This morning, I had to drag myself out of the cozy bed at 6:30am, cos I've participated in a walk, organized by the association which my company's chairman happens to be the chairman of it. It's quite obvious initially I didn't sign up willingly. If not for my department head's "invitation", I see no reason disrupting my much needed weekly beauty sleep on a weekend. Alas, all this turned out to be a blessing in disguise (at least I think it's a blessing.)

I set off with an eager heart to the rendezvous point for the walk and I bumped into one of my colleagues, Leeanne. I went to give her a hand cos she was pushing the strollers alone. Her two daughters, Rae and Kae, are very cute and I had some fun playing with them while we waited for Leeanne's husband to park the car. However, at times, I would stand up and look around, only to find my heart sinking slowly into depression.

Leeanne told me a couple of days ago that my dream gal was participating too. Now that clears the cloud why I was so enthusiastic about the walk. "If she's not here, then that would defeat the purpose why I come here in the first place!" I said sullenly to Leeanne.

After the flag off, there was still no sign of her. Leeanne's husband arrived a little later, and we set off to catch up with the crowd when he was back parking his car. Along the way, while we were chit-chatting, I still kept a constant look out for Elena (yup, that's her name.) Even though I had a lot of fun playing with Rae and Kae (mainly Kae), my moods wasn't lifted up as much as it should.

After about a good 20-30 minutes walk, we started bumping into familiar faces, as they were making their way back to the starting point to collect their vehicles. We bumped into Georgina, my lecturer back in polytechnic days, her children and her husband, who is my boss' boss. Then we saw Vincent, another colleague, making his way back. "Another 5-10 minutes walk, you'll reach the end point," Vincent pointed out to us helpfully.

Actually, my spirits picked up when we saw Georgina and family (yup, I'm more intimately acquainted to Georgina than to her husband) 'cos I realized there might still be a glimmer of hope bumping into Elena!

"Hmmm, there don't seem to be any FIG (Financial Institute Group, a division in the company) people participating," Leeanne remarked. And almost as soon as these words were uttered, we saw a number of the FIG people, and even the head of the treasury, Terence.

There isn't any twist in this account. We finally bumped into Elena, retracing her steps with her colleagues.

The red t-shirt she was wearing looked so beautiful on her. (For a record, all participants were given a bright red t-shirt with a small yellow imprint on the chest area in front, and a big white, ugly imprint on the back.) I gestured "Hi!" to her and [I think I saw] her smiled. Oh, the main reason why she noticed me was because I didn't wear the red t-shirt given; I was wearing a white Hard Rock Tee instead since it would be much easier for her to notice me (and that shows I'm quite a good tactician.) My morning trip has made itself worth at that very moment.

Since we don't really know each other, we carried on our way, and I shared my joy with Leeanne and her husband (actually I didn't really got his name; that's so embarrassing of me.) And I turned around and looked at Elena's direction again. Wow, I must be dreaming then. I saw Elena turning her face and looking at my direction!

For numerous times in the office, I kept bumping into her in the morning, and every time, she would look at the floor when she saw me, and I've never talked to her (except for one isolated incident when she was asking the whereabouts of another colleague of mine, Karine, as she was supposed to show an attached personnel to Karine.) Hard as I've tried to break the ice, there wasn't any opportune situation except for yet another one isolated incident a few months back which we dumped into each other on the train on our way home! (And sadly, I didn't make use of that chance!)

Optimistically assessing how things turned out today, I believe it would be easier to be acquainted to her in the near future.... :)