Cheers...

My driving lesson today could have been a perfect summary of life: the first half was smooth sailing, but the second, a confusion of errors and bumps. But at least I think I'm improving.

I almost never go boozing, but somehow or other I ended up drinking for the past two nights. Had fun at Paulaner's with the UCL people, sampling their Oktoberfest brew and watching der Deutsche dancing while downing copious amounts of alcohol, accompanied by the delightfully cultural German brass band. Had no idea what they were hollering, but it didn't matter, since all that was required of us was to grin and drink. It doesn't get simpler than that.

Spent Sat dinner at Ooster's in Capital Square, which is the only Belgian restaurant in Singapore I know of; more importantly, it's the only known source of fruit beer that exists in my limited culinary world. There were only three flavours, but if you've ever tried chocolate-flavoured beer, you'll agree that variety isn't everything.

In case you're wondering if I've become some sort of inebriated degenerate, just let me also say that I also managed to buy a new racket for my weekly badminton sessions. It's lighter than my current one, which also happens to be misshapen after years of misuse. I'm looking forward to learning to play with it, and idly hoping that it'll prevent me from getting thrashed so often. Look out, world!

Another week lies ahead of me, like some yawning chasm of dread. Things are really picking up now. I have a veritable cityscape of files on my desk, slowly growing skywards like some paper metropolis. The good thing is I'm on course tomorrow, so I can leave off facing the sprawl of documents till Tuesday. Like alcohol, denial is a proven method of dealing with the unpleasant bumps of life.