Written by Natalie Yeo

 The horrors of night cycling started way before the actual cycling even began. As per Sheares tradition only male – female partners are allowed for the event and this busy bee had to find a partner to go night cycling with her in order to write this article!

With my most frequent hall socialization occurring with the other females around hall, this was turning out to be quite a problem.

So, I had to muster up courage, puff up my chest, and ask one of the few guys I know, for the privilege of cycling with them. To my horrors, most of the guys already had partners and those that don’t, have a test on the Saturday of night cycling. This busy bee was somehow going to have to go to night cycling…without a partner!

Filled with despair, the light shining onto my darkness came in the form of the news that they do allow girls to cycle one another, discreetly. Oh yes, finally they embrace the existence of female –female pairings! Armed with this new knowledge, I secured a partner for night cycling. Only to lose her to a guy soon after. Undeterred, I got another partner. Who says girls can’t cycle together?

When The Day finally arrived… (times might be slightly inaccurate as this bee didn’t have a watch)

9:30pm We were supposed to gather in the MPSH, but surprise surprise, only a handful has drifted in. My partner and I grabbed our shirts and got our wonderful IC to help us change our shirt size as it’s too big. Back to our rooms for changing!

10:00pm Back in MPSH once more. Crowd looks more decent now. Decked in Halloween-esque black and orange, my block is gathering together to chit-chat, but I can see some ICs coming over to ask us to break up into our groups.

10:20pm We are in our groups. And the only other people I know, are all from my own block. Wonderful. As to be expected, there are many couples and many nearly-there ‘friends’. Hmm, might be a good time for the writers of Shitty to get some info!

10:40pm After a nice and short briefing, we have to wait for our group to set off, so to entertain us and prevent us from falling asleep, the good people of Sheares welfare have decided to screen a movie. Horror movie. At night. On Halloween’s eve.

11:20pm Still watching Coraline.

11:30pm Still watching Coraline.

12:00am Still watching.. No, the movie is over! Now we wait in darkness until we are called. *gasp* Did my ears fool me? Am I imagining things? Is my group finally leaving?

12:20am I have realized 2 things about myself. One, my head is not as big as I though. I actually fit into a size M helmet. Two, my balance is completely unstable. If it wasn’t for the fact that my partner is too shor- I mean vertically challenged to sit in front, there would be no way I would be allowed near the front seat. She told me that she is a free-thinker, but just for tonight, she would pray.

12:30am Going down a slope without breaking is fun! *screams from my partner to brake floats by*

12:50am Mmmm, cycling and enjoying the breeze is fun fun fun. Wait, is that a drop I felt? Might (Please) be my imagination

12:55am Alright, it is not my imagination after all.

1:10am Gosh, I probably look like something the cat dragged in. Good thing I didn’t wear glasses or I would have probably crashed onto a car or something. Ga, the rain is being blown into my eyes!

1:20am Does my IC know where he is going??! And who is that green shirt man riding along side him?

1:30am We see another group. We are not lost! Riding towards Labrador Park now. Mr green shirt is still with us, riding next to our IC.

1:40am Playing some games in Labrador Park now. Actually, I’m just glad for the shelter. The seniors got volunteered to play a ‘guess what she/he is eating’ game, and apparently kaya + wasabi = yummy! Maybe we can get uncle Vincent to add that onto the supper menu.

2:00am Heading to Lao Pa Sat now. We seem to cycling away faster! Mr Green shirt is still with us. He must be an alumni member, otherwise he won’t be with us…right?

2:30am Is our IC lost again? Luckily some seniors in our group know the way! Hmm Mr Green Shirt seems to have left us…

2:40am Finally we are here! And so is everyone else! This is only my second time in Lao Pa Sat, so I’ll just eat what everyone else is eating.

3:00am What everyone else is eating might not be nice. The egg omelette and pineapple rice do not need to be tasted a second time. Taking this opportunity to chat, I got to know more about the people in my group. Including a guy who spent so much time in Block D, he doesn’t even know that I’m in his block!

(Time Unknown) The following conversation occurred.

Group mate: “So IC, who was the green shirt guy that was following us? He must have been charmed by you!” *laughs*

Me: “Wasn’t he an alumni member??”

IC: “No, he was just someone from PGP who decided to accompany us.”

And thus the mystery of the mysterious green shirt man was solved. Our night cycling event must have been too fun to miss out on!

3:30am We finished our food long ago, but we still can’t leave as we have to wait for the other groups to go in front of us. Playing a game with a terrible punishment to pass the time now. Why is there a green substance on the satay plate. And why is our punishment dipping food into that green substance and eating it?!

3:40am Finally, it’s time to go. Onwards to the indoor stadium.

4:00am Brrrggh, it’s so cold even though the rain has stopped! It’s a good thing that I love cold weather. Even if my partner hates it.

4:10am Someone in my group is playing music. Let me get closer.

4:20am Wow, it’s cooling and quiet at night with love songs to serenade us. It all feels so…romantic! And it’s my female friend next to me.

4:30am At the indoor stadium now. They shooed us away as the previous group was still playing their game. Is that light sticks I see?

4:45am Watching some pairs in my group play a “how much do you know about your partner game” right now. Pretty interesting how much some people know about their partners…

4:50am Did some bikes just zoom past us just now? Wait, is that Kent Ridge hall folks?!

5:00am Gaa, the bridge area is crawling with KR bikes. At least the bridge still looks lovely at night.

5:10am It’s time for us to make a choice. To go straight to East Coast, or to travel further to a food place and then cycle back to east coast. According to our IC, it might rain soon, and cycling to east coast when it rains is the pits. In the midst of our discussion…a guy left his bag at the stadium and needs to go back to take it.

5:15am Waiting for the guy to come back. Is that the KR bike gang? And is that a traffic police scooter I see? Why is it that KR is accompanied by the traffic police, while we have to trudge along by overselves?! It must be because the traffic police think that Sheares hall can look after ourselves.

5:20am The guy is back, and we have decided to East Coast directly. Hurrah for waiting for the bus for 1 hour later!

5:40am Yes, we have finally reached East Coast! Since we are so early, we can either return our bikes or cycle around. Once again, the place is flooded with KR folks. Obviously, we decided to give cycling a rest and trudge to McDonalds to recuperate.

6:00am It’s interesting how the people cope with exhaustion. Some people are just sleeping on the tables, others are eating to keep themselves awake, and people like me just stone straight ahead.

6:15am I thank my IC for making us skip the last stop. I just met someone from the first group to depart. They went to all the stops and they just came to East Coast! If we had gone to the last stop… we will probably get caught by the morning office jam!

6:25am The bus is coming soon at 7.30am and there is a long long long queue of people waiting for the bus. Waving goodbye to our ICs, we quickly made our way to the pick-up spot.

6:30am Where is the bus? It’s 6.30am already! Wait, did I hear that correctly? The bus left already because it was full? NOOO! When is the next bus? 7am? NOOOO!

6:45am Waiting for the bus now. Some people couldn’t wait and took a cab back already. My budget is too tight for that!

7:00am Yes, the bus is finally here! There is a flood of people going up the bus, but I managed to find a seat. Oh no! No standing is allowed, so some people have to sit on the bus floor.

7:35am Eh, why did you wake me up partner? Is that…is that Sheares Hall?! Yes! A bathe and a bed await me! Goodbye and thank you for your help partner!