Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

It’s prepping for my yearend vacation, budgeting, and an unglamorous company activity that I botched so grandly.

---

There was a sale day last week, basically December 12 and called “12-12” by marketers, and I was itching to buy shit. I had 30 kilos to fill my luggage with, and I wanted to bring some crazy shit home. Also, my roommate had a luggage scale but he brought it with him to Manila, so I had to buy my own luggage scale. Fortunately, it’s cheap if bought online. Buying it in a store will get a 50% markup for some reason.

So… what did I end up buying?

• 2 black t-shirts from Puma, specifically their Italy and Belgium F1 shirts. I liked them, so I bought ‘em. Fortunately, the sale price was extremely agreeable. I know, because I saw them in-store and they were like pricey. The discount price brought it to around Giordano prices. The designs were also nice, so I immediately snapped them up.
• Four cheap Apple Watch sports straps from some retailer. My favorite strap lasted me at least a year, and for some reason despite cleaning them every other day in the shower and then sanitized with alcogels, they started making my wrist itch. So I bought four new straps.
• Koh-kae Thai peanuts and spicy mixed nuts. I bought two wasabi and two other unique flavors for the Koh-kae ones with an aluminum sealed container. One of the wasabi peanuts will stay in Singapore, and the rest will be in my luggage.
• Mama Instant cup noodles. I chose boat noodles and spicy pork basil, three of each. All of them will be in my luggage, I plan to give some to my sister’s husband. Unique shit I loved in Thailand.

I then started pre-packing my luggage with the things I want to bring home and declutter my room in Singapore. I already started with the ones I sent inside the balikbayan box I sent weeks ago, but this time, it’s a more focused triage of clothes and stuff.

• I put in the mooncake box I found weeks ago, and to save space I put the Koh-kae mixed nuts in its drawers.
• For the clothes, I categorized them into four: the clothes I want to keep wearing, the older clothes I want to “preserve”, the clothes I can live without, and the clothes that fell out of my rotation. The first category is untouchable. The rest are going in my luggage.
• I also packed in the red Nintendo shirt I bought last year. My sister wanted our Christmas family attire to be either red or green, so I figured I go finally wear it. But definitely it’s coming back with me to Singapore.
• Alcohol-flavored cakes. I bought one with Bailey’s, one with Jack Daniels’, and one with brandy and cappucino. I am still kicking myself for missing out on the orange and whiskey one I saw a couple of weeks ago, they were the ones I really preferred. Oh well.

Once I weighed the big luggage in, it amounted to 22kg. Not bad. I plan to fill the remaining 8kg with spare clothes.

I have to admit, I am struggling with pasalubong and holiday gifts. I knew I already bought some for my family – not to mention I plunked in serious money for the Christmas staycation lodging – but deep inside, I’m having this itch. Same itch for the past 4 trips back home every 6 months. Like, did I buy enough? Is this good enough? Gifting insecurities, if you will. I wish there was an easy way out of this itch. Japan had it down pat with omiyage – it’s still a pain in the ass, but at least any decent gift will do, and a lot of people sell those solutions. I just don’t want it to be merely money-based. I have a few days to scratch that itch anyway.

Fortunately, this upcoming Friday is a work-from-home day. I noted to my other roommate that I plan to be at Changi by 7-8PM that Friday as my flight was at 12.05AM. He thought I was going too early. Nope. I tend to always be early for all the flights I’ve been on since 2016. Either on or earlier than the counters’ opening. Never been late. I always held the opinion on flights that I’d rather be early than on time or late. And if I’m really early, I can have the time to “adjust” and relax. Eat, nap, windowshop, buy stuff. I can take my time to wait until the flight, safe in the knowledge that I have ticket in hand, zero anxiety, and waiting in no lines (I very rarely encountered queues).

For my carry-on, probably just a bag. All my clothes and heavy stuff will be in my luggage, so probably my bag will only have a powerbank, some cables, my cheap Mac and my Switch (last year for this dear console, I plan to buy the new one next year). Light and nice. Probably next June I might be able to travel lighter.

---

Last Friday, we had our company’s yearly team-building activity and pre-Christmas dinner.

No stranger to these things. In my previous corporate supervisor job, we often went to these remote provincial beach resorts for an overnight stay, usually during summer months. Often some team-grouped games for the mandatory group photos, an afternoon of swimming/sports, sleep-in, and by the morning, journey back to the city. Usually the elder statesmen (aka the executives and team leads) handle everything from logistics to transport vehicles, and we junior folks just get out of the way. Those were fun, but guaranteed to be somewhat tiring.

