Super Tuesday

What a day! I was on leave and on the roll today... so much that it’s now 2 am and I am too energetic to go to bed and decided my blog could use an update.

It all started early, earlier than on a normal working day, because I had an appointment at the medical clinic for an Executive Health Screening... with compliments of ABN AMRO. Once every two years of service, each employee can do a full medical check up subsidised by the bank and since I’ll be sort of unemployed soon, I decided to take advantage of it. I was tested from top to bottom (almost literally), including a very interesting pelvic ultrasound, which until now I had only come across when (girl)friends were proudly showing off their scan with captions like “our baby’s first picture” or something of the sort... Now it would have been quite a nasty surprise if anything like that would have showed up on my ultrasound, but luckily, all to be seen was a healthy set of organs with nothing out of the ordinary growing inside of me. It was quite a torture though, as they make you drink about 2 liters of water first and then start pressing with the scanner on your bladder saying “relax, otherwise the pictures don’t come out well!” How can you relax when all you can think about is “I really, really, really need to pee...”

But 4 hours later and 3 tubes of blood lighter, I was out of the clinic and went on to my next project for the day: get my dive gear. And I succeeded! Mask, jacket, regulator, dive computer, everything taken care off! Thanks to the colleagues who gave me a generous voucher for my birthday, I was treated like a queen in the dive shop and I decided, what the hell, you only live once, so I bought all the nice stuff... Can’t wait to try it out...

And 2 hours later, I was on my way to my third project of the day: check out storage spaces. Since I won’t be taking my huge dining table, bookshelves nor shoe cabinet to Egypt (what do I need 15 pairs of shoes for in the desert), I decided to store all my things in Singapore. After all, I have no idea where I’ll go after my sabbatical so no use in shipping it off to anywhere else in the world at this point. Since all these storage spaces are located out of the city and I don’t have a car, I decided to do it the decadent way and organised a car with driver (also called limotaxi) to take me to the outskirts of Singapore. It was a very sweet old Indian driver, who told me along the way that when he was young, 50 years ago, his kampung house was somewhere where the expressway we were driving on was running and that he used to cycle to Malaysia for the day, crossing over without needing a passport... Those were the days... The nice old man waited for me while I was checking out several storage facilities, drove me around for hours and then took me home with storage boxes and packing material. Mission 3 completed, as of next month most of my belongings will be housed in a 2.5 x 2.5 meters cubicle with aircon. Yes, that’s all I own....

Anyway, 3 hours later, I still had plenty of time for project number 4: a new camera. Jumped in a cab again and went to the shop recommended by the trainer from the photography course two weekends ago. Sorry Mir, but it’s not the Canon after all! After playing around with Canon’s, Nikon’s and Sony’s, I settled for an Olympus 510 with an extra long lens (aside from the wide angle & mid range lenses it comes with) since I thought, what the hell, you only live once... Those who already thought I was a photo freak are going to have a hard time. I come particularly well equipped now! I left the shop not only with my new camera and three lenses, but also with two camera bags, extra batteries and some other “free” gifts, since I was referred to that shop by my trainer... Trust Singapore to make you feel good when you walk out of shop after having maxed your credit card limit...

Finally, 2 hours later, I was home, grabbed some fried rice from the restaurant across the road and got dressed for the final project of the day: a party at IndoChine Clarke Quay with Jasan, my manager. Theme: Formula One, dress code for men: mysteriously black, dress code for women: hot & racy. What to wear? My black motor helmet? That would definitely have fitted the theme, but somehow, I don’t think the Singaporeans would have seen the humor of that, and myself probably neither after wearing that helmet for 5 minutes in this climate... And it would have been difficult to down drinks... So I decided to try on a black dress that I wasn’t able to fit for the past 5 years and Lord Behold, I managed to close the zipper without tearing it! Not in the least thanks to my yoga classes, because now I can reach all the way down my back so I can zip up my own dresses. Quite useful when you live on your own and don’t want to get in your boss’ car with a half open dress and ask him to do the honours...

So now, 5 hours later, here I am, back at home, pleasantly inebriated, recounting my Super Tuesday to you... Not working suits me...

Big Vodka Lime clouded kiss,

xYx