with why you did what you did? Could I have known? Could I have stopped it? Was I even, when it came down to it, your friend– or was I just somebody who let you copy his lecture notes?

I don’t know. What I do know is this:

It was some mid-week mid-afternoon, indistinguishable from any other. The bell had just rung, and the whitewashed corridors were packed with sweaty kids rushing to PE, squeezing past those dragging their feet from class to class. We were part of the latter group, squinting against the September sun as we ambled across the quadrangle to home class. Above us, the school motto loomed in oversized light-blue letters: Remember you are in the presence of God.

I was mentally calculating how long the Malay stall queue would be when you said, casual as always, “Eh, pass me your market failure notes later, can? I’m yellow-slipping after GP.”

I raised an eyebrow. You weren’t a stranger to leaving school early, but you’d been doing it more and more often lately, and at this point I hadn’t seen you stay for Shooting in ages. As your club captain, I was supposed to be concerned. As a friend– well, I was intrigued. Of course I’d heard the rumours, passed from homeroom to homeroom, Friendster account to Friendster account. Who in St Cecilia’s hadn’t? “Is this related to whatever you and Camilla Wong have going on?”

“Cam’s not my girlfriend,” you said, after a brief, completely unsuspicious pause.

I snorted. “She doesn’t let anyone in this school call her that but you, dumbass. ”

You ducked your head down to hide a smile, your dress-code fringe falling into your eyes. It was a strangely endearing habit. “Fine lah. We’re– seeing each other.” Then you continued, hurriedly, “But don’t let anyone else know, OK?”

“Fine, I'll write you off CCA for today. But don’t make it a habit, ar? Hold pen, not hold hand.” Despite myself, I grinned. Sure, the two of you made an unlikely couple. Wong was an ex-Convent girl and student councillor, all relentless energy and long hair tied so high it was prone to hit people when she spun, while the only time I’d ever seen you really alive was behind the barrel of an air pistol. Back then, I thought it was cute. Opposites attract– wasn’t that the backbone of any drama worth its salt?

I wouldn’t realise, until later, that despite how different the two of you appeared, at the core of it you were the same– pale and skinny and drowning in your school uniform, searching for exits the moment you stepped into a room. Always, always halfway out the door: of your school, of your body, of the life you knew.

But back then it was just a September afternoon, and we were only seventeen. You smiled back at me, all cheer, like you saw something I didn’t, like you saw something I never would.

In the end, though, this isn’t my story. This is yours. So let’s tell it your way.

The newly minted 1T26 trickled slowly from assembly into the classroom, chopeing the best desks and nervously rotating between the same few ice-breakers: orientation, secondary schools, O-Level points. As you entered, you cast a glance over the sea of blue pinafores and green pants. Still reeling from the sheer increase in the female population, you took a desk at the back, between the ancient, peeling noticeboard and the window looking out on the covered tennis courts. You were tall enough to see over all the heads, anyway.

Soon, your home tutor arrived, a round-faced lady toting an oversized Cath Kidston duffle bag, and wrote her name on the board in neat block letters: Mdm Alvares. The class stood to greet her, chairs scraping hurriedly against the linoleum. She beamed back, her smile all teeth, and was busy setting up the visualiser when the door slammed open.

The class spun in their seats. “Sorry,” the intruder sheepishly said, leaning against the doorframe. Some of her hair had fallen half-out of her high ponytail, her pinafore already wrinkled at the hem. A dusting of freckles covered her pink cheeks.

Mdm Alvares squinted at the girl, then the laminated name list. “And you are?”

“Camilla Wong.”

Mdm Alvares looked out over the class, scanning the rows, and her eyes landed on an empty seat in the corner whose sole occupant was your beat-up Jansport. Realising where this was going, you sighed, putting your bag on the floor.

Camilla smiled, made her way in–

and put her bag down at another empty seat, half a class away.

–

There was nothing in this world you hated more than 4PM Maths lectures. That day the aircon was actually working, which you would normally have been grateful for, except for the fact that that sharp, recycled wind was blasting directly at the very back rows of LT5, right onto your face.

You were trying so hard to 1) figure out plane vectors and 2) stop yourself from getting hypothermia that you wouldn't be able to recall, later, the exact moment that Camilla fell asleep on your shoulder.

When you realised this, you froze. Oh, you thought, and didn't know what else to think. On one hand, it would’ve been so easy to wake her. Just a poke from your pen, and she would’ve jolted up almost instantly. On the other hand, though, her long eyebrows brushed against her freckled cheeks, and her chest rose and fell in these small, slight motions, and–

Before, you had only ever seen her as a baby-blue blur in the corners of your sight, always in motion even in the earliest of classes. But Camilla, asleep, tucked in the crevice between your shoulder and neck–it felt fragile, thrumming, tense. Like something made of glass, nestled gently in your hand, that it would only have taken a squeeze to splinter.

The next twenty-two minutes were the longest twenty-two minutes of your entire life so far. Even so, when the bell rang and Camilla pulled herself upright, you found yourself missing it already.

–

After that, it was like a switch had been flipped in your brain. It was only then that you began to really Notice Camilla, capital N, italics. You noticed her with her head bowed in mass, noticed her shoving fishball noodles into her mouth at lunch, noticed her arguing with your classmates over technicalities in GP. But you noticed her the most in Monday zeriod house meetings, when the artificial grass glimmered with dew and the syrupy dawn light made the whole world seem like a Hollywood coming-of-age movie. You watched her toss her braids over her shoulder, wipe the pearls of sweat off her flushed face. Her red, red shirt rode up as she stretched, revealing a sliver of pale flesh above the waistband of her shorts–

It took until then for her to notice you Noticing. Her eyes flickered over to you, she winked, and blew a kiss.

You felt as if you’d walked out onto the PIE and been hit by a truck. It was a wonder every single smoke alarm in the school didn’t go off right that moment–a cacophony of ringing like firecrackers all strung up, exploding pop-pop-pop from the foyer to the science block to the hostel. It swallowed every other sound, every other thought. Then she turned away, a grin still lingering on the corners of her lips.

–

During one of your lunch breaks, Camilla pulled you out of class. She had to ask you something about your PW survey, she said. As far as you were aware, you weren't in the same PW group. You knew this. She knew this. The entirety of 1T26 knew this, too, so you headed down to one of the wooden picnic tables underneath Block D, the one tucked beneath the staircase next to St Pat’s room. Both of you hovered awkwardly around the bench for a moment, doing the calculations in your head–how close to sit? What to say? You shifted from foot to foot.

All of a sudden, Camilla slammed her hand down on the table. You jumped. “Walao eh. I legit can’t do this anymore. Is this a Thing? Are we having a Thing?”

You swallowed, eyes darting.

“Make up your mind, sia.” She rolled her eyes, laughing under her breath. “St. Francis boys, I swear.”

“No, wait, yes–” The words spilled, embarrassingly and pitifully, out of your mouth. You feared you were not beating the all-boys’ school stereotypes that day. “I mean, I did, but, um–” Just stop, your brain chanted. What're you saying? You're only making it worse. Kill yourself. Kill yourself. Kill yourself.

“So that’s a yes,” Camilla said, and surged forward to shut you up herself.

–

The next thing you knew, you were stumbling into the stairwell together, the door banging noisily shut behind you. “Why–” Camilla started, and you said, “Nobody ever uses Staircase 6. Now come on.” You pushed her up against the curved concrete wall, not caring that the low ceiling scraped against your head. There was that wild, exhilarated look on her face again, like she still couldn’t believe that she was actually doing this. Beautiful, even in the dull grey light. Her nails dug crescents into your skin.

The air was all heat, sweat, too much cherry blossom perfume. You worked at your tie–quicker than you’d ever been able to in all your years of schooling–as she undid the buttons on her uniform shirt, revealing the freckles that dusted her pale shoulders like so many stars. As you unbuckled her bra in one quick motion, she gasped, then giggled. “Damn, Yeoh. You’re good at this. Is there anyone you haven’t told me about?”

In between kisses, you came up for air. You could've made a joke about not having many opportunities to practise in St Francis, but the real truth was that your desperation shocked even yourself– this wasn’t the careful boy that your pastors, parents, teachers, knew. Your heart threatened to burst from your chest like the bullet from a gun. For the first time in sixteen years, it felt– really felt– like you were fully alive.

“Just you, Cam.” You dipped back down. “Only you.”

ii. the yew tree

He's ta'en his sister down to his father's deer park

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

With his yew-tree bow and arrow slung fast across his back

And they’ll never go down to the broom anymore.

You made close acquaintances with every dark corner of the school. When June came, you merely shifted your meeting points closer to home– behind heartland malls in Tampines or in the nooks and crannies of Cam’s sprawling landed estate along Cluny Road. Neither of you were sure, yet, if you were doing it Right– things like bubble tea dates, strolls in Botanics, or mugging in NLB (god, you should have been mugging, mid-years were in a week and neither of you had cracked a book). But if it wasn’t capital R Right, why did it feel like it was? You thought you had developed a case of myopia–Cam in focus, everything else blurred.

All that to say: the holidays were closer to ending than beginning when you and Cam found yourselves in an overgrown grassy patch tucked somewhere in between a storm drain and the wrought-iron back gate of some minister’s landed property. It had sounded a lot more romantic in theory, but the cloudless sky was the same powder-blue as your school uniforms, and the sun beat down like it had a personal vendetta against you. There was nothing much for shade except for a single banana tree, which you lay crumpled under, sweat-sheened and reddened. The last of the endorphins were beginning to wear off.

Cam’s ringtone cut through the air, a chiptune rendition of some Green Day song. She sighed, then propped herself up on one elbow as she picked up her phone. Her hair was loose, cascading down her back like smooth dark water. You fought the urge to run your hands through it.

