After 0am of 9 March 2017, I announced the official launch of this AMLIFT website as a birthday gift for Taenggu (refer to OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED!).
And also, on Instagram:
When I woke up in the morning, I got my things ready and headed off to a cafe called Dean & Deluca at The Hillier for brunch with 2 large heavy bags.
I actually came to this cafe for a special reason. I wanted to get a slice of the famous rainbow cake here as a birthday cake to celebrate birthday for Taenggu later that night. It looks exactly the same as the rainbow cake in my birthday poster above. So the poster was actually an early hint to Taenggu that I would be getting a rainbow cake for her.
It wasn’t my first time here at this cafe. I first visited this cafe back in 2015 and tried their rainbow cake for the first time. At that time, I posted it on instagram and commented that it tasted like gummy bears ᄏᄏ.
https://www.instagram.com/p/3oMG8vONWf/?taken-by=invariantceleste
After brunch, I bought a slice of rainbow cake and cabbed straight down to Studio M Hotel to check in at 2pm. I felt so happy that we finally got our own room again. This was actually the second time we came to the same hotel for a staycation. The first time was in May last year when we came to celebrate our monthsary. But the room was different. This time, we had the bed upstairs and the table downstairs.
I enjoyed some selfie time with Bobo in the room.
The whole time I thought Taenggu was having a schedule on that day so it felt like she wasn’t at home with me. So for the rest of the afternoon while she wasn’t around, I wanted to decorate the room as a little birthday surprise for her. I brought with me many blue and white deflated balloons and 13-letter balloons for the words “Happy Birthday”. So I started blowing them up using an air pump. Then, I faced a major problem. For the blue and white balloons, I realised that after I inflated them, I couldn’t tie them at all. It was either my fingers were too big or the rubber material was too tight. It was too difficult for me to tie them up in a knot. I didn’t know what to do so I gave up. I blew up the “Happy Birthday” balloons instead because they were much easier to do. Along the way, though, I pumped the air too fast and burst a letter ‘Y’ balloon. The whole process wasn’t as smooth as I hoped it would be. I almost wanted to cry.
Then, I stuck the balloons up one by one on the curtain in front of the table. I hid the burst letter ‘Y’ balloon at the end of the word “Birthday” so it wouldn’t be that obvious lol.
I also decorated the stairs and bed with some fake blue flower petals which I brought along with me.
After I was done, I felt so tired and lied on the sofa to take a rest. I was preparing to wait in the hotel for the rest of the day till she came back home from her schedule. I was looking through my phone and somehow I happened to go to her official SMTOWN website to take a look. Pleasantly surprised, I realised the MCOUNTDOWN performance which she originally scheduled on that day was cancelled! I felt so happy. Although I couldn’t assume that she was free at home with me the whole day, at least I felt that there was a higher chance that she was aware of what I was doing for her all the while. I shed some tears of joy.
So I decided to stick to the original plan. At 6pm, after a shower, we went out to have dinner at Clarke Quay. I asked her what she wanted to eat. I passed by a bar called Warehouse. There was a really nice live band going on there. I stood and watched for awhile. I couldn’t make up my mind if she wanted to eat here so I thought I would walk around, exploring other restaurants first. While I walked away, there was an image of Taenggu coming into my mind. She was looking like a little girl hugging a pole next to me, refusing to leave. I smiled. I came to another Japanese restaurant, asking her whether she wanted to try the lobster broth ramen here instead. After awhile, I thought about that little girl in my mind so I went back to Warehouse again and settled down at a table right in front of the live band. I ordered some steak burgers and we sat there to eat while listening to the live music.
After dinner, I told Taenggu that I needed to make a trip to The Central nearby to get something for her. I was thinking of getting a large helium balloon for her to make up for the blue and white balloons which I wasn’t able to make earlier that afternoon. While making my way there, I took some photos of the beautiful night view at Clarke Quay.
I found a party gift shop at the basement of The Central and chose a large unicorn balloon for Taenggu. The shop owner auntie was really nice and friendly. She gave me many tips on how to take care of my helium balloon. 🙂 On the way back to the hotel, I was trying to be extra cautious with my balloon, afraid that the strong wind would blow it away. While I struggled my way back, a voice told me that Taenggu was in a playful mood.
I finally made it back to our hotel room with my unicorn balloon safely. I asked Taenggu to give me some time to get everything ready for a mini birthday celebration. In the process, I thought it was a little too quiet in the room and asked her if she wanted to put on some music. After awhile, I still didn’t play any music and just let it be. After I got the setup ready, I told her that I was going to light up the candles on the cake for her now. Once I lighted up the candles, in a split second, an image of her came into my mind quickly, blowing out the candles straightaway. I was like, wow, that was so quick and cool of her. But I still hadn’t taken nice photos of my setup and sang a birthday song for her yet lol. So I took some time to take photos and videos, and sing a birthday song for her.
