Adventure on a Thursday Afternoon

It has always been my intention to lug gabe along on the various modes public transport instead of being overtly reliant on the taxis. With gabe being more predictable and easier to manage, I have taken him on the MRT on a few occasions, though the distances are usually quite short.

A few days ago, I received a call informing me that gabe's chinese brush and seal are ready for collection and I decided that gabe and I were ready for a trip out on our own to United Square. This time we'll be changing trains and crossing major roads, upping the difficulty level by one notch, if you know what I mean. The plan was to make the collection and then head to derod's office, also via MRT, to meet him as he knocks off.

And so it began. The train rides were pleasantly uneventful, though I had difficulty locating the lifts at Dhoby Ghaut. I was already mentally planning the route before reaching Novena: we'd exit and cross the major roads and somehow find out way into the shopping complex. But a sign leading to an underpass that connects the station to United Square caught my eye and I thought, heh! That's not a bad thing! United Square's supposed to be really baby-friendly so maybe the underpass would be too. So I trotted off in that direction, rolling gabe along the broad tunnel with tiles of multiple colors. What made me think I'd expect a lift waiting for me at the end of the tunnel, I do not know. But I was confronted with a long flight of escalators at the dead end, and just when I thought, what the heck, just do it, saw that it was a single space escalator. A little horrified at the thought of being stuck, I'd pushed the pram ahead in "measurement" and found that it will go through. European brands definitely wouldn't have made it through. When we were approaching the end of the flight, the steps were still at an inclined angle, giving not much time for me to lift the front wheels up for a secure landing and gabe almost got dumped out of the pram (much like how you'd dump soil out of a wheelbarrow), and me coming behind on a still moving escalator. With a loud "oh dear!" and what-must-have-been divine assistance, we escaped totally unscathed. Mentally I was already concluding that I'll never again take this underpass, when I saw the second of the two flights of escalators, and ... it was on repair. The alternative? A long flight of steps, with three segments bearing probably 15-20 steps each, almost looked like the path up to Mordor. Ignoring my question of whether they were going to be done soon in both English and Mandarin, the workers just went about their repair work. I told gabe that this will not stop us and proceeded to remove his belts, and attempt to climb "everest" carry him with one arm, and hoisting the pram on the other. Just when I was about to do this the workers said that if I'd just a moment, they are ready to close up the barriers and let me through.

Throughout the time I stood there waiting, many walked by and gave more than a glance of survey, but there was only one who spoke up in offer. A nicely dressed, young caucasian lady had offered to help climb "everest" with me. I thanked her for her very kind offer and told her the works would soon be completed. That was a very kind move, but I wouldn't have wanted to have her burst out in perspiration in her nice outfit, though I was very touched by the gesture. I completed the second flight without making the same mistake and just when I thought I was done with the SOC (standard obstacle course), I saw another flight of steps leading me out to the main road! This time, there was no alternative, so in resignation, I proceeded to undo gabe's belts when another kind lady came up behind me and offered her help. The both of us carried his pram down like a sedan and I left the Chinese lady with many words of thanks. When derod heard that I had entered the underpass, he didn't even need to hear the rest of the story to conclude that he has gone through enough with etphonehome to realise that wheels and underpasses do not go together.

In contrast, crossing the major road was so much easier. Well... if you didn't know better, you would have thought I was training up for the trip to Japan... (we might be heading there in November!)