“Ba!” she chirped. The cheer didn’t show on her face. “Ba, of course I'm still at the library. I’m with Lucia. Yes, Ba, I’m sure. Don’t call her, can?” She flinched as though she’d been slapped– a familiar, instinctual tic. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll study hard, I promise. Byebye.”

She hung up and sighed, leaning backwards. “I think I’ll need to go soon.”

“Soon,” you promised. You were lying flat on the warm grass, arms crossed over your chest like you were about to be lowered into the grave.

“Soon,” Cam repeated. “Fuck, I hate that we have to sneak around like this, sia. I keep thinking that he’s going to jump out at me from any corner, that any random passerby can tell I’m not where I’m supposed to be. It’s like this whole island has eyes, and maybe it does.” As she lay back down beside you on the grass, her oversized t-shirt–Camp Veritas Counsellor 2007–drooped down to reveal the blades of her shoulder, the ones you’d kissed just moments ago. Her voice lowered. “You know ah, the moment we get our A-Levels back, I’m getting out of this city. Australia, London, LA, anywhere. There’s nothing here for me.”

“No leh.” She can’t say that, you thought, pettily, awfully. She had a mansion and a scholarship and a real iPhone. She had the freedom to just leave. To go somewhere without worrying about the money. You had– what? Parents on the edge of divorce and a bankrupt family business? So much for inheritance. So much for a glorious kingdom. Then you had banished the thought from your head. “You have me.”

“I guess I do.” There was a pause. Then she asked, quick and soft and desperate: “Hey, if I asked you to do something, you’d do it, right?”

You reached over, squeezing Cam’s hand tight in yours. The leaves of the banana tree shivered. “I’d do anything for you,” you told her, and it was true. It was really true.

–

Your grades wobbled, then declined, then plummeted, and you found, to your surprise, that you couldn’t care less. You’d made a lot of bad decisions in your life. Try as you might, you couldn’t count Cam among them.

This, then, might have been why you were lying on your bedroom floor, squinting at your Nokia at four AM on a Monday morning. An empty can rolled lazily from your hand, on an epic journey across the glossy faux-marble floor. The house, for once, was still. Even your parents’ screams had petered off about an hour ago. The silver light from the HDB corridor fell through your windows in slits, providing just enough light for you to see the tiny phone screen. With the phone’s small buttons and your clumsy fingers, it took a long time for you to dial the number, but none at all for her to pick up.

“Cam,” you whispered, “Want to see you.”

“Jesus, Yeoh, it’s a school night.” Her voice was gorgeous like this, low and blurred. She only ever used this voice with you: when her raw-bitten lips were pressed against your chest, your ear, your– You shifted. It didn’t help.

“Cam, Cam, Camilla.” Her name rolled off your tongue like a litany, sharp and needy. “Can talk a while or not?”

“Are you drunk again?” she teased you. On the other end, her sheets rustled as she sat up. Although you hadn’t ever been in her house before, you could reconstruct it well enough from the blurry webcam pictures she’d sent you: piles of assessment books, porcelain cross, ceiling fan. And she– beautiful, beautiful, feet kicked up against her headboard, black hair spilling over the flowery sheets, the smile evident in her voice. “Help lah. How–”

“Miss you,” you murmured, by way of an answer.

“I miss you too.”

“Want to meet you. Want to talk to you.” Then, because you were three cans of beer deep and loved making (aforementioned) bad decisions, you charged on: “You and I, we never talk.”

“I know we haven’t met in a while. It’s not my fault I was sick–” Her voice wavered a little, then bounced back to its chirpy cadence. “But we talk all the time, though. We literally talked in class yesterday. I’m talking to you now.” Cam laughed. Her laugh still sounded to you like the first day of the month– every church across the island breaking into bellsong, light and birdlike in the hot blue air. It was cliché, you knew. You didn’t care. Perhaps you were in too deep to care.

“No,” you insisted, but you didn’t really know what you were saying, or why you were saying it at all. “We don’t.”

“We don’t,” she said, then fell silent.

The funny thing about the two of you was this: Over the past few months, you had seen each other stripped bare, worn to the bone with want, more times than you could count. But the both of you knew, all right, that there were things that you couldn’t– that you didn’t say. Things that were secret even to yourselves. The scars on your forearm, the bruises on hers, the way she looked at you when she thought your mind was elsewhere. Those three words, weightier than any false promise you’d whispered against each other’s skin.

“Staircase. Tomorrow. I need to tell you something.”

–

That night, you dreamt of flying.

You weren’t a bird, weren’t yourself– just bodiless, incorporeal, sweeping through the hallways of the college like a ghost. You phased through the auditorium doors to see the loose ceiling tile, the one that had been hanging over your heads like a guillotine all term, topple to the ground in one fantastic crash, sending students fleeing out the doors and into the foyer. You fled with them, but the ceiling fan in the foyer was spinning just a bit too hard, just a bit too fast, and the students screeched to a halt just in time to catch it falling, an angel with clipped wings. It broke in two over the staircase railing, knocking down the tables and the notice boards, pulling down the ceiling with it. Then the chapel was the next to go, the shattering stained glass catching the light in a thousand colours. As you raced up the corridors, the destruction raced up, up, up, alongside you, past the staff room and canteen to the lecture halls, the classroom blocks, the PAC, every single building in the college folding in on itself like so much wet paper. Block J detached itself cleanly from its precarious perch, tipping head-over-heels into the field. You couldn't hear a thing, but you could imagine what it sounded like: the earth itself breaking, rapture the other way around.

Then you crossed the lower quadrangle, where two little blobs of baby blue lay pressed against each other’s bodies. Even without descending, you already knew who they were. It was strange to watch yourself like a movie. When you were younger, you'd thought that this was how God saw the world, top-down, like a player peering at a chessboard. When you’d failed an exam for the first time, you'd cowered under a table-cloth to escape His wrath. You’d stopped believing in a lot of things as you grew up, but you could never kick that instinct to flee, that inescapable, intrinsic fear that the presence of God really was everywhere: under a table, in a school, in every splitting cell.

The boy on the ground turned his face towards the girl, tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear. She smiled infuriatingly, endearingly, back at him.

The school came down on them.

–

Most of the morning was taken up by this awful college event that you’d totally forgotten was happening, all cheering and sweat and thirty-eight degree heat. It was only when the day was coming to a close, then, that Cam and you could sneak away past the computer labs and guitar room into Staircase 6. As you entered, Cam pulled out something from the pocket of her sweater–an admin key–and latched the door behind her with a deliberate click. You blinked. “How’d you get that?”

Cam didn’t say anything, just tucked the key in the pocket of her oversized school hoodie. There was something strange and tense about her, stranger and tenser than she had been all term. She walked up to Level 4, where the sky through the grilled window cut long slices of light onto the concrete floor, and sat down on the top step. You sat down next to her.

She breathed, imperceptibly, in and out, looking straight ahead. The question rushed out in a gasp.

“You told me you’d do anything for me, right? I need you to kill.”

iii. the arrow

And when he has heard her give a loud cry,

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

A silver arrow from his bow he suddenly let fly.

And she’ll never go down to the broom anymore.

WONG CHIEN PING

The New Paper, 1998

WONG: To me, family– family always comes first. My kids always come first. You know ah, I’ve got five children. Four boys, one girl.

INTERVIEWER: Wow.

WONG: [Laughter.] Can be a handful at times, lah, but what can you do? As I was saying, right, when I look at my kids, I’m thinking about everything they could be. Lawyers, doctors, maybe even MPs like me. [Laughter.] And I think about how Singapore’ll change in ten years, fifty years, a hundred years. My youngest, Camilla, she’s going to graduate from university in the 2010’s. In a new century. What’s Singapore going to look like then?

INTERVIEWER: Mhm.

WONG: I want to make Singapore a place where my kids can grow up safely. Where they can have a future.

For a moment, all you could do was laugh. Then you stopped, of course, but the echo lingered. “Cam?”

Without meeting your eyes, she lifted up her sweater. The first thing you’d thought was that she’d forgotten to bring her house shirt– she was still in uniform. Then you realised that her shirt was unbuttoned at the bottom, and her skirt was unlatched, and there was a solid, unmistakable, swell to her stomach.

The world tilted on its axis. There was no way this was happening. This was a really terrible prank. She’d stolen a prosthetic from Drama. It had to be something, something other than this, something other than a child– You made an inelegant noise, some spluttered form of protest. “Oh.”

“Oh,” Cam agreed, unhappily.

You instinctively reached out to touch her bump, like you’d seen in the soapy Mediacorp dramas Ma always watched. You didn’t feel anything. Wasn’t there supposed to be some sort of parental instinct singing to you; love, love, love all through the water and the flesh and the blood?

“Didn’t you listen in Bio? You can’t feel the heartbeat yet. Not for a while, but not for long, either,” she said. “Not until I can’t hide it anymore.”

“Oh.” You didn't know what else to say. You pulled her into your arms, and she pressed herself against you, body against body. Like stragglers hiding from the cold, except it was thirty-five degrees outside, the air the same dull dead warmth that school air always was. She turned her face away, but you could still see her eyes go glossy, hear her take those shallow breaths. "I'm so sorry."

You couldn't begin to imagine what she was feeling, how much she'd lost in that instant when she knew she was carrying a life that wasn't hers: the scholarship, the law school, the clear American sky she'd never see. The future rushed out before you, a landscape vast and desolate, and you found yourself unable to picture it except for your mother's face, crumpling in on itself, her world imploded in a single moment. Thinking: all you had to do was study hard. We gave everything for you, pinned every hope on you, and this is what we get? Saying: stupid boy. Stupid, stupid boy.

You don’t know how you say what you say next, but you do. “So. You want to- to kill it?” It, it, it. Still an it.

Cam laughs wetly. “Almost there. Kill–” the pronoun trips off her tongue– “me.”

ST CECILIA’S JUNIOR COLLEGE

CAMERA 235

12:28:03

YEOH shoots to his feet. WONG does too.

