Singaporean Quickie (Part Un)

A brief [or maybe not so] recap about the debauchery and yoga-ing I got myself involved in while in Singapore.

Friday :  Took a 630am class, rushed home, did some laundry and left to catch the 11am bus to Singapore.
The bus ride in itself was semi memorable. An older gentleman struck up a conversation with the lady sitting next to him, but unfortunately while I found the conversation interesting, she didn’t and moved away. Yes, eavesdropper maximus, I know, but he was talking about the economy and personal loans, something I’m currently doing right now for TT.

Arrived in Singapore at 4pm sharp and took a cab to Foo’s office to collect the key to his place. When I got there and texted him, there was no reply. Hmm, I thought, maybe he’s in a meeting / gone to take a crap / generally busy. So I waited downstairs, outside his office for a wee bit. 3 minutes passed, and he STILL hasn’t replied. By this time I was getting antsy, so I called his mobile. It went straight to voicemail [bearing in mind that I’m on international roaming so it’ll cost $$!]. Fuck my life, I thought as I looked up the steep stairs and decided, “Oh, well, hello stairs. Meet my good friends luggage and achy muscles”.

Thankfully, as I was picking up my luggage for a long trip uphill, someone came down from Foo’s office for a smoke break and I took the brilliant opportunity to get him to call Foo. I must’ve been quite a sight, a young girl with luggages gesturing wildly for his colleague. And I *SWEAR* I saw him glance at my stomach. This was later confirmed, as Foo later told me his colleague admitted glancing at my belly as he was wondering whether Foo was in “deep shit”. Ahem. I maintain that my stomach was BLOATED with fluid [held my piss infor half the journey, hence bladder is bloated] not a baby! *cringe. Told Foo that just to spite him and get the office tongues wagging, I’d turn up at his office again in 3 months wearing a float-y babydoll top with a pillow strapped underneath it whilst I lug around 3 big bags and a bag with pots and pans in it.

Met up with Despederata for dinner [the frog leg congee I blogged about last round]. Unfortunately Despederata was very shy, so I did not get a picture of her. 😦

After dinner, Foo, Despederata and I proceeded to walk around Singapore’s red light district, Geylang, to scout for prostitutes. Not to hire, but to look see. Along the way, found out that Despederata was afraid of ______ and can’t __________________. [Sorry, I would really blog about it, but she theraned to sue if I told the world]. 😦

Hopped off to J Bar after scouting for Ladies of the Night [we didn’t find that many unfortunately!]. Had a luxurious pint of Guinness [I did ask for half a pint!] whilst checking out some guys in a live band, who were friends of Foo’s friends. Got to know Gerardine and Yvonne, and of course, we had the time of our lives oogling over the cute guitarist/bassist 😀

Saturday : The alarm went off at 8.30am. Eight freaking thirty in the morning when I was on holiday. Argh! But I can’t complain, as my gracious host had to work on Saturday [poor guy!]. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to hop over to Pacific Plaza to practice at the Bikram Yoga studio owned by True Fitness. The class was led by Kathip, a tiny tigress of a teacher who corrected a few of my postures [ah, I learned something new – Hips cannot go forward of knees during ustrasana!]. Very good energy in the class, plus they provided towels and a lock but no water dispensing facilities [had to cowboy over to the ladies to use tap water. The joke between Malaysians and Singaporeans is that Singapore imports recycled piss water from us – as Singapore is an island with not many natural resources – and this was further heightened by Despederata who said “Yeah, we’ve got something called NEWater, it’s recycled water” 😯 ]. I didn’t like how the mats were arranged in the studio, basically the mats were BEHIND each other so if you were standing in the 3rd row first [as I was], and someone else takes up a spot DIRECTLY in front of yours in the first row [wtf?!], you can’t see yourself in the mirror, especially so if you’re a short person such as yours truly. I sometimes wonder how some people can be so self-centred when they practice yoga, can you not look behind you to see if someone ELSE has taken a spot behind you first and MOVE? [ok, end rant]

Now here’s where Mei’s Saturday Adventure began. Was about to get into a cab to dump my sweaty Shaktis at Foo’s, when I realised : OH SHIT, I left Foo’s burger at McD’s! Apologised to the cab driver [who I swear muttered “Siao cha boh” – crazy woman – under his breath] and ran back half a block to get the burger 😦 The next cab driver took me on a long,long,long roundabout way back to Foo’s, and I had to use my excellent stammering Mandarin skills to converse with him, go me!

After dumping my Shaktis, had to catch the MRT to meet Foo and Gerardine up. After walking 10 minutes downhill with Foo’s cold burger in tow, I realised that I was walking the wrong way to the station. Fuckity fuckerdoo. Walked back uphill for 15 minutes, and took managed to get back on the right track to meet up with the guys. By then his burger was cold, soggy, dusty AND sweaty [I may’ve dripped sweat on to it since I drip copius amounts of sweat], so I guess it’s fair enough to say that it was the Fillet o Fish’s adventure prior consumption :p

Met up with Yvonne, and the 4 of us headed off to East Coast Park for some… rollerblading! It was Gerardine and Foo’s first time, so there were lots of misadventures and falling over / grabbing on to railings. Yours truly did not know how to brake, so I ended up slamming my left hip in to the barriers a few times. Owie. Not to mention that there were lots of kids whizzing past us while we pottered around screaming “ARGH I am going to fall!”.

