Living Life By The Letter

Many many years ago, we started the Random Game, because of love… I can’t remember exactly how it started but it goes something like this.

When I was only 19 years old (he was my first boyfriend!), we started off dating by doing all the traditional pa-tor activities such as watching movies, having meals together and lots of walking aimlessly around the shopping centers with not much money to buy anything.

Finally, he graduated and went into NS. While most couples would have “just made do” with their situation, it was not good enough for us. With only Saturdays to spend time together, we realized every minute of each Saturday was so precious. We should not spend time walking aimlessly around and doing nothing. So, the Random Game was (somehow) created.

The game itself is simple: I had cut out 26 little pieces of paper and written an alphabet on each one, A-Z. Then I placed them all in a box. Then we would, randomly, pick a letter. Finally, we will think of 2-3 places to go that week that starts with that letter chosen and explore as much as we can. So, for example, if we picked “T” we could go to Thomson, Tiong Bahru, Tampines, etc. The rules were also simple: we won’t go back to the same place more than once or pick the same letter twice in a row.

Because of this game and this strange way in which we both chose to spend our time together, we ended up visiting more of Singapore than any of our peers or, indeed, our parents in just 1-2 years. Some were interesting (like Reflections at Bukit Chandu), some were boring (Thomson Plaza) and some were unpleasant because they were absolutely run-down and forgotten (such as Beauty World Plaza). Nevertheless, we never complained looked forward to each Saturday with excitement and anticipation because we enjoyed spending our precious little time together wherever we are. We bonded even more over our love for exploration and discovery, in our own little way.

Fast-forward 10 years, it has been a great many years since our last “game”. We got married, renovated our house, moved again, now spend nearly every minute together and with the arrival of our little “disruption”, the Random Game was promptly forgotten for many years. However, just a couple of months back, we brought out the dusty little box filled with letters and started playing again, this time with our 4-year-old daughter.

Things here change as fast as the tropical weather and there are a hundred more new things to visit now, with the addition of exploring neighboring countries as well. Granted, free time is still a luxury now but we are looking forward to more adventures, explorations and fun together as a family!>