YEOH: You can’t just say that–

WONG: Just shut up for a moment and let me explain, can?

YEOH shuts up.

WONG [with a wince]: Sorry. But you know my father lah. You know how he is. He’ll have my head.

YEOH: What’s the worst he can do ah? Pack you off to some boarding school overseas?

WONG takes a sharp breath.

WONG: It’s not about that. It’s about the fact that he’s worked his whole life for this position. If he ever finds out what we’ve done, his career jialat liao, just like that. Every single day for the rest of my life he’ll look at me and only see a disappointment of a daughter, a stain on the family name. I snuck around and I lied to his face and I bribed my friends for alibis but at least for seventeen years he didn’t know better. He called me his princess, his golden girl, and he meant it. Now all of that’s gone. Or will be gone, I guess. I don’t know how I’d live without that.

YEOH: He doesn’t need to know. You understand that, right? There are ways to get rid of it, I mean, there has to be some way–

WONG: That’s the fucking problem!

WONG turns away, stifling a sob.

WONG: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you–

YEOH [instinctively]: And before you were born I consecrated you.

WONG: This is our child, Yeoh. This is a human life.

YEOH: Better any other life than yours.

A long pause.

WONG [overlapping]: You can’t mean that.

YEOH [overlapping]: I can. I do.

YEOH ascends one step. YEOH stares at WONG as if he’s daring her to say something, until WONG begins to cry. YEOH freezes for a split-second. He reaches for WONG, whispers something inaudible in her ear. WONG reaches up and kisses him in response. After a while, WONG extricates herself with an expression that seems almost like a smile. She walks over to the railing and leans against it. YEOH follows her.

WONG: I’ve always told myself I want to be a good person, but maybe the real truth is that I didn’t want my dad to figure out otherwise. Maybe all of that hiding was for nothing. Maybe it was only a matter of time before he found out who I really was, deep down: rotten. Impure. That woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.

WONG: And, sure, I can sneak away to a clinic, God knows we can afford it, I can do whatever it is girls do in movies with the clothes hanger or the back alley. But if my life after this is all an act– what’s the point, if I already know where I’m going when I go? I’m tired of keeping secrets, trying so hard to keep this part of my life from him– when one day I’ll slip again, I know it, and the whole house of cards is going to come crashing down. If I die now, all my sins are going to die with me. He’d be happy, and I’d be loved, and you–

WONG [almost envious]: You’d never understand.

YEOH tilts his head downwards, fringe falling over his eyes. He starts to say something, then stops.

YEOH: I do understand.

Like so many other people you knew, you never meant to go to St Cecilia’s. Everyone said you could make Temasek, maybe Victoria. Tampines at the very least. And you'd believed it, too, until you didn't anymore, until the college you were going to became the least of your worries.

When did you stop believing you’d ever have a future? It wasn’t a single moment so much as it was a series of them: stepping over the yellow line when waiting for the train, trying to find footholds in the railing of every overhead bridge, your eyes always flicking to every exit you could take. The words you said under your breath in prayers weren’t Our Father who art in heaven but a litany only you knew: I don’t have to do this. I don’t have to keep going. I can leave any time I want. For as long as you remembered, you’d already been halfway gone.

It was a comforting hypothetical, until it wasn’t, and suddenly you found yourself on the bathroom floor at three in the morning, a week before prelims. The cool white light bounced off the tiles, the mirror-cabinet above the sink hung ajar like it was beckoning you, and you were so, so exhausted. Why were you trying so hard? What were you even studying for? No matter what college you went to, the future would always be blurry and grey. Test after test after test, then onto– what, exactly? You’d never been able to imagine yourself past sixteen. You’d never be able to imagine yourself more than half-alive.

You’d tell the psychiatrist later that you didn’t remember the rest of the night, but that wasn’t true. You remembered the pills. You remembered the blinding, fluorescent pain– and through the pain, your father’s face, your mother’s voice. 911 on the cordless telephone. The ambulance. Changi Hospital. When you’d finally woken, there was a split-second where all you could see was white, and all that came to you was a rush of relief– until the white coalesced into white walls and white sheets and a ceiling spotted with air-conditioning vents, and you could almost laugh at yourself for expecting anything different. If you’d succeeded, anyway, it wouldn’t have been white.

So you failed both at dying and at Chemistry. That was fine. You took the two points off for affiliation. You took the 5AM bus. You took the desk at the corner of 1T26. That was fine too. You swore you didn't care about any of it, and you didn’t, you didn’t. Then Cam happened, and suddenly you did.

But you couldn’t shake the memory of that night in the hospital, your parents whispering next to your bed when they thought you were asleep. For once in their life, they weren’t at each other's throats. What’s wrong with him? your father demanded in Chinese, betrayal running like cracks through his voice. I don’t understand why he would do this to me. In response, your mother only sighed. Stupid boy. Stupid, stupid boy.

The story came uneasily to you, like writing an exam for a subject that you hadn’t touched in months. Once you were done, Cam turned to you. If it was anyone else, they would’ve said something benign, something untrue, like, I’m sorry or I’m glad you didn’t die. Instead, because this was the Cam you’d always known, she asked, “How much did it hurt?”

You thought about the answer for a long while. Then you said, “If you do it right, only for a moment.”

She laughed, then, throwing her head back with the force of it. For a brief, blasphemous second, you’d never seen anyone so beautiful: fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army all set in battle array. It was the kind of beauty wars were fought over, the kind any man would get on his knees for– to be knighted, to adore. And she’d chosen you (you of all people!) The fact made you dizzy with its weight.

“So.” Her voice brought you back to reality. It was casual as anything, like she was discussing essay outlines or Physics solutions instead of– whatever this was. “I was thinking about the stairs, right? If you pushed me, hard enough, it’d look like an accident…”

Below you, the concrete staircase looped in on itself, down, down, down. Tall, yes, but only three stories, not enough to kill. Not if you wanted to be sure. When you told her as much, she frowned, swearing in Chinese under her breath. The two of you bounced around a few more ideas, but none of them seemed to stick. You fell silent, tapping out meaningless rhythms on the rails, as you considered what you’d been dancing around since she’d asked you to kill. A competition-grade air pistol, a shot at just the right angle– it’d be, well, if not easy, at least simple. Less up to the fates.

There was only one problem with that plan– it’d no longer be an accident. There’d be police, lawyers, fuck, maybe even journalists. Your juniors would whisper about it for camps and camps to come. You couldn’t feign innocence with a shotgun, couldn’t frame the act of pulling the trigger as anything but what it was.

So, fine, they’d hate you. They’d shred all your certificates, put your photos face-down, pretend they’d never had a son. So what? Boy hung from his bedroom fan, boy hung from the prison beam. Whatever formula you used, the result was still the same: you’d be gone, and they’d be free. Besides, there wasn’t any way St. Cecilia's reputation could possibly be worse than it already was.

“I think–” you started, suddenly, “I might have a solution.”

iv. the grave

And he has dug a grave both long and deep,

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

He has buried his sister with their babe all at her feet.

And they’ll never go down to the broom anymore.

INTERVIEWER: You didn’t notice the keys were gone meh? I thought you were the captain.

THOMAS: The captain doesn’t carry the keys, sir. Um, he was the armourer, sir, he’s always had them. Since the beginning of the year.

INTERVIEWER: So you weren’t aware that Yeoh and Wong entered the armoury at 12.39 PM and retrieved a [pages ruffling] .25-calibre Baikal air pistol.

THOMAS: Of course the alarm went off, lah. To notify the teacher-in-charge. But he told Miss Judith he forgot his water bottle inside, and she was in a hurry anyway–

INTERVIEWER: She believed him?

THOMAS: Miss Judith’s always had a soft spot for him, sir. And we all trusted him. That’s why we made him the armourer. Of course he was quiet, um, but in a calm, reliable sort of way. Out of all of us we thought he’d be the last person to do what he did. [laughter] I trusted him– oh god–

INTERVIEWER: Calm down, boy.

THOMAS: Sorry, sorry.

INTERVIEWER: Can continue or not?

THOMAS: Okay. Can. Go on.

Laughing the loud and triumphant laugh of the already dead, you and Cam crashed back into the staircase landing like you’d done so many times before. How many giggling, short-lived couples had this place borne witness to? The seniors who’d winked and nudged you in its direction must’ve learnt it from their seniors, who’d learnt it from their seniors in turn– back and back it went, a story in two-year cycles, mutating each time it was told. A haunting, a myth, a folk song.

Cam, leaning back against the wall, ran her hands along the sleek pistol. She looked, still, beautiful: even after the run, after the tears, despite the baby. If you hadn’t seen her before, you couldn’t have guessed that she was the kind of girl who would ever cry. “It’s like I’m a spy.”

“I mean, we kind of are, right? People are going to start getting suspicious soon. We should do this quickly.” You shot a furtive glance through the window in the door. The corridor, as always, was dark– the lightbulb had been busted for a long, long time.

“Soon. Won’t take long, right? Just–” She aimed the gun at her temple, mimed pulling the trigger with a grin. Miss Judith had trained you well– your first instinct was one of sheer panic, of tripping over your own feet in your haste to rip it from her hands– but you didn’t do any of that.

Instead you only swallowed, shifted. “Just like that I don’t think is strong enough. It’s not real ah. Can’t do that much damage. Um, can I–”

Downstairs, someone shouted. Cam shoved the gun in her hoodie pocket. You stopped breathing. Something clunky was being dragged across the floor, chatter following in its wake. But no one had opened the door yet, so when the clamour finally died down, Cam removed the gun from her hoodie and passed it to you.

In your hands, the pistol was cool, familiar, deadly in a way it had never been before. It reminded you that despite any pretences to precision or skill or patience, this sport was, at its roots, a killing sport– drawing blood and blood and blood again.

You’d only been a shooter for a few months. You'd always been a chess club kid in secondary school, and in St Cecilia, you’d even applied for Strat Games before you walked into the interview, saw an old classmate, and walked right back out. At least shooting was a singular sport. No emotions involved, no one to fool, no one to ask you what happened.

