A Happy Friday

Most Fridays are good, they signal the end of a trying week especially on school weeks and beckons the start of the weekend. 

Even during the school holidays, there is a significant change in atmosphere and mood of the people around me; that's always nice, and it seems like the festive period livens everything up a notch. 

Four days ago, I had an exceptionally lovely Friday. Fridays aren't bad at all, but this was really good.

 There are times where I fail to realize the amount of people who show care and concern for me, and while it can be quite shallow to come to this realization only when surrounded with friends and given tangible signs of affection, that fateful Friday was one where I was practically showered with love from some of the people who mean a lot to me, and I witnessed acts of sincerity, passion and simple love, and that very day, I was reminded of how blessed I am and have always been. 

And I would like to take you through my day, though I think this is more for my own archival purposes; /because does anyone really care when we ask one another "so how was your day?"/

My day started out with meeting Ragini for the sole purpose of eating the Tom Yum Crunch meal at KFC - well of course, apart from catching up - but yes our main activity was to eat the tom yum flavoured fried chicken. 

I've previously had a bad experience to do with trying out new flavours of KFC chicken but I love Tom Yum, so why not? It exceeded my expectations and I love how it wasn't insanely spicy, which would have overpowered everything. 

We were full, and satisfied and I was definitely inspired by Ragini's jogging adventures (of which I proceeded to work on it a couple of days after meeting her - yes I've been jogging too!) and so we decided to walk it off and headed to the rooftop garden. 

And that's when my selfie stick came in handy - the photographs turned out pretty cute and I'm glad I have them for memory's sake. 

When we felt like the chicken has been partially digested, we made our way to Starbucks to take advantage of the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas offers and we purchased the very lovely Christmas drinks I used to be obsessed with. 

I got my favourite Christmas drink ever, the Cranberry White Chocolate mocha - it's not very popular with most of my friends, for reasons I don't understand but I go crazy over the semi-tart cranberry sugar bits. Ragini got the Toffee Nut Latte, which is my least favourite Christmas drink. 

They tasted like Christmas, which I love. We bumped into Sarah and her CMPS team there too, 

We sat at Starbucks and finished our drinks before parting ways. I handed Ragini a Christmas card and I absolutely didn't expect it but she handed one to me as well, together with a wrapped present, which startled me but I appreciate the gesture so very much. 

I proceeded to find Sarah within the mall (turns out she was still sitting at Starbucks) and we walked around for a bit before heading to Tanjong Pagar. 

Oh, yes. And I met Mr Ginger then, who is very delicately hand drawn and coloured in a bright yellow and he made me feel very loved. 

Not long after, we found ourselves in a quaint little empty café and while the food was quite disappointing, the platter of fruits we got was refreshing and I really hope that the café gets back on its feet and that the owners don't make too huge a loss.  

After a while, we made our way to a museum - the one with the red walls - and they were having a night flea market event featuring artists that make their own products and it was all very exciting. 

And, we bumped into Shermaine, who just came back from Vietnam that very day but was there to check out the wonderful plethora of products on sale. 

I was drawn into a couple of colourful and adorable cards on display and the stallowner (and illustrator of all the cards) emerged from behind them, asking me if I wanted to know the backstory of any of the cards. 

I pointed to a few of them that looked interesting and he very patiently explained them to me. It was absolutely eye-opening to see how people get inspired by things and experiences around them but even more so, how bits and pieces of their lives were something I could relate to so easily. 

He was extremely friendly and when I purchased three of the cards - for $5 - he packed them into a nice brown paper bag and slipped it two stickers that said "I want you to be happy" because "your smile can change the world" - so much positivity, it's truly inspiring :-) 

I requested to take a photograph of him and his pieces, and the resulting photograph is above. 

Also, I learnt from his namecard that his name was "Iron Loi" and found him on Instagram as well. 

The passion he had for his art was overwhelming and it made me very, very happy. 

The card I'm holding on my right hand (the card on the left) is about how people tend to wear masks of happiness when they go out to conceal their true emotions and the other card is on chasing our childhood dreams and keeping to them even as we grow older. 

It's funny how I feel very strongly for the former and perhaps he does too, which is exactly why he drew the card in the first place but the thing is that despite feeling such emotions, he still portrays a very smiley version of himself to others, which in turn made me happy and that was so apt in my life because that's exactly what I do too but I realize that by exuding positivity - whether real or fake - it can actually impact someone else and that's beautiful. 

The drawings struck a chord in me and I was so glad to find out that my post on Instagram attracted a couple of my followers to check him out as well, and follow him - I honestly never thought people would be impacted by something they casually saw on their feed and it made me feel very overwhelmed at how people actually do care about the things I have to say and share with them. 

The other shop that really attracted me was one called "JUJU Kendama". Yes, it shares the same name as I do but I wasn't just drawn to it by that - believe it or not, I've always wanted a kendama to train myself and my patience and the scene is really growing in Singapore. 

I had a chat with the personable stallowner and I couldn't help but ask him, "why Juju?", afterwhich he said its actually his own nickname that his grandma gave him - I didn't reveal that I shared the same nickname as him and I regret it slightly but meeting him already brought a lot of joy to my day. 

I was so close to getting my kendama from him but it was a tad pricey so I decided to pass but I've made up my mind, that the next time I catch his pop-up store, I will. 

On the way home, my journey was filled with witnessing bite-sized pieces of love and care, starting from a young girl who gave up her seat to an elderly woman, a Caucasian man who hugged his daughters in such an endearing manner and made them so happy even though it was already very late and he was probably very tired, and the same man also blew a kiss to another baby and witnessing moments like that gave me a warm feeling in my tummy. 

My final encounter was as I was walking home - I saw a young woman carrying a baby and I said "hi" to the baby and the mum was very willing to let me interact with her child. I remember thinking to myself , "wow, children really do break down walls between strangers" - as much as I don't particularly coo over them like some do. 

And that was my Friday, it was one happy Friday filled with lovely, joyful things.