At first glance it seemed to be too good to be true. The sparkling Changi Airport, the clean, wide and tree lines roads, the waterfront, everything. It seemed that Singapore was like a girl out on her first date, all dressed up to impress. But then beauty can be skin deep, so I reserved my judgement.
The Hotel was a massive 30 Storey edifice, not the best in town, but suitably starred for me. Most importantly my room, on the 25th floor, had a bathtub. Now I have a special fascination for bathtubs. Love to lie in them for hours. Was’nt there a Greek Philosopher who lived in a barrel? Well, I do not know if Philosophy is an alternate profession for a Citibanker, but given a chance would love to live in a nice marble bathtub and ponder about the wonder of it all. Only problem, the world is full of material things. I can feed my heart and soul with thoughts, but the body needs things more substantial.
And more importantly, as a philosopher, your ideas and thoughts become well known once ther are over 100 years old; when the next generation of brain dead workaholics discover deep insights into essentially simple thoughts. Problem is, you don’t live that long.
So the bath tub was for the relaxing moments, after the day was done, with the “Straits Times” for company.
So began what Citibank calls as the “Management Associate Development Program”.
And we were a diverse lot.
India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia at the macro level.
It used to be an early, but delicious start to the day.
A three course breakfast. First course - bacon, sausages, eggs and hash brown potatoes.
Second course - Waffles/pancakes with dollops of maple syrup
Third course - Yogurt in flavours of the berries black, rasp and straw.
The effect: 2.5 Kilogrammes. Tangible volume addition to Nitid!
Some days were sleepy.
Blame it on the time zones. Singapore is an hour ahead of its time. So sleep would strike back with a vengeance post breakfast, as if confusing it with dinner! And as my body yearned to forget it all and drowsily curl up into the arms of Hypnos, the break, like an angel sent from Heaven would come.
Time for some tea! Earl Grey. Absolutely superb. A cup that truly cheers; light years away from the concoction I prepare in office, which tastes 50 parts damp paper and 50 parts saw dust!
The round II of Nitid vs. Hypnos. Nitid again snatching victory from the jaws of sleep!
Then came lunch! On the days when we remained on terra firma as far as the food went, things were hunky dory. Problem arose when we ventured out to the sea. Now I may not have the mustachios( Once upon a time I did), but like Hercule Poirot, I like not the sea, it agrees not with my stomach! And it was with a fair degree of horror that I used to venture out into the turgid soup containing some indeterminate marine life, now hopefully lifeless. Or nibble on some thing that I would like to think was nothing more harmless than a marine fish! And when the going got too choppy, I became a vegetarian…sad but true!
But that was not all.
Some days were really good. And the evenings were fun. But all that for another day!