About a week or two past orientation, you’d hit bullseye for the first time. You didn’t notice, at first, still reeling from the ricochet, until Greg shouted and the club gathered round and you saw that tiny wound on that tiny target, fifty whole metres away. In another few weeks, it’d become routine, but you never forgot that first time: the breath held, the trigger pulled, the bullet sailing through the air. The gun like an extension of yourself.

She must’ve sensed something had shifted, because she hurried out, “If you don’t want to do this, just say, OK? If you really want, we can– I don’t know, figure something out.”

You’d do anything for me, right?

Okay, so maybe you were helping her because you knew what it was like to be so tired that you wanted nothing more than to be gone. You knew what it was like to fail– your mother’s eyes avoiding yours, the flat stinking with shame, cut fruits slid under your door like an apology– and you knew, you knew, out of all the people in the world she didn’t deserve it.

But maybe you were helping her because you’d never known anyone who could go to their grave with a smile quite like her, brilliant and foolish and brave. It was your hand brushing hers under the desk and her laughing with her head thrown back and the two of you sharing earphones on the bus. It was the fact that in life or death, you’d never wanted anyone but her.

So, fine. The moment you’d opened your eyes in a hospital bed, you couldn’t find it in you to care about Heaven or Hell or anything in-between, couldn’t care about a God who’d turned his back to you as you were bleeding out. But even the staunchest of atheists could admit that it was nice to believe that you’d been brought back for a reason; that more than any grade you’d ever gotten or any target you’d ever hit, the greatest achievement of your time in college– okay, your entire short and sorry life– was this: to love her, to kill her, to be loved, impossibly, in return.

You kissed her like it was an answer. Maybe it was. You’d never know.

–

Just like you’d predicted, it wasn’t easy, but it was at least simple:

The muzzle dimpling her button-down shirt. Her heart beneath the gun, frantic and wild. Her smile– smug, inscrutable, like she was getting away with some great and treacherous heist, like she’d stolen something you’d never notice missing until it was too late. Coloured-in Converse perched on the edge of the top step.

A moment to aim. Less to fire.

A crack. A body arching backwards, falling, falling, falling. A body against concrete. A body with its neck all wrong– no, that wasn’t right. Two bodies. One body. But what was the difference, really?

Somewhere, someone was singing.

–

I got tired of waiting

Wonderin' if you were ever comin' around

There was a boy at the edge of the canteen, that isolated corner where the cafe used to be before it went bankrupt and left neon-yellow wreckage in its wake. I could just barely make him out through the other kids who’d swarmed like moths around the speakers we’d looted from the grandstand, a do-it-yourself rave all our own. We were seventeen and free from Promos and knew every word to every song on the radio and there was nothing in this world to worry about, nothing at all.

My faith in you was fading

When I met you on the outskirts of town

My voice faltered as I tried to peer over the heads, earning myself a poke in the ribs from Joshua from 28. The boy was tall, in uniform–on the one day we were allowed to wear house shirts? He’d be sweltering hot. He stared off at something I couldn’t see, collapsing on a bench– and the moment I saw the fringe, I knew who you were.

“Xavier!”

I painfully extracted myself from the knot of students, making my way over to you. You didn’t seem to notice me, didn’t seem to care. There was something red on your face, probably some failed attempt at Go SC! It seemed like the sports leaders had gotten to you. Funny. I’d never thought you were the type.

You turned to me.

“Xavier?”

I broke into a run.

I keep waiting for you, but you never come

Your hands were shaking, your eyes wet. There was red on your shirt, red on the corner of your lips. Shit, there was so much of it. “Are you hurt?” My brain was going at thirty miles a second. “What happened? Did you– are you–”

“I’m fine. I just–” You broke off. Slowly and carefully, like you were explaining something to a very small child, you forced out two more words: “--lost something.”

I cast desperate glances around the canteen. There was something wrong here, something I couldn’t even begin to comprehend, like standing on the edge of a cliff with a sea below you. “It’s OK, bro,” I muttered out, stupidly, awkwardly, “You’ll get it back, whatever it is. Um. You need me check with the GO? Call teacher?”

Through the thin walls, a scream rang out. The singing died a quick, violent death, but the music, still, played on.

I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress

“No,” you said. “No need.”

It's a love story, baby, just say yes.

After everything– after the police, after the trial, after the drop– Wong’s father swept in and gave half of St Cecilia’s a dizzyingly long contract that boiled down to Don’t tell a soul this happened or I’ll kill you myself. Of course I’d signed it. What else could I have done?

In the years to come, I’d want to tell you about so many things: The times we’d instinctively turn in our seats to ask you about homework or classes or anything at all. The two empty desks we’d dodged for the rest of the year, even after we switched classrooms, even after they struck out your names from the class list— as if long before that October afternoon, you were already gone. The shiny, upgraded surveillance system, a threat, an eulogy, as much acknowledgement as they’d ever give you.

Now, though, I want to tell you about the staircase.

When I stepped back into St Cecilia’s for the first time in ten years, so much of it remained the same. The same old coat of paint, the same wobbly tables, the same starched blue uniform. The only thing that’s changed is the kids– how young they seem now, how they call me Mr Thomas when I’m listening and ‘cher when they think I’m not. In the spaces between classes, when the halls are full of chatter, I’ll overhear snippets of their conversation: I’m yellowslipping for Taylor tickets or Walao, my stats really CMI, like this how can pass or Wah, are you going to take her to Staircase 6? That last one’ll be invariably followed by a wink, a nudge, and loud, boisterous laughter, the kind that only teenage boys can summon up. I can’t blame them much for it. Weren’t we once seventeen too?

The staircase isn’t particularly hard to avoid. For the kids, it’s more of a novelty than anything– a quick selfie at the door during Orientation, then it’s out of their minds for the rest of the year, too far from the classrooms to be of any use. Soon enough, though, exam season rolled around, and I was on my first night study shift of the year. I didn’t have to do much– just make sure nobody escaped the well-lit confines of the library, which was just as crowded and chilly as I’d remembered it. But the campus seemed different after dusk, every flickering light a blinking eye, and I felt myself being led down the concrete corridors, past the office and the hall and the lockers, past the bulb they’d never fixed, and I unlocked the door.

It looked, obviously, like any other staircase in the school. The floor was grey, the walls white. I went up to the top floor and to the railing, the security camera swivelling as I walked. Over the railing, the stairs went down, down, down. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find any part of it that suggested your presence. No pale figure, no blur of light. I felt, suddenly, foolish– what answer was I seeking? Even if you’d lingered, even if you’d somehow escaped where I’d most feared you were, this was the last place you’d want to stay.

Maybe I would never really understand why you did what you did. But I’d known you, even still, and so I could say this with certainty– if there was any justice in this world, you weren’t here. You were somewhere edgy kids couldn’t gawk and giggle at you, somewhere the camera couldn’t find you. Somewhere only you knew.

An engine growled beyond the gates. Sweet and heavy in the air, the scent of flowers lingered.

I closed my eyes.

And when he has come to his father’s own hall,

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

There was music and dancing, there were minstrels and all.

And he’ll never go down to the broom anymore.

O the ladies, they asked him, “What makes you in such pain?”

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

“I’ve lost a sheath and knife I will never find again

And I’ll never go down to the broom anymore.”

“All the ships of your father’s a-sailing on the sea

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

Can bring as good a sheath and knife unto thee.”

But they’ll never go down to the broom anymore.

“All the ships of my father’s a-sailing on the sea

The broom blooms bonny, the broom blooms fair

Can never ever bring such a sheath and knife to me

For we’ll never go down to the broom anymore.”

#child ballads #singlit #songs from saint cecilia's #writing

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att4boy · 1 year ago

Text

some thoughts

i was reminded of this blog bc i was watching mina le's lovely video on subcultures and aesthetics, and rmbed the times i came on here and reblogged all these art hoe (or whatever) photos with the #aesthetic tag, and tried to make my blog look all cohesive and pretty as well. i was 13 when i first started this blog - in fact i started it the day after i turned 13, if i'm not wrong? just a few days after... - and now i'm turning 21, and still thinking about this place. i joined tumblr bc all my friends were on it and it seemed like such a cool place. now all the friends (irl and not) i used to have here are gone.

(are any of you still here? let me know...)

i've been thinking about my relationship with the internet recently, inspired mainly by chia amisola (among many others on twitter). when i was younger i was so careless with what i posted. not using careless in a bad way, btw. i mean careless as in unself-conscious, careless as in happy to chat with anyone who happened to be around. when i had just started elementary school my sister helped me set up a blog where i happily posted about my day (i went to kfc today!), and then in p3 i tried to set up a blog to document my family (though it never materialised in the end; i think my mum heard about it and discouraged me from doing it, though i truly don't rmb much anymore). and when i got instagram i started a transparents account (those overlays to put on pictures that everyone was rly into back then) on instagram that got almost 1k followers, i had (have - it's still available online, though we haven't posted since 2016) a book fandom account with three of my friends where we posted our little fanedits of books like divergent and hunger games and twilight. i remember briefly chatting in the comments to some guy a year or two older whose username referenced mockingjay about singapore and school... making a transparent for this ? influencer ? my age ?? that i thought was rly cool... and then something changed, i'm not sure what. i think i became more conscious not of data privacy and security and whatnot, but of how hostile the internet could be when you had a "bad" opinion. i was finding my way into the parts of the internet that discussed feminism, intersectionality, lgbtq+ rights, etc... and don't get me wrong, i think those are all excellent movements that i'm proud to be part of, but i think i also stumbled into areas where accidentally being insensitive or uninformed was very harshly criticised and looked down upon. and i think, probably, i was already the sort of person to naturally be a bit more worried and anxious about doing the "right thing" - i was always the goody-two-shoes in class, still am today to some extent. so the internet changed around me and i came to know it as somewhere where i shouldn't ask too many questions, where i shouldn't criticise.

but then i've been reading about other people's experiences on the internet - how they grew up and built their entire worldview there, made friends across the globe and changed the trajectory of their lives because of it... and i am of course remembering my younger days of freedom of the internet. i miss that era! i wonder how different i would be if i had walked further into this space and talked more. now all i do is lurk on twitter with a private account, ghost cool people trying to follow me back, dream about replying to posts and weaving a friendship from nothingness... i am definitely romanticising, to some extent, but i don't think my version of the internet back then (/ now) is wholly accurate either. i am imagining a version of myself with more confidence and curiosity, and i am wondering if i can still spin that version into existence.

i guess this post is an attempt at that? the last time i came here to talk abt something and then i ended up moving that into a private google doc. but it feels appropriate for me to post about coming back onto / into the internet on tumblr, where i have "been" for years and years. i've been thinking about starting a blog, or a public twitter, or maybe (this one just came to mind) restarting a tumblr and seeing where things go. i don't know if i'll keep it up... but wouldn't it be nice to try?