With that in mind, I expected this to be roughly the same. We were to have our activity at Sentosa Island, in Mega Adventures. We were to meet at the ticketing booth there near Siloso Beach at 10am. I woke up early for this as I have never been anywhere else at Sentosa aside from Universal Studios. I kind of woke up a bit later than I wanted – 7.30AM instead of 6.30AM – so I skipped my protein overnight oats and got in the bath, dressed up quick, wrapped my heels with kinesio tape, and headed out by 8.15AM. As I did not know how sweaty this Mega Adventure thing was going to be, I dressed in a very casual sweat-wicking hoodie shirt from UA and a lightweight pair of cargo shorts from Uniqlo. Basically, my Saturday leisure attire, except with shoes instead of sandals.

By 8.50AM, I was in Harbourfront MRT. There’s a McDonald’s near the exit, so I indulged in a carb-y breakfast – one Filet-o-Fish ala carte, and one Scrambled Egg and Sausage burger with chili potato pops and a bottle of water. I deliberately avoided coffee – nerves might be a factor in the physical activities part of the Mega Adventure, so I was not going to be risking it. Belly satisfied, I walked up towards the part of the mall (Harbourfront MRT’s exits has one for a mall, Vivocity) where the train station for Sentosa’s were. I rode it until the end of that train line, Beach Station.

Once there, I had two options – ride the beach tram 3 stops, or walk towards the Mega Adventure ticketing area. As I opted for that heavy breakfast, I thought maybe I could warm up and pay the calorie tax at the same time. I chose to walk. Not bad anyway, the path to the ticketing area was easy as the road wasn’t cluttered and the fresh smell of trees and foliage kind of permeated the area, given it rained the day before and the place was kind of wet. Once I got to the Mega Adventure ticketing area, I spent some time walking on the beach near it. I wish it was a better weather that day, or at least including the day before. Sunny, preferably. But alas, clouds chose to play the pooper.

The sands were partially moist even from the farthest point near the roads, the winds were a bit chilly, and I bet the ocean water’s chilly too. Shame I could not enjoy this nice beach.

See, our company-wide activity day had three parts – the AM part for Mega Adventure, the PM part for kart riding in Hyperdrive, and the evening part for dinner at Vivocity at a restaurant our boss fancied recently, Poulet. Anyone with no appetite for physical activities had options too – a ticket in SEA Aquarium by AM, a ticket at Madame Tussauds by PM. Dinner was optional, but I mean, it’s a free fancy-ass bonding meal. I opted for Mega Adventure at AM, Madame Tussauds at PM, and of course I wanted the fancy free dinner.

Once we all gathered complete at the ticketing booth and took our group photos, we who opted for the Mega Adventure AM group boarded these fancy buggies and rode up to where the actual Mega Adventure activities were, up Imbiah Hill. We signed our waivers, got trussed up with fancy harnesses (I also got loaned a simple bag for use as they said to empty our pockets), and got to their Jungle Park.

We started with MegaClimb. It is an aerial obstacle course with three levels, one being the easier path and three being the more challenging path. Level 1 is closest to the ground, Level 3 is like upwards of 30 feet high. Can do one level, can do three, up to you. I was bunched with a group of gung-ho officemates, and to my complete idiocy, I deluded myself that I could do Level 3 right away. After all, I’ve seen people do shit like these on TV. What could possibly go wrong for me? Turns out, I was mediocre at it.

First up, a rope bridge. I walked on the bottom rope straight with the foot tip facing the rope vertically like those circus artists I saw on TV, but my legs started shaking. My mind was torn between “uh oh I have to adjust now” and “this is embarassing, people are looking”. I tried clearing my mind, not looking down, and trying to relax, but my legs, my legs weren’t cooperating despite me trying to stabilize myself by holding on to the left and right support ropes. Thankfully the activity guides stepped in and helped me cross that short distance to the first pole. Man, that was not nice. Bruised pride, but just a flesh wound.

There next was a bridge walk between two poles, but the bridge was just a narrow beam. Slightly shaky, but I found it to be way easier. Just looked forward and concentrated on my walking.

Next was a jump between two planks. I was mighty hesitant to jump, but the guide below assured me that “the gap isn’t as wide as you think, just do a big hop” and I did that.

Up next was three beams, held together by ropes to make a bridge, but the three beams are split, making for a narrow bridge that is split by 3. I tried to go as fast as I could, seeing as the number of people behind me were increasing. There was an implicit pressure at that moment, maybe I overthought it, but damn. I chose this path, I’d rather finish it.

