Suddenly Singapore I: Finding Friends

Tokio Marine, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

My bosses arranged a training session in Singapore out of the blue for some technical issue, so I was there for three days and two nights. At first, I was supposed to fly Silk, but due to a company policy forbidding employees to travel on the same flight, I had my ticket changed to Jetstar. Well, at least it flies from KLIA. Checked-in early so that I would have the chance to use the Plaza Premium Lounge (unlimited access with Alliance Bank Platinum). Good that I was there early cause by 8:00 am, there was a queue outside. My colleague was shocked when he saw the line. Not quite exclusive hor? LOL. Food was so-so, but at least the latte was satisfying. It was my first time visiting the Singapore office. Basically the seat of power is there. The KL office is just a proxy. We are the puppets while the puppet master pulls the strings from down South. The office was on Cecil Street, very close to the famous Amoy Food Court. On our first day there, we were lucky to have our visit coincide with a fire drill. Not wanting to climb down more than twenty storeys, we just went for a very early lunch. Too many choices, just went for the braised duck kuay teow. After lunch, we started the briefing and discussion. Time seemed to drag, but amazingly we covered most of the material by 3:00 pm. Left office to check-in to the hotel at about 5:00 pm. Quite a challenge to get a cab at that hour. It was raining and the cab drivers were picky. Took us some time to get to The Village Hotel Albert Court. Really should have took the bus instead. Didn't expect the hotel to be two rows of old double storey shop lots. But it was quite nice. Can call it a boutique hotel. Haha.





I quickly showered and walked over to Potato Bill's condo. Luckily it was just a five minute walk from the hotel. Unfortunately, he and his potential squeeze ZR got caught in the rain. Waited for them to get out of their wet clothes (sounds skankier than it was) before braving the rain to get to Bugis+. Nic and POD were already waiting for us there. Based on past experience, I expected POD to be the cranky one, but surprisingly, it was Nic who was herding us to the nearest restaurant. LOL. The poor dear had a hard day at work and was hungry as heck. We ate at the ramen 'collective' upstairs-- the supposed Ramen Champion. A whole bunch of ramen shops concentrated into one area. Didn't know what to order. Simply decided on Memban Yamagishi Kazuo cause the name was long. LOL. The hot food did help Nic's mood a bit. Dessert at Marble Slab Creamery finally put a smile on his face. He was bugging me about moving to Singapore to help his flagging social life. He missed having KH around to arrange gatherings and movie nights! LOL. And it was interesting meeting ZR, a cute PRC boy. Told me that he wanted to visit Pontian just because it was called Pontian! LOL. Actually, it was to do with its name in Chinese. Didn't know that in Chinese, the town was actually called "Dumb". Nic and POD left first, Potato Bill, ZR and I loitered a little longer.





By 10:00 pm, I was already a little wasted. And can you believe that I had a second appointment for the night? Waited for Kidz at Potato Bill's condo. He only got off work at 11:00 pm and as luck would have it, Potato Bill's condo was right in his bus route home. Fantastic coincidences. While waiting, Potato gave me the grand tour of his place. Very cozy with plenty of picture of friends. Was glad to find that my face appeared thrice on his photo shelf. LOL. That must mean something. He also showed me the guest room reserved for visiting friends. He assured me that the pinhole cameras were well-placed and would capture the best angles for when KH and I bonk on the bed in the future. Talked with Potato about relationships and his future plans. Heavy things were on his mind and I hope that he would find some stability soon in those areas. Met Kidz in front of my hotel. He brought me to a soya bean shop just a stone's throw away. Seems popular for the kupu-kupu malam. An alternative for kids who don't hang out a 24 hour McDonalds. The hot soya bean drink was standard, but I didn't care for the friend cruellers. Let Kidz have all of them. As Kidz said, its said that Malaysians who have been to Singapore too long seem to lower their standards on the taste of certain foods. Haha. By 12:30 am, I bid him goodbye and crept into my room. It's been a long day and I have work the next day!!!



P.S.: A Christmas present from Potato-- An Alphagear microfiber low front bikini in S size! Perfect for popping out your mushroom head!