#mine #oh.. tumblr has changed so much since i last came back #every time i come back and get surprised again and again #i love that when i highlight smth to put quotation marks around it it just Does that without deleting the entire thing! like an ide!#since i started coding i've resented that browsers don't do that more often. i understand why but i'm too used to it now

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a-spell-a-rebel-yell · 1 year ago

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September

hellooo, on-time this time! hehe i hope everyone is happy and healthy 💙

the end of September marks one month of school and my assignments are finally slowing down (re: there will be more it's just i've finished them for the moment so i can have some relax time). so, i finally got wind of the learning system here, it's student centered learning where we have to write a paper for every subject and do a presentation for every class, the profs are only there to correct us or complete what we left out. sounds exhausting (because it is!) but i think with this method we're 'forced' to gather as much information as possible because in order to do well we need enough knowledge on the topic. not to mention we're also graded from how active/responsive we are during classes. result is most of my 'free time' is spent reading 🙃 not entirely complaining because the major difference from first degree vs post grad school is now everything's more focused on the discipline i'm interested in hehe

most of my class is held online (god bless) and i'm, yet again, the one in charge of our class' Zoom account (which we buy ourselves instead of provided by the campus). i only go to the SaIemba campus once a week for weekly wire bending class. yes, ladies and gentlemen, wire bending is now taking over my bank account and i mean it literally because the pliers i have to buy cost me a loooooooot of money 🙃 i think this month i really exhausted my savings... the only relief provided for me is that for orthodontists we usually only buy these pliers once to be used for years, that's why it's important to buy high quality ones. kinda glad i bought my Coldplay Singapore tickets before this huhu

an update on my medical check-up, i finally got to see the internist and yep he said i have very high metabolism rate (everything i eat gets converted quickly into energy, not fat/body mass and i need to eat more carbs, but sadly i'm more of a beef veggies fruits person sigh) and that for my slightly anemic blood report i need to consume more blood replenishing food/supplements... these days i swear i’ve been eating more than i did years ago but i simply can't gain weight (still ranging around 41-43 kgs and never higher 🤡)

this September the class celebrated two of our members' birthdays! (again, i'm in charge of reminding everyone of someone's bday 😂) for the first one, kak Mandy's, i kinda made a cruel prank i really regret lol with everyone's help i tricked her we have impromptu on the spot zoom with our professor that required us to show our wire bending progress... she believed me and actually stayed up late to finish her work 😭 i swear i got her to stop and go back to sleep at 10 PM 🥺🥺🥺 but the surprise worked and she was actually surprised (& genuinely happy, i checked on her right after haha) to find us singing the hbd song as she entered the meeting room and sent her a lovely cake for her. the second one, kak Putri's, and this one we can no longer use the Zoom tactic again so we pushed back the surprise to our next wire bending class at uni, bought her pizza and coffee (her favs) and i think the best part is: after i checked in on her, she said she's touched by our efforts as she's never really experienced having people do this much for her. that answer stunned me in a way i get reminded again how being remembered is such a privilege, a rare thing, one's life goal? it's one of the best ways to leave no room for doubt that someone truly cares and loves you? seems like a simple gesture but woah. the impact it left? i think i've never felt more happier being able to remember people's bdays/preferences/likings, seeing how happy i can make someone feel? that's what i strive to do even more now 💪🏻

anyway, did i tell you already i'm the youngest in our class? and the oldest is literally 10 (ten) years older than me? so naturally... i'm also in charge of everything technical: starting from running our class' instagram account and teaching everyone efficient ways to use Google Docs and Slides to finish our assignments 😂👍🏻 i love getting treated like everyone’s little sister and calling everyone kakak/abang 🤣 yet somehow i love being the one people are (mostly) depending on? i like having responsibilities and being able to provide help i guess? 😂 and guess what: i actually also become the class' official editor. yep. one of the assignments given from the dean is to write this mini book (yes, book. not a paper) and she appointed me to be the editor! it's a rigorous task i need to be super diligent and attentive while proofreading and correcting the formatting, but yeah i enjoyed it. my editing hobby has leveled up to a semi official thing haha

last week of September my dad's coworkers held farewell parties (yes plural) for my dad as his last day of work in the entirety of 40+ years of career has finally come... it was an emotional night, almost everyone volunteered to give a lil speech for my dad and said how they've lost and will miss my dad dearly, even some of his lab assistants cried. because my dad was stationed on duty at St Regis hotel naturally i was tagging along, and my dad's subordinates arranged me to be the special guest and yeah. i got teary eyed too because i got to witness yet again how loved my dad is. anyways, i highkey will miss the 'side privileges' i'm so used to get for being a child of a Bank lndonesia employee HEHEHE i mean free staycation at five star hotels almost every week? health insurance (which stopped as i turn 25 huhu) and many many many others. oh well. now it's my time taking care of my mum and dad then, my dream to provide the same or even better treatments than what i received 🥺

with my dad entering retirement, now aside from school i’m swamped with packing and boxing. we’re slowly moving things back to the Cibubur house while i prepare some of my stuffs to carry to my cousin’s house. not gonna lie feeling quite sad because the benefits of having a house in the center of South Jakarta scene are endless! 😂 almost everything is within fingertips’ reach and i’m used to living in that part of the city that never sleeps. Cibubur’s pretty quiet and Bendi (my cousin’s house region) though just a few districts away from Blok M isn’t really the life of the party. i will miss Panglima Polim and everything surrounding it 🥹

last note: these days i'm feeling like life is really that unexpected? so many things i didn't even dream ever happening are thrusted onto my hands right now as we speak and they turn out to be all i've ever wanted? i think i've perfected the formula of doing good + be good + trust the timing. a simple example would be me getting back to school (you can tell i’m not done feeling super happy after getting accepted 😂) excited for more to come, major changes or challenges are welcome: bring it on! i'm ready and up for all kinds of surprises hehe

that's it for September! two months and i'll be 26... 9 months fly away just like that huh 😅 a reminder for me and everyone reading this to enjoy time as it goes, make every second count and special. see you next month!

#alhamdulillah #:)#i will graduate soon #just kidding lol #one month of school done two years eleven months to go #helppp i'm drowning in my assignments #but let's live life happily still!!!

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usafphantom2 · 1 year ago

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Raytheon receives $1 billion in foreign military sales for AMRAAM missiles

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 06/22/2023 - 09:30 in Armaments, Military

Raytheon received a $1.1 billion contract for Lot 37 of Advanced Medium-Range Air-Air Missile Production (AMRAAM).

The award, announced by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) on June 20, covers the production of AMRAAM missiles, AMRAAM Telemetry System, initial and field spares and other production engineering support activities.

Sales are to Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, which accounts for approximately 39% of the contract value.

The work will be carried out in Tucson, Arizona, and must be completed by January 31, 2027.

The AMRAAM air-to-air missile is the most sophisticated air-domain weapon in the world. With more than 25 years of design, upgrades, testing and production, the AIM-120 missile continues to meet all combative requirements. His capabilities have been fully demonstrated in more than 4,700 test shots and 10 victories in air-to-air combat.

Tags: AIM-120 AMRAAMarmamentsMilitary AviationRaytheon

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work around the world of aviation.

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ts1989fanatic · 1 year ago

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I mean, first of all, a tour has to be profitable, so to do it outside of the big Canadian cities doesn't make much sense. Wrt the other international tours, looking at it solely as country vs population doesn't give you the full picture. You're looking at Australia hosting for the entire Australasia region (NZ + Polynesia), Singapore being the only Southeast Asian city (and thus hosting Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc...totalling to a whopping 688 million!) and Japan hosting for East Asia (this includes China, putting it close to a population of 2billion). We haven't even accounted for India, the Middle East and Africa. Us international Swifties are looking at a huge battle and we're nervous as heck because people who aren't even fans are wanting to go.

I had this discussion yesterday on profitability and will tell you the same, no way in hell would shows in Canada not be profitable. The biggest problem would be trying to limit the number of tickets being scooped up by our American cousins. As for capacity venues we have more than enough CFL and baseball stadiums too provide the capacity to make Canadian shows viable.

For reputation we got two shows in Toronto and that was it, 1989 gave us 7 shows in five cities this at least gave us Canadian fans a slim chance to see her live.

I get the population argument you make and am hoping that she will add more shows for Asia like she did with Latin America but we Canadians are also international swifties we too get treated like 2nd class citizens when compared to our American cousins.

And frankly this Canadian is tired of it.

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rubydolly · 2 years ago

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MY TRIP TO SINGAPORE 2023

I have just returned from a trip to Singapore. I went with my Mum and my Boyfriend Aaron, we all had a wonderful time, Singapore is such a beautiful clean, safe country with so much to see and do. We spent a week in Singapore, four days in the mainland and two days on Sentosa Island. Below is a day by day account of my trip as well as some information and tips I thought would be useful to add.