It was around the same time, Taenggu started to get active on Instagram. She started posting pictures on Instagram and InstaStory, thanking everyone on the special day. While I was reading them, a fierce voice came into my mind, saying “When will you come to your senses?!” I started to feel depressed and needed some quiet time to cool down.
At this time, Taenggu started a live video on Instagram. I watched it. She looked really happy. Although I couldn’t understand most of the things she said, it was enough just to look at her through the screen live at the other side of the world. She looked just like a girl-next-door. It was a more normal and realistic side of her in daily life.
I felt much better after that and managed to get over that negative voice in my head awhile ago.
Here’s a compilation of videos I made that night.
That night, we went to bed together in a good mood. However, I couldn’t sleep well that night. I woke up a few times throughout the night. I felt there were some background music/noise going on at the back of my head. Whenever there was a voice coming into my head, that music/noise would tone down a little and then switch back on again when the voice was gone. Then, I thought about what I said earlier on, about wanting to play some music but didn’t do so. Could it be my head was subconsciously playing some music/noise for me so I would feel more comfortable being alone in the room? I was sensitive to the trickling sounds throughout the night. The “Happy Birthday” balloons were dropping off the curtain, one by one. When I hugged my Bobo, feeling a little scared, a voice in my head coming from the left side of the bed said “Believe me”. After a few rounds of waking up and falling back to sleep, I finally decided to wake up for good at around 8am.
At around 9am, I went to the hotel restaurant at level 2 to have a buffet breakfast. I only ate some hams, omelette and 2 small bowls of my favourite cereals. I couldn’t eat too much. I almost always have indigestion problems whenever I stay at new places and environments.
I rested in the hotel until about 1pm, I decided to go out for lunch. But I still wasn’t feeling hungry yet so I decided to go to a cafe called Coffeemin at The Central. It’s a cafe where you only have to spend $6 for every hour you spend there and you could do anything like surfing the net, playing board games, reading books etc. And there are some drinks and light snacks provided too.
I found a nice sofa seat, sat down, and over a nice cup of cappuccino and a few cookies, I started composing a new poem about Kim Taenggu. I wanted to make a poem specially for her birthday.
I was told that the cafe would be closed at 3.30pm so I left after that. I walked along the Singapore River, didn’t know what else to do so I decided to take the Singapore River Cruise for the first time in the 25 years of my life here in Singapore. I felt like a tourist with Taenggu. It was a really calm and peaceful 40-min ride. There were 2 Korean tourists on board with us too!
After the ride, I went to get a double cone Hokkaido ice cream which I promised to eat with Taenggu.
It was about 5 plus by then. I didn’t know what else to do. It was going to be dinner soon but I didn’t feel like going anywhere to eat. I found out that there is a Japanese supermarket called Meidi-Ya at Liang Court so I went there to buy some boxes of sushi and sashimi, some bread and mandarin oranges. Then, finally, I returned to the hotel and rested for the rest of the night.
I knew Taenggu was having a schedule for Music Bank on that day so I ate dinner alone in the room while waiting for her to come back home. Later that night, we cuddled each other to sleep. I heard some voices from her. She said “I wish I’m here”. Teary-eyed, I replied, “Yeah, always right here waiting for you.” I felt so close to her that night. Like the night before, I couldn’t sleep well that night too. I woke up almost every hour and then fell back to sleep again.
I decided to get up at 8 plus, washed up and brushed my teeth. I sat at the table downstairs, made a cup of coffee and had some raisin scones for breakfast.
I spent the last few hours, updating photos and completing my birthday poem for Taenggu. You can read my completed poem here. I checked out from the hotel about 15 minutes before noon, lugging 2 large heavy bags. I took away with me the letters ‘T’ and ‘Y’ balloons as well as the large unicorn balloon. I took the Uber cab home but the driver wasn’t nice enough to get out of his car to help me with the luggages. When the car reached my house downstairs, I got out and was about to carry the luggages out from the boot by myself. A voice said to me, “(Let’s do it) Together”. When I reached home and opened the door, a voice welcomed me and exclaimed, “Wah my girlfriend is rich!” The voice was probably referring to the large unicorn helium balloon which I was holding in my hand. Haha. By 12.30pm, I was comfortably lying on my bed for a much needed rest. And that pretty much ended our staycation together. <3
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