Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Strange Weird Day

Does this have anything to do with it being the Third Day of the Chinese New Year? I awoke at my usual weekday time of 5.15 am and snoozed a while before leaping out of bed and changing up into my workout gear, watered the plants and shimmied out of the flat. When I arrived at the gym, I was greeted by shut grilles. It meant either the gym is permanently closed (as this was the case yesterday at the usual holiday opening time of 8 am, while today was supposed to be the usual weekday opening time at 6 am) or, that they have deferred the opening time to 10 am. Anyway, something was obviously amiss about this gym's branch and if I did want to, I could head down to the city gyms in town instead. But I decided it was best not to hurry downtown and back uptown as I would have a significant client and agency meeting at 10 am, and did not want to rush and get sweaty from the excitement of squeezing in commute, wash and change of clothes altogether. However, as I was very early, I thought to get the newspapers and a breakfast back around my home. Now back from the closed gym to my home convenience store, and it is not quite 6.30 am, the newsdailies have not arrived either. So I detour to the dreadful McDonald's store which begs patronage all through holidays by simply being the only dining outlet around remaining open, and open 24 hours as well. This time, I deliberately avoid the hotcakes and creamer - both of which have trans fat (hydrogenated palm oil ingredients), the syrup for the hotcakes and the whipped margarine being the particularly bad bits. And tea, instead of the ever-damning coffee. After the Big Breakfast, where I have swallowed the toasted muffin halfs with grape jelly down, I worry if these two might have fillers or binders made with trans fat, and then surrender myself to the dread which I cannot do anything about, because all of it was already quite settled down in my gut. I did not think then, but it would have been a good trick to have, if I could be bulimic and let it all out in the toilet. I should have fasted or settled for a real juice drink instead of the S$5.00 value meal. We do not generally make terrific decisions about our meals, even after being reasonably informed about its health-related dangers. The ubiquity and convenience is simply statistically overwhelming in the favour of our imbibing it. Convenience is the tempter's watch word, for sure.

Finally the newspapers arrive and I digest every interesting article I could find, but it is rather measly, perhaps because 2/5 of the World was on holiday break, or simply because the editorial team were. But the Digital Life supplement was included and I enjoyed the products and gadgets reviews in it always. I leave it for the McDonald's delivery riders after I was finished with the papers and sauntered home, pack and change and prepare for nice leisurely ride on the trains downtown. The timing was excellent and unrushed, and I felt prepared, comfortable and leisurely in my commute to the agency at Outram Road. When I do get there, after dodging some buses to get across the main road, I am allowed in and climb the stairs to the mezzanine level where I usually await being attended to.

After a few moments of waiting while the team complete their