The trip started at Sydney International Airport on the 3rd of May. We flew from Sydney to Singapore via Singapore Airlines and let me tell you this is THE BEST!!! Airline I have ever flown with. We flew Economy and when we entered the plane I thought at first we were in the wrong section, that we were in business class because all of the seats had a pillow and blanket, something I have NEVER gotten on any other airline so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we were in fact in the right section. The chairs were so comfortable, usually I find plane seats to be uncomfortable but these seats were perfect. The service is amazing, you never want for anything and the food was amazing too, for dinner I had Chicken Tiki Masala which was delicious and then after dinner we were all given a Magnum Ice Cream. The flight to Singapore was 8 hours and it was a very pleasant flight.

When we arrived in Singapore the first thing I noticed when we stepped off the plane was the heat, it was 9:00PM and according to my phone it was 87% humidity and the temperature was 28 degrees. This is normal for Singapore, as it is very close to the equator, also May is the last Spring Month before Summer in Singapore. We got our luggage and then got a cab to our hotel, we stayed at the Park Royal, a beautiful hotel directly opposite Haji Lane.

Myself, Aaron And My Mum At Sydney International Airport

Me In Front Of The Park Royal Hotel Pool

The Park Royal Hotel Pool

DAY ONE Date: 4/5/2023 Weather: Day: 32 Degrees Night: 28 Degrees Humidity: Day: 78% Night: 87% Itinerary: Gardens By The Bay Marina Bay Sands Lavo

For our first day in Singapore we decided to do the famous Gardens By The Bay and Marina Bay Sands. We caught a cab from our hotel to Gardens By The Bay which took 5 minutes.

The Entrance To Gardens By The Bay

We decided to do the Cloud Forest, Supertree Observatory and Floral Fantasy, we got our tickets and headed straight to the Cloud Forest. The Cloud Forest is absolutely breathtaking, it features one of the worlds tallest indoor waterfalls which stands at 35m tall. The Cloud Forest is also home to a lush mountain covered in plants from around the world and also has an aerial walkway which provides a birds eye view of the Cloud Forest from above. There are many amazing plants inside the Cloud Forest such as Singapore’s national flower the Orchid, but my favourites were the carnivorous plants. There is a whole section dedicated to especially to carnivorous plants as well as lots of different kinds of Pitchers (My favourite Carnivorous Plant) dotted around the forest. While we were there, “Avatar The Experience” the exhibition was on display inside the Cloud Forest which made it even more magical.

The Waterfall In The Cloud Forest

Orchids, Singapore’s National Flower

Pitchers

Me Fascinated With This Beautiful Tree

Orchid Haven

Hanging Pitchers

Carnivorous Plant Collection

Mum And I

Birds Eye View Of The Cloud Forest From The Aerial Walkway

A Banshee From The Avatar The Experience Section

Me “Taming A Banshee”

Exiting Avatar The Experience

After The Cloud Forest we headed over to the Supertree Observatory, the tallest supertree in the supertree grove which offers amazing views over the entire Gardens By The Bay and the Marina Bay area. There are a few cafes inside the building should you feel the need to stop for a drink or a bite to eat.

The Top Level Of The Supertree Observatory

Our next stop was the Floral Fantasy, an indoor garden that provides both a magical experience and the perfect Instagram shot. Suspended bouquets hang from the ceiling and elaborate floral arrangements fill the garden and over 15,000 fresh cut, dried and preserved flowers hang from the ceiling. There is also a vivarium housing Poison Dart Frogs which I was most excited to see as I love frogs (I have a Green Tree Frog named Princess) and I had never seen a Poison Dart Frog before.

Floral Horses

A Giant Tree Statue

Me With Butterfly Wings

Poison Dart Frog

We were all pretty hungry once we exited the Floral Fantasy so we decided to head to the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel for lunch. We ate in The Shoppes foodcourt, Foodcourts in Singapore are unlike foodcourts any where else in the world, they are clean and offer a variety of the most delicious food, some of which even receive Michelin Stars. While I cannot remember the name of the stall I ate from I do remember it was Japanese and I got the best Bento box I have ever had, it came with Takoyaki, Rice and Katsu Chicken. After lunch we went and had a ride on Sampan Rides, a little boat ride in a canal in the middle of the shopping centre. After that we had a little look around some of the shops before heading back to our hotel for a quick rest before dinner that night.

Sampan Boat Ride

That night we headed back to Marina Bay Sands and had dinner at an Italian restaurant on the rooftop called Lavo. The restaurant is on the same level as the famous infinity pool and the views across Singapore are absolutely stunning. As a non drinker I was very happy to discover that this restaurant had a mock-tail list, in Australia where I’m from many places don’t do mock-tails, throughout my trip I discovered that nearly every place in Singapore does mock-tails which made me very happy so I had a mock-tail. Mum and I shared a Garlic Bread while we had drinks, for dinner I had the Rigatoni Melanzana and it was absolutely delicious.

The View From Lavo

Enjoying A Mock - Tail

The Three Of Us Enjoying Dinner

Rigatoni Melanzana

After Dinner, we walked back over to Gardens By The Bay where we watched the nightly Garden Rhapsody show, a sound and light show in the Supertree Grove that goes for 15 minutes. Once the Garden Rhapsody had finished, we got a cab back to our hotel and that was the end of our first day in Singapore.

Garden Rhapsody

COSTS Cab Fare: S$7.00 ($7.95AUD) Cloud Forest: S$53.00 ($59.00AUD) Supertree Observatory: S$14.00 ($15.00AUD) Floral Fantasy: S$20.00 ($22.00AUD) Lunch: S$12.00 ($13.00AUD) Sampan Rides: S$13.00 ($14.00AUD) Cab Fare: S$7.00 ($7.95AUD) Cab Fare: S$7.00 ($7.95AUD) Mock - Tail: S$23.00 ($25.00AUD) Dinner: S$59.00 ($65.00AUD) Cab Fare: S$7.00 ($7.95AUD)

DAY TWO Date: 5/5/2023 Weather: Day: 32 Degrees Night: 27 Degrees Humidity: Day: 79% Night: 85% Itinerary: River Safari Singapore Zoo Piedra Negra

Day two was dedicated to the Mandai Wildlife Reserve which houses four wildlife parks, Singapore Zoo, River Wonders, Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari, we did the River Wonders and Singapore Zoo. To get to Mandai from Haji Lane took a trip MRT which took us about 45 minutes and from there a 10 minute trip on a bus.

We bought tickets for both the River Safari and the Singapore Zoo, we decided to do the River Safari first. The River Safari is a river themed zoo and aquarium, Over 6,000 animals including 40 threatened species call the River Wonders home with zones that replicate the habitats of rivers around the world. As we walked through the aquarium, I was delighted to see Red Bellied Piranha and Electric Eels as neither of these fascinating Amazon River dwellers can be seen anywhere in Australia.

Manatee

Red Bellied Piranha

Electric Eel

Green Anaconda

We made our way down to the Amazon River Quest Boat Ride, which showed us many more amazing animals from the Amazon Jungle which I had never seen before such as Jaguars, Flamingos, Anteaters (I call these animals the Living Vacuum Cleaners as they look like Vacuum Cleaners to me), Howler Monkeys and much more.

Amazon River Quest Boat Ride

Collared Peccary

Brazilian Tapir

Jaguar

Once we got off the ride our next stop was Panda Paradise to see the resident Giant Pandas Kai Kai, Jia Jia and Their one year old Cub Le Le. This was the most exciting part for me as I had never seen a Panda before, the first time we went through they were asleep however when we went through a second time they were awake and munching away on Bamboo. We had lunch at the appropriately named “Mamma Panda Kitchen” before moving onto Singapore Zoo, I had Chicken Katsu Ramen which was delicious.

Jia Jia And Le Le

Chicken Katsu Ramen At Mama Panda Kitchen

Kai Kai Eating Bamboo

We went into the Singapore Zoo which is home over 2,800 animals from 300 species and has won many awards both locally and internationally including plaudits from Forbes Traveler as one of the best zoos in the world, the Asian Attraction Awards for Most Popular Attraction in the Wildlife Park category and the STB 22nd Tourism Award for Best Leisure Attraction Experience of the Year, it was also ranked as one of the top 3 zoos in the world by the TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Award in 2018. I have been to many zoos in my home country Australia, we have many amazing zoos but I can honestly say that this is THE BEST!!! Zoo I have ever seen, such an amazing variety of unique animals in big beautiful enclosures that truly mimic Their natural environment. I loved seeing them all especially the White Tigers, Pygmy Hippopotamuses, White Rhinoceroses and the Orang-utans but my favourite section was Reptopia. I am a Snake fanatic and this zoo has many Snakes that I have never seen before as we don’t have them in Australia, one of the Snakes I had never even heard of which is a rarity for me, my favourite snakes were the West Africa Gaboon Viper and the Sidewinder but I loved them all.

Proboscis Monkey

White Tiger

Pygmy Hippopotamus

Asian Elephants

White Rhinoceroses

Orangutans

Poison Dart Frogs

Sign On Poison Dart Frogs

Reticulated Python

King Cobra

Red Tailed Racer

Green Tree Python

West African Gaboon Vipers

Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes

Sidewinder

Green Pit Viper

Once we had seen all of the zoo we once again got back onto a bus then the MRT and went back to our hotel. That night for dinner we ate at a Mexican Restaurant that was opposite our hotel called Piedra Negra, I had the most delicious Tacos and a Virgin Mojito beforehand.