Up next was maybe 6 square planks held by ropes to make for a very wobbly bridge. Each plank was held up by four ropes each. I easily saw the pitfall for this bridge – any unbalanced weight in any of the squares and the path just gives out. It also swayed in four directions. So my plan then was to step as close as possible to the center of the squares. One step at a time. I easily managed to cross after a few squares and figuring out where the sweet spot was to step on.

Up next was, in my estimation, the toughest bridge. Basically the square planks, but now it’s just separate narrow beams held together by ropes, and it was like a short-long alternation, the short beams held by two ropes and the long beams held by three ropes, making for a very, very wobbly obstacle.

And I thought my pride was bruised. Here, it suffered a punch in the gut and a kick in the head. I slipped after the first short beam part, and I got left hanging on the safety rope support. My officemates kept telling me to calm down and resume, but it was hard. I slipped awkwardly while shifting my foot from one section to another, and I had to let my right leg “give out” or else I might’ve risked breaking my leg due to the awkward position of my right leg. I felt the back muscles of my right leg get tense and sharp pain went up it, so I just let it give out. This “course” wasn’t worth a hospital trip after all. Once both by legs were free, I repositioned myself to resume stepping on the second longer beam, summoned some upper body strength to pull myself up, and once I got up on the second beam and I was standing on it holding the ropes, I figured walking sideways might serve me better. I think I spent a good 15 minutes on the section, the others before took me around 5.

After that hellish course part (I was certain I was hopped up on adrenaline at that point), I resumed the next part, which was a flat rope bridge again but with the wider support ropes on the side gone, it’s just one rope on the bottom with two ropes forming an X on bridge acting as the support. I figured out after my concerned boss suggested I also do the same sideways walk. I breezed through it.

The next course was a net bridge, basically a wall of ropes forming a horizontal rectangular wide web with which people should use to cross to the other side. I figured out the course because I remembered it from the old obstacle courses I watched on TV, the trick was to just grab ropes, walk sideways, straight body, and make your way to the other side.

The last section had a big ball attached to a down incline, all I had to do was to ride the ball like Miley Cyrus and let gravity take over and whoosh me to the other pole. So I did. At that point before I went for the mini ride, I was more into a “let’s get this over with, my pride got TKO’d already” mood. The faster I could finish, the better. The second part of the section was a mini recreation of the first course, a rope bridge, but this time it’s just two ropes. One up on eye level and one for the feet below, people are expected to cross with just that. Well, for me I figured out the path rope with which my tracking rope was attached to served OK as a third support rope, and I made my way back to the building structure.

Adventure done. And man, I was hopped up on adrenaline after that. I thought I could do the “mega jump” part after, but when I saw that the Mega Zip was also beside the jumping point, I figured, well, let’s finish this shit quicker. Fortunately, it goes by a group of three for each release, and two of my male officemates was in queue as three ladies (also officemates) got released off (it’s a 450m zip line from the hill to the island off Siloso Beach), so I queued after them. Again, I was so hopped up on adrenaline that I completely forgot I was to zip down from a huge height, and once they released us to go down, I just took it all in – and shouted a few fun expletives going down. Felt good as well.

Once we were back down, we walked back towards the ticketing booth near the beach.

Once we all finished with Mega Adventure, we rode the beach tram back to Beach Station to look for our lunch. I joined another group of my officemates that opted for a cheaper option for lunch at Marrybrown. For some reason I had no “hearty” appetite, so I went for fish and chips. Their fish was a bit thin for my liking, but their tartar sauce was generous.

Once we had our fill, the rest of my officemates in Beach Station went to congregate with the other officemates that opted for the karting activity. I instead went towards Imbiah Road for the Madame Tussauds building. There was a reason I skipped the karting – prolonged fast activities gave me days of headaches. I noted this when I went to Universal with my officemates two years ago and I had to ride one of those roller coasters. Thankfully that one happened on a Friday because I had headaches by the weekend and only subsided by Monday. I figured an afternoon of seeing highly accurate wax figures will be infinitely better than risking the fun of my upcoming weekend, so I went for the Madame Tussauds option.

Getting there was easy. I had two options – ride the train for one station, or walk. I went for walking, as I figured the path and being a bit extra active might be worth the 15 minutes. Well, it was.

I got to Madame Tussauds by climbing maybe 4 sets of escalators up the hill to Imbiah Lookout, and the place had a nice high view. The wax museum is being housed in an old former wartime military hospital. It kind of looked very antique and quaint from the outside, which kind of made me more curious as to how they integrated a wax museum and exhibit inside such a historical building.

