It's our family outing day - TSV Round Island Skate on Labour Day. We have been talking about it since a month ago and today is the day! Thank goodness the weather is sunny and perfect.

Upon reaching the meeting point, Viruses Daryl, Justin, Erica, TT and his lovely daughter, Apple, was already there. Roy, Jenn, Ethel and baby Virus, Sean, arrived shortly after. We started our day with McDonald's breakfast. At 11am, we started our long journey warming up by skating towards the end of East Coast (Changi). We continued towards Kallang Stadium and stopped by Cosy Bar to capture the beautiful scenery Ð I'm the shuttle bug of the day. Our next check point was Orchard.

We skated along Nicoll Highway passing by Suntec City, St. Joseph Arts Museum, Plaza Singapura and stopped right in front of the Istana. Lots of police officers were around as it is a day where the Istana was opened to the public. Jenn and Daryl excitedly went forward to check with the guards to see if we could skate inside. Unfortunately, we weren't "properly attired" to enter and they weren't referring to the skates! We continued our journey skating pass the crowd along Orchard with surprising eyes directed at us. Zooming pass crowds, dashing in and out is such thrill on a holiday afternoon.

Wheelock was the place for a well deserved long cool drink. Up Holland Road passing Botanic Gardens and headed towards Buona Vista, Holland Village and down to the Clementi park connector. This connector stretched about 2.5km leading us to a railway bridge which required us to walk on the grass area and up along the railway bridge. We landed on another side of the connector without any idea where it leads to. Thankfully, Virus Daryl had a map with him and so navigated to our next check point along International Business Park. At 3.30pm, hungry Viruses stopped for a sumptuous hot lunch at Jurong East. The Ah Pehs and Ah Mahs kept staring and children were equally surprised at the sight of skaters rolling around with hot bowls of soups and tall glasses of cool drinks.

As we set off towards Choa Chu Kang, it started to drizzle and we prepared ourselves for the worst condition (a downpour) as there wasn't any shelter along the way from Bukit Batok to Choa Chu Kang. Fortunately, the rain stopped as we approached Choa Chu Kang. Extra caution had to be taken while skating on the wet and at times uneven pavements with branches and sand. Now I understand why these routes are not for beginners. Suddenly, we came across a railway track at Bukit Panjang; as the shuttle bug of the day, I quickly gathered the Viruses for more photo shoots. Say "Virus".

The whole stretch of Upper Bukit Timah was one big construction parcel. There were new concrete paths, half laid tiles, broken pavement all the way through Gombak Drive and Bukit Batok Nature Park. Viruses had to hop over grass patches, jump over huge curbs and skate on the main road. Before I knew it, we were already at the beginning of Bukit Timah Road.

I don't know what Lady Speedster (Jenn) ate, but she was "chionging" all the way along the treacherous stretch, through a maze of roads with up and down hills which led us to Orchard Road again. Of course Viruses would not miss our favourite downhill - with 2 huge humps, speed regulators and a traffic light smack in the middle, Viruses went "hee haaaa" all the way down.

Having skated pass Clark Quay, Boat Quay and Esplanade we reached Marina Square and decided to call it a day. It's time to feed our tired bodies as we geared down for dinner at Marina Square with Justin and Daryl settling down for a mug of cold beer.

With a sense of achievement, Viruses have clocked in 8 hours of skating and covered approximately 65 km. Through smooth, rough, wet, sandy, uneven roads and pavements, not forgetting the stairs, slopes, up hills, down hills and railway track; this is certainly a great experience for all of us which tested our endurance, strength and skills.

Congratulations to all for completing this special event. We shall do this again soon... yes??