COSTS

MRT Fare: S$3.00 ($3.50AUD) River Safari: S$42.00 ($46.00AUD) Lunch: S$17.90 ($20.00AUD) Singapore Zoo: S$48.00 ($53.00AUD) MRT Fare: S$3.00 ($3.50AUD) Dinner: S$11.90 ($13.00AUD)

DAY THREE Date: 6/5/2023 Weather: Day: 31 Degrees Night: 27 Degrees Humidity: Day: 79% Night: 85% Itinerary: Haji Lane Sultan Mosque Little India Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple Chinatown Buddha Tooth Relic Temple Maxwell Food Centre Clarke Quay Fika Swedish Cafe And Bistro Jumbo Seafood Merlion Park

The next day we decided to walk down Haji Lane which is in the Kampong Glam area of Singapore and known for its one off boutiques and cafes. Located in the heart of of Kampong Glam is the elaborate Sultan Mosque. Built in 1824 for the first Sultan of Singapore, Sultan Hussein Shah, Sir Stamford Raffles the founder of Singapore gave a S$3,000 grant to the construction company of a single story building with a double tiered roof. A hundred years later, the mosque desperately needed repairs and was transformed into the what it is today, an elaborate building with huge gold domes that looks as though it is straight from Aladdin so of course I had to get a picture in front of it. We were planning to go inside to have a look however the day that we went which was a Friday the Mosque was closed off to tourists as it was being used for Prayer. If you decide to go to the mosque, Modest clothing is required to enter the Mosque, long sleeve tops covered to the wrist and long pants or skirts to the ankle are required, no shorts, tshirts or revealing clothing. Should you not have the appropriate clothing, the mosque does provide free cloaks to visitors.

Me In Haji Lane In Front Of The Sultan Mosque

After Walking down Haji Lane and seeing the Sultan Mosque we decided to get a cab to Little India. Once known as Serangoon in the 18th century and operating as an important artery of commerce and transport for the plantations located in the interior of the island along the route to Serangoon Harbour as well as being a vital loading and unloading point for the Johor gambier and pepper planters, Various communities began to establish themselves in this area in the 19th century. Many Kampongs (Malay Villages) were established around the area and attracted people from Java, Malaysia and of course India and by 1980, the area was officially named Little India. Today Little India is one of Singapore’s most colourful and vibrant districts, there are many things to see and do in Little India as well as many great places to eat. We walked around the area a little bit until we came across the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. This beautiful Hindu temple is one of the oldest temples in Singapore. The temple was built by Indian pioneers who went to Singapore to live and work to help these pioneers feel at home in a foregin land. Sri Veeremakaliamman, the chief deity of the temple is a Powerful Goddess and Destroyer of Evil was chosen as her presence fulfilled the need of the early migrants to feel secure in a new land. Modest clothing is required to enter the Temple, long sleeve tops covered to the wrist and long pants or skirts to the ankle are required, no shorts, tshirts or revealing clothing, you also must remove your shoes before entering the temple.

Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple

We then caught a cab to Chinatown where we went and saw the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. built in 2007, this is the place to go to see Buddhist art and learn about this culture which is over thousands of years old. The name itself comes from what the Buddhists regard as the left canine tooth of Buddha which was recovered from his funeral pure in Kushinagar India and is housed within this beautiful temple. We walked around the first level and then took the elevator up to the fourth level which is where the left canine tooth of Buddha is displayed. We then went to the very top of the temple, a beautiful rooftop Orchid garden Modest clothing is required to enter the Temple, long sleeve tops covered to the wrist and long pants or skirts to the ankle are required, no shorts, tshirts or revealing clothing, if you happen to wear a short sleeve top, shawls are provided free of charge. You are also able to purchase offerings in the temple.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

We had lunch at Maxwell Food Centre, a very well known Hawker Centre in Singapore. For those not in the know, Hawker Centre are open air complexes that house many stalls that sell a wide variety of affordably priced food, You simply cannot go to Singapore and not visit a Hawker Centre. I had Haianese Chicken with noodles, at Tian Tian, it was the best Haianese Chicken and Noodles I have ever eaten in my entire life.

Maxwell Food Centre

After Lunch we got the MRT to Clarke Quay where we had a quick walk around the area before getting a cab back to our hotel where we spent the afternoon swimming in the hotel pool. After a few hours, we decided to go and get afternoon tea from a cafe across the road from us called Fika Swedish Cafe And Bistro. “Fika” is a Swedish tradition in which you stop for a coffee break and something sweet to eat for 30 minutes with family, friends or colleagues, in keeping with the tradition, I had pancakes with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Fika Swedish Cafe And Bistro

We went back to Clarke Quay for dinner that night and had dinner at Jumbo Seafood, a seafood place in Singapore that is well known for its Chilli Mud Crab. This was my first time trying Crab and I must say I enjoyed every mouthful. We also had Fried Rice and some Satay Sticks as an entree, this was our most expensive meal in Singapore but it was absolutely worth every cent.

Dinner At Jumbo Seafood

After Dinner we walked all the way around to the Merlion Park and saw and took pictures with the famous Merlion statue. The Merlion is the cities national icon. According to the legend, Sang Nila Utama, the 14th century Prince of Sumatra, was sailing in the South China Sea when a ferocious storm hit. Scared that the ship would be wrecked he threw his crown into the ocean as a sacrifice to the Gods. Once the weather cleared the ship had reached an island paradise, as the Prince came ashore he encountered a lion, a good omen which Singapore - Sanskrit for lion (singa) and city (pura) was named after. The Merlions fish like body is symbolic of Singapore’s origins of a fishing city. Behind the Merlion statue is a smaller Merlion statue which is known as “The Merlion Cub”

The Entrance To The Merlion Park

The Merlion Statue

The Merlion Cub

Marina Bay Sands At Night

COSTS Cab Fare: S$6.00 ($6.95AUD) Lunch: S$5.00 (S5.95AUD) MRT Fare: S$3.00 ($3.50AUD) Afternoon Tea: Cab Fare: S$7.00 ($7.95AUD) Dinner: S$111.08 ($124.18AUD) Cab Fare: S$7.00 ($7.95AUD)

DAY FOUR Date: 7/5/2023 Weather: Day: 30 Degrees Night: 27 Degrees Humidity: Day: 79% Night: 86% Itinerary: Fort Canning Park ION Orchard Satay Street Lau Pa Sat

This was our last day staying in the mainland of Singapore before moving onto Sentosa Island the next day. We decided instead of going around by Cabs or the MRT to join a Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour and tour around the city for one last time this way. I would really recommend doing this as it takes you to all of the important sites and you get headphones which you can attach to an outlet and listen to information all about Singapore. Aaron is a bit of a History buff and very interested with the subjects of WWI and WWII so we made the decision to visit the beautiful Fort Canning Park which sits opposite Clarke Quay. The park itself is gorgeous and lovely to just walk through and admire the greenery, however we went for the Battlebox Museum. Many important historical events took place at the hilltop of this park, in the 14th century Malayan Princesses bathed in forbidden springs (the hill was known as Forbidden Hill during this time), and ancient craftsmen piled their trade for the royal family. During the British colonisation, Sir Stamford Raffles resided here and established the first botanic gardens to simulate agriculture in the country. In 1936 an underground bunker now known as the Battlebox was built, this was the command centre during the Malayan campaign and the Battle of Singapore. This is also the place where Lieutenant-General Arthur E. Percival and the Allied Forces decided to surrender to the Japanese in WWII.

Aaron And I On The Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour

Forbidden Spring

Sign On Forbidden Spring

Beautiful Fort Canning Park

The Battlebox

After spending the morning at Fort Canning Park, Mum and I decided we wanted to go to Orchard Road and go through the iconic ION Orchard Mall. Aaron wanted to go to Suntec City and look at some gaming equipment so he went there and Mum and I headed to Orchard Road. There are nine shopping centres along Orchard Road however we only went through ION Mall. ION is absolutely huge and has everything from fashion, food, homewares, technology and high end designer labels. We went through many of the shops, however the shops I myself bought from were Daiso and Charles And Keith.

Orchard Road

Inside ION Orchard

Daiso

Charles And Keith

Sephora

New Shoes I Bought At Charles And Keith

Me Dressed Up In My New Shoes For Dinner

After a long shopping trip, Mum and I went back to our hotel where we met up with Aaron and spent the afternoon swimming in our hotel pool. For dinner, we caught a cab to Lau Pa Sat and Satay Street. We started off our dinner in Satay Street with some satay sticks, we ordered 10 chicken satay sticks and 5 beef ones, they were the best satay sticks I have ever eaten in my life. We then went into Lau Pa Sat and tried a variety of different foods, all of the dishes are so cheap my most expensive dish was S$12.00. I unfortunately don’t remember the names of the stalls I ate from but what I had was, Haianese Chicken and Rice and a plate of Spicy Tofu. We then went into Food Folks, a cute little shop inside Lau Pa Sat that sells dessert, my Mum and Aaron had coffee and cake and I had a chocolate gelato. We then caught a cab back to our hotel and began packing up our rooms ready for the next day.

Lau Pa Sat

Inside Lau Pa Sat

Satay Sticks From Satay Street

Haianese Chicken And Rice

Spicy Tofu

COSTS Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour: S$52.78 ($59.00AUD) Lunch: S$10.00 ($11.00AUD) Dinner: S$39.00 ($43.00AUD) Dessert: S$5.00 ($5.95AUD) Cab Fare: S$8.00 ($8.95AUD)

DAY FIVE Date: 8/5/2023 Weather: Day: 31 Degrees Night: 27 Degrees Humidity: Day: 68% Night: 79% Itinerary: Siloso Beach Coastes

We checked out of the Park Royal Hotel and called a cab to take us to Sentosa Island. When we got to Sentosa Island we checked into the Village Hotel where we were staying and basically spent the entire day by one of the three pools just relaxing as we had been going no stop for the past four days. Around lunch time, Mum and I took a walk down to Resorts World and had a look in the bazaar which is filled with restaurants and shops.

Twelve Cupcake In Resorts World

The Bazaar In Resorts World

Aaron Relaxing By The Pool

One Of The Village Hotels Three Pools

Me Enjoying A Virgin Mojito By The Pool

Aaron And I Enjoying The Sun

In the afternoon, we decided to go down to Siloso Beach, Siloso Beach is a manmade beach, there is a zipline and lots of bars and restaurants along the shore, many of the bars even have pools in them. When we got to Siloso Beach the first thing we did was take a photo at the Famous Siloso Beach sign. We then walked around the beach for a bit before heading up to Rumours Beach Club, a bar that had a pool, Mum and Aaron didn’t take their swimming costumes with them but I did so I swam in the pool while they enjoyed some drinks.

The Famous Siloso Beach Sign

Siloso Beach

Rumours Beach Club

Me In The Pool At Rumours Beach Club

We had dinner at one of the restaurants on the beach called Coastes, it didn’t have a pool but it did have amazing food, I had spaghetti Arrabbiata. After dinner we went back to our hotel and swam in the pool as we waited for the Wings Of Time show to start. The Wings Of Time 20 minute laser light show featuring sound and fireworks is held on beach road and is a ticketed event, however we opted instead to watch the show from the rooftop pool in our hotel.

Spaghetti Arrabbiata At Coastes

The Three Pools At Night

Wings Of Time From The Village Hotel Rooftop Pool

COSTS Cab Fare: S$14.00 ($15.00AUD) Lunch: S$20.00 ($22.00AUD) Virgin Mojito: S$23.00 ($25.00AUD) Rumours Beach Club Virgin Lychee Mojito: S$10.00 ($11.00AUD) Dinner: S$22.00 ($24.00AUD)

DAY SIX Date: 9/5/2023 Weather: Day: 32 Degrees Night: 27 Degrees Humidity: Day: 67% Night: 87% Itinerary: Universal Studios Altitude

Our second last day in Singapore was spent at Universal Studios, located on Sentosa Island this is the first Hollywood movie theme park in Southeast Asia.With six zones that are populated by iconic characters from the famous franchise Universal Studios, there is something for everyone to enjoy here, wether you’re a daredevil, a film buff or just looking for a day of fun, Universal Studios will provide you with a day of fun to remember. The Six Zones - Hollywood Zone - New York - Sci - Fi City - Ancient Egypt - The Lost World - Far Far Away

Us In Resorts World

When the gates opened, we went straight to the Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure and managed to get straight on, this ride basically simulates the scene in the first movie where everyone goes on the car ride for the first time which later breaks down, leaving the guests stuck with in the middle of the ride with carnivorous dinosaurs who are now roaming freely, except instead of a car you are in a boat. We got off the Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure ride and headed to the Canopy Flyer, a rollercoaster in which you are sitting on a seat which is suspended up in the air and moves quickly.

Us In Front Of The Universal Studios Sign

Mum And I With Trolls

Jurassic Park

Discovery Food Centre In The Lost World

We existed The Lost World and entered Far Far Away where we went on the Shrek 4D ride, a really fun 4D simulator ride. After that we went on the Enchanted Airways rollercoaster before stopping in for a look at the Fairy Godmother’s Potion Shop

Far Far Away

Fairy Godmother’s Potion Shop

We then made out way into Ancient Egypt to get on the Revenge Of The Mummy ride, an indoor rollercoaster that is pitch black inside, I’m not gonna lie I was terrified because I am not a big fan of rollercoasters, they have always freaked me out and the only reason I went on the Canopy Flyer and the Enchanted Airways was because Aaron and Mum managed to somehow talk me into it and I enjoyed them both but I would never have even considered doing it on my own. As we got on the ride, I was really nervous like I said but there was NO WAY!!! I was backing out, leaving Universal Studios without riding Revenge Of The Mummy was simply not an option for me so I went through with it anyway. I held Aaron’s hand all the way and according to him I was gripping his hand so hard I almost broke it LOL!!! The ride was for me very fast and full on as I don’t really do rollercoasters but I ended up enjoying it so much I insisted on going on it again one more time before we left the park.

Ancient Egypt

After riding Revenge Of The Mummy, we went into Sci Fi City, home of the famous Battlestar Galactica, now that is a rollercoaster I absolutely DID NOT!!! get on and there was no way anyone was going to talk me into it, but we did go on Transformers The Ride The Ultimate 3D Battle, a fun 3D simulator in which you have to help save Earth from total destruction.

Sci Fi City

Transformers Voices Of Cybertron Show

Battlestar Galactica

Transformers Supply Vault

We then stopped in at Loui’s Pizza for a quick lunch break before getting back into action.

New York

The next ride we did was far more low key than the previous rides, the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase. I know I know its for little kids but I wanted to try and do as many rides as I possibly could, my goal was to do all of them however there were some kids rides that adults couldn’t ride on and as I mentioned earlier Battlestar Galactica was out of the question so on the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase we went. While not a thrilling ride it was really cute and visually it was good.

Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase

Big Bird’s Emporium

Having done almost all of the rides, we decided to do a little bit of shopping, there was both a Hello Kitty and a Gudetama store in this park, I would like to give a personal shoutout to Aaron for being an accountability partner for me in these shops, without him i for sure would have emptied my entire bank account.

Hello Kitty Shop

Gudetama Shop

Minion Mart

We then went back around and hopped on Revenge Of The Mummy for the second time before leaving the park and heading back to our hotel for a swim. While walking through Hollywood, I spotted a Vincent Price plaque on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame so naturally I needed to stop and get a photo.

Me With Vincent Price’s Plaque

We spent the afternoon in the pool and had drinks at the swim up pool bar.

Enjoying A Virgin Mojito By The Pool Bar

Mum And I By The Pool Bar

That night we had dinner at the rooftop pool bar Altitude in The Outpost Hotel which was next door to us. Mum and I shared a Margherita Pizza and Penne Arrabbiata. After dinner we all sadly and with heavy hearts went back to our hotel rooms to pack up all of our stuff, ready to check out and fly back to Sydney the next day.

Margherita Pizza

Penne Arrabbiata

DAY SEVEN Date: 10/5/2023 Weather: Day: 32 Degrees Night: 28 Degrees Humidity: Day: 68% Night: 85% Itinerary: The Jewel Changi Airport

Waking up we were all hit with a pang of sadness as we had breakfast, packed up our rooms and checked out of our hotel. We caught a cab to Changi Airport and decided to make the most of our last few hours in Singapore by exploring The Jewel and the rest of Changi Airport, this airport is rated the best airport in the world and after going through it I can see why. We checked in our luggage and then headed over to The Jewel where we went straight to the famous HSBC Rain Vortex to take some photos.

HSBC Rain Vortex

After we got our photos we had a quick walk around the Shiseido Forest Valley before heading to the food court for lunch, I unfortunately cannot remember the name of the place we ate at but I do remember that I had a very delicious pasta with red sauce. After lunch it was time for some shopping, The Jewel has many shops, my favourite being the Disney Store, Miniso, Charles And Keith and this really cute gift shop which I can’t remember the name of.

The Disney Store

Can’t Remember The Name Of This Store

Charles And Keith

With our last minute shopping done, we went up to the top level and went on the Canopy Bridge which gives you an amazing birds eye view of The Jewel, we also went through the beautiful Topiary Walk while we up there.

Birds Eye View Of The Jewel From The Canopy Bridge

The Topiary Walk

With only two hours until our flight to go, we headed back over to Changi Airport, we were in Terminal Three which has a Butterfly Garden, it is small but filled with all kinds of beautiful and unique butterflies. When we were done with the Butterfly Garden it was sadly time to go and wait for our flight back to Sydney.

The Butterfly Garden

COSTS Cab Fare: S$25.00 ($28.00AUD) Lunch: S$23.00 ($25.00AUD) Canopy Park: S$8.00 ($8.95AUD)

LAWS AND PENALTIES

In Singapore, failure to comply with laws and regulations is not tolerated, below is a list of laws you must know about before you go as well as the penalty if you fail to comply with any of these laws. Please note these penalties are for first time offences only, if you are caught a second time the penalty doubles and is much more severe.

No Smoking In Public Smoking indoors is prohibited in Singapore and is also banned in certain outdoor spaces. Here is full list of smoking and non smoking areas. Penalty For Failure To Comply: S$200.00 Fine, If taken to court this Fine can increase to S$1,000

No E Cigarettes The importation, distribution, sale and possession of E Cigarettes is prohibited in Singapore Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$10,000 Imprisonment of up to six months

No Eating Or Drinking On Public Transport Eating and drinking anything, including plain water is prohibited on all public transport. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$500.00

No Connecting To Someone Else’s WIFI Connecting to another persons WIFI without Their permission is illegal, this does not include free WIFI at local coffee shops. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$10,000 Imprisonment of up to three years

No Chewing Gum Chewing Gum is an illegal substance in Singapore the importation of it into Singapore is strictly prohibited. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$100,00 Imprisonment of up to two years

No Drinking After 10:30PM Or Before 7:00AM It is illegal to sell and consume alcohol in any public place, including bars and restaurants between 10:30PM and 7:00AM, however this can slightly change if you are in a Liquor Control Zone. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$1,000

No Feeding Pigeons Or Any Wildlife Feeding Pigeons in any public area is prohibited as is feeding wildlife found in reserves and parks. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$5,000

Flush The Toilet By law it is mandatory to flush a public toilet after use in Singapore. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$1,000

No Littering Whilst all countries have laws against littering, in Singapore this law is heavily enforced. Penalty For Failure To Comply: Fine of up to S$2,000

TIPS - Currency is Singapore Dollar $S. - Singapore is 2 hours behind Australia in time. - Cabs are clean and efficient however it can be very difficult to get one at certain times like peak hour and when it rains. - The MRT is the easiest and most reliable way to get around, you can buy an EZ Link card which you tap on and off at each station like an Opal Card or you can just use your credit card to tap on and off. - Singapore is very hot and humid year round as it is very close to the equator. - It rains almost every afternoon in Singapore. - Google Maps is unreliable and does not work in Singapore, download the App Waze instead as it is much more reliable.

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