After falling down on our asses countless of times [oh, I didn’t, and I have the yoga to thank 😀 Though some kid fell in front of me and I wobbled out of his way and used his shirt to balance myself 😛 ], we walked and walked and walked and walked before hailing a cab to have dinner at some ramen place. Felt a little guilty about not eating enough veggies the past 2 days, I ordered a bowl of ramen with veggie toppings. It tasted like beansprout water, or as Yvonne put it nicely, “Well, if you really like beansprouts…” 😦 Fortunately for me Foo couldn’t finish his bowl so I stole half his bowl of ramen. Though now I suspect he just gave it to me cause I asked him too many times “Oh, you’re full already?” [NO, he’d retort].

Went off to China One bar on Clark Quay in our sporting shorts and tank tops to catch a live band. Lead singer wasn’t that cute, but he’s got quite a nice voice 😀

Sunday : Slept at 5am, woke up at 830am. Much to my host’s horror and chagrin, I was a happy, jumpy active bunny and wanted to go to Orchard Road for a spot of sightseeing. Poor host. See, this is why you need Bikram Yoga. You can survive with little sleep and still have the time of your life. 😀

I could’ve gone myself [and would probably end up on the opposite side of Singapore if I did], but Foo was ever so generous and gracious to accompany the hyperactive me out. Came home early to have a disco nap*before meeting up with Despederata to attend the 4pm class at Bikram Yoga City Hall.

Now, let me tell you guys about Bikram Yoga City Hall. It is in 3 words : A-fucking-mazing. Instead of providing mats and towels, they provide a rather funky and cool combination of a towel mat. Yes folks, it’s a towel, on a mat. How awesome! The towels have some sort of hardened backing on to it so it at least provides a soft cushioning for your footsies during violent bursts of padangustasana [it’s violent because you’re balancing your body weight on toes, eeps!].You can place your towel-mat ANYWHERE in the studio [more on this later], plus BYCH provided organic shampoo and body wash for their benders to use. How awesome possum is that?!

Was very happy to get Marcus as a teacher when I visited BYCH. Marcus used to teach in KL at the other studio, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to take one of his classes, though I’ve practiced with him before. Marcus is from Hong Kong and HOTDAMN he is hot. Yes, he’s probably twice my age, but you know what, he’s got a 6pack, awesome biceps, triceps, pecs and he is chiselled perfection. All from Yoga! [nudge nudge wink wink] In fact, his abs are so well cut, you could slide a block of parmesan cheese and get shredded cheese, that is, if it doesn’t turn into molten cheese from his sizzling hotness.

Ahem. Focus. Concentrate. Meditate. And no, I did not perve at him. At all. Honest.

Because Marcus, as you can tell, is sex on a stick, the ladies seem to line up and clamour around the front of the studio, near where the podium is. Which I find strange, because don’t you want to look at yourself during the postures? This lady came and set up next to me, leaving me with only 6 inches on my right [how the heck am I going to do all the separate leg series when I can’t even stretch over my own mat?!]. Grr. Kinda get annoyed when people set up too near when there’s plenty schmenty of room all over the place.

Met up with Adam and Mami for dinner. 😀 Silly boy paid for my dinner, when I should clearly be shouting him. GRRR!

Headed home and was dead to the world the whole night [yes, I may not need as much sleep, but the sore muscles from rollerblading really did do me in!].

Monday : HECTIC MAD RUSH to pack and settle a few last minute things I was wailing to Foo that I wanted to go buy shoes but he tutted me and said that I should prolly save the money for TT.

Caught a cab to the bus station, only to see the bus pull out of the bay and away. My heart instantly dropped. I was 30 minutes early, what the crap?! Not to mention Foo sent me a text message after that saying “Are you at the station yet? Aren’t you late???”. Oh wow, you have no idea how it feels to have your heart in your shoes and your balls in the throat. Ugh! Luckily, it turns out that that was the 430pm bus, and I was infact, rather early. 😀

And so I sat all alone, in the bus, sipping my Milo with a blankey whilst watching 27 Dresses [STUPID SHOW] and Transformers. Lucky for me, I was the only passenger on board the double decker bus so I took lots of shots with Domokun [next post] and ran amok on the bus, much to the cabin crew’s displeasure. Freaky thing : The bus picked up some random guy at the Johor immigration and gave him a lift all the way back to Sunway. CREEPY. Luckily he stayed downstairs while I got the whole of the upperdeck to Domokun and myself.

Will update with pictures tonight. Took around 100+ photos, so please be prepared for a visual onslaught later.

M*

*A short 15-30minute nap before I go out at night, or recharge before Bikram Yoga 😀