Gosh this weekend has been quite hectic as James A was in town, popping over from JB after working in Malaysia the week before. It was quite pleasant actually to have someone to show around and hang out with - not since Jon had I done any sightseeing and though it was on a much smaller scale (a weekend as compared to a month) it was still quite fun.
He arrived on Friday evening and I met up with him at the Goodwood Park Hotel. I hadn't been there since I was 13 or so and it was a little odd as I always passed by but never went in. It's a lovely old-fashioned hotel and James' room had a good view of the pool, all very tranquil. Anyway it was lovely to see him again after all this time. I was a little hesitant at first as we'd not really kept in touch very much at all since he'd gone to China and over the past year the group dynamics had altered beyond recognition - none of us hang out anymore, everyone has separate lives, new lives, girlfriends and new living spaces ... and I guess I just didn't feel part of it anymore. Anyhow, we met up and it was quite jolly - we had a drink at the Crossroads Bar at Marriot Hotel then wandered down Orchard Rd to The Mandarin Hotel's Chatterbox for Hainanese Chicken Rice for JA while I had nasi lemak. He had his fix of a nice glass of wine or 2 - apparently one cannot find decent wine at decent prices or extortionate ones in Guangzhou yet. After that we walked back to his hotel and I got the bus back home.
10.30am next morning we met up at the hotel again but unfortunately it was raining and the rain got properly monsoon-like as the day progressed and we got absolutely soaked. In spite of the weather, we still managed to walk around City Hall and visit the Raffles Hotel, Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, see the door of Hope at CHIJMES, pop into the Singapore Art Museum, take a peek at St Andrew's Cathedral, walk the length of the Padang, see old Parliament House and various other old colonial buildings before ending up at Fullerton Hotel, which is the Old Post Office. We took some photos along Boat Quay, looked at the Merlion and the Esplanades on the Bay aka the durians and even walked through CityLink Mall. Lunch was at Prego - nice Italian place at Swissotel the Stamford (hotels are a good places to stop for drinks or meals I find - reliable and convenient) and we managed to get a table at Saint Julien (posh french place as JA wanted nice red wine and big meat - basically wanted to be English through and through after being stuck out in a place where it was so different culturally) by Marina Bay which was lucky. We had asked The Fullerton Hotel staff to help us with that and they got us a really good table for the viewing of the fireworks. The fireworks were cool - JA took a picture on his phone with me and the fireworks. I think I look a bit silly in it but it was a lovely meal. We had a nice chat over a long meal - 4 hours! ... he is very tolerant of my directness, which sometimes I think must seem rather rude but I guess my mouth runs away with me at times, with good friends at least. I am perhaps a little too candid. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess the answer is it depends, i.e. there is no answer to that. It's a grey area.
We finally left the restaurant at midnight and then I had to get JA home - it was a kind of funny role reversal haha as I was playing the 'gentleman' of making sure that he got back to his hotel ok. The MRT had stopped running and the taxi queues at the Swissotel were really long so I suggested that we walk to Raffles Hotel where there was no queue hurrah and we got a taxi quite quickly. JA took a photo of me walking down the corridor of the Raffles Hotel on his phone - He had to use his phone to take a number of pictures as my camera battery had run out. I'd meant to change it to the new full-charged battery but for some reason when I came to change the battery I'd evidently put the wrong one in the camera so it died during the day. That was rather silly but it was rainy anyway so it wasn't that bad. Oh well eh!
Finally got home at 5 minutes to 1am so it wasn't too bad but my was I tired!
Then this morning we met up at 11am at his hotel again (with camera and the correct battery plus a spare one!) and I took him to Kampong Glam and Arab Street to finish off his little whirlwind stop of Singapore. We'd agreed that Chinatown could be given a miss since he lived in China (the uber Chinatown) so we'd go see the Malay area and the mosques. There were some quirky buildings in that area that JA liked and he took some photos of those and some silly ones of me. Thinking about that now makes me remember how Jon used to take silly photos of me and he loved the ones where I looked a wee bit silly. When he got his first camera phone he took lots of silly photos but then that got stolen at Goldman Sachs on his internship. He was a bit silly too - a bumbling BFG. I think I quite like my photo being taken though I like it to be done with minimal fuss (so as not to draw attention to myself!) but I like it when people take pictures of me as I guess I like the attention. I like to feel noticed and not abandoned or left alone which I guess I feel most of the time or even when I'm with people, I still feel a gaping hole. So it was nice to travel with someone. Even if they make you pose in slightly ludicrous poses (as long as there aren't people around it's fine) and even if they're silly at least you can both be silly together. You can moan about stuff, chat about nothing at all and you can laugh with someone. Travelling alone is a very silent affair.
Anyway, more about Arab Street. There are two mosques in the area - Hajah Fatimah Mosque and Sultan Mosque. I used to go to Arab Street with my mum and sister for nice fabrics to make evening dresses. The last time I'd been to Arab Street was with Finci - I was also carrying the bag that I'd bought there 2 years ago. It's a little sand coloured bag that has an interesting shape - the base is pointy but when you put stuff in it it spreads out. It also has an embroidered and sequinned elephant on the front pocket (the colour runs, as I discovered in the rain yesterday, but then it's only about a pound!) and it has a little elephant fastening with bells on it that give a nice little jingle when you move.
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, she shall have music wherever she goes ...
JA left at about 4pm, after lunch at an Indonesian restaurant called Sanur - I'd picked that place for its unique food - and a walk round the shopping centres. He bought some English magazines from Kinokuniya at Takashimaya and then I got him some the sweet meat he loves (I'd bought some for Dave 3 years ago as a thank you for letting me stay at your flat gift but JA ended up eating most of it!). The silly boy had packed his Singapore dollars away and taken Malaysian Ringgit with him so I gave him some dosh for the taxi to the airport and got him his bottle of water and pack of sweetmeat. It's kinda nice though. I liked knowing what he would like and getting him some of that. I guess it makes me feel connected to people. Being rather isolated in London, one becomes somewhat estranged from the wider world and little things like this remind one of the warmth of human contact when you least expect it. It's like chancing on photographs you'd forgotten you had and in looking at them, you remember the you you once were.
But they are nothing but stills from the past.
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