Once our office group of non-karting people gathered, we posed for pictures before going in the museum. No queues that Friday, seemed we lucked out by choosing a non-peak time to tour the museum. We promptly got our tickets and went in to the left side first.

I gathered that the first four(?) sections were all or part of Singapore’s multicultural history, from old time occupation era, Bollywood, and most of their significant historical eras. I took some photos of things that piqued my interest.

Along the way, the exhibits had a lot of Singapore’s historical icons and leaders, of which I kind of respect that the locals held them in such pride and significance, worthy to be included in a wax museum. I can’t say the same with most of my country’s politicians.

That set of sections culminated in an indoor boat rode showing much of Singapore’s prided parts, from the Sands, their flagship airline, to the F1 night race. They called it the “Spirit of Singapore”. Which was fine and dandy, a relaxing 3-minute jaunt in a boat.

Once we were out of that area, we saw that we were now in the international displays, starting with… various international leaders and icons, from ol’ Barack to Chairman Mao. We happened to see a group of Indians who were taking turns to get a selfie shot with either Obama or Modi. Understandable. Next section were sports personalities, from a big-ass statue of Yao Ming to local sports icons. Further were the film/TV celebrities, which were a mix of Asian and Hollywood icons. There’s Michelle Yeoh, a creepy Leo D, a sober-looking Johnny Depp, a kickass duo display of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, Marilyn Monroe, a somber-looking Bruce Willis, “Ahnold”, Lea Salonga (pride!), Beyoncé, a slightly off-looking Jacko, an Elvis, Madonna (not to diss, but the museum could’ve instead chosen the Austin Powers era Madonna, not age-struggling Madonna), and a lot more.

Once done with the glitzy sections, we headed towards one more section we paid for (well, boss paid for it too) – the Marvel 4D exhibit. Fortunately, we got there just in time. We waited a bit until the show was ready, and amused myself by looking at the Marvel heroes there on display. Basically, it’s Iron Man, Loki, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, and maybe others more. I’d say the Loki and Strange statues of Hiddleston and Cumberbatch were well-recreated.

Once the showroom was ready, we all filed in with our 3D glasses and sat down for the show. Nothing that was mindblowing or worthy to write further about, just your average show for the kids.

And that was the end of it. We filed out towards the gift shop section before the exit, and for a souvenir I bought two cheap branded canvas bags. Once our group was complete, we headed back down to the train station and went back towards Vivocity. It was around 4PM, ample time for dinner later.

By around 5.30PM, our entire Sentosa activity officemates were there, and we got in to our dinner place – Poulet. Our boss proposed something for us – half a roast chicken each. Not an issue for me. I opted for the roast chicken with Diane sauce, brocolli and Brussels sprouts, a chocolate creme brulee, and mango iced tea.

The Diane sauce on the chicken was surprisingly good, because I had that sauce for steak before and thus I associated it to steak. Chicken was also a good pair for it… but only if it was well-seasoned chicken. The one I had was well-seasoned on the outside with black pepper, making for a nice contrast with the sauce. The chicken was also moist and tender despite the roasting, which to me indicated that the chefs knew what they were doing. Roasting can sometimes dry a chicken out. Not with this one.

We had a fun time at dinner, and once we were satisfied, we said our goodbyes and dispersed in the mall. Some of my officemates went for the exits, while some took the opportunity to do some shopping. I meanwhile went to the videogame hobby shop to check out some games. I saw that NBA2K25 was still pricey AF (I kind of expected it to go down cheap at that time), so no bueno, I’ll buy it next year or maybe at SM North in a few weeks. Before going to Harbourfront MRT, I looked for some pick-me-up snacks. I was sad to see that Beard Papa closed shop, but was pleasantly surprised that Talad Thai Banana had opened a shop there too. I bought their mixed set, and the server was kind enough to give me the freshly-fried ones.

I got home by 9PM. For some reason, I felt… drained. I took a warm shower quick, and went to bed within a couple of hours. The next morning… man, fuck me. My body was aching all over, especially my upper body, arms and pec area were all cursing me. I guess the adrenaline numbed me for hours. I had zero appetite to go out that Saturday. I was spraying Tiger Balm muscle pain relief on the affected areas a lot. To comfort myself, I ate the Talad Thai Banana package I bought the night before for breakfast.

Maybe next time we go for Mega Adventure again, I might… well, fuck it, I’ll try again. But maybe with a reconsideration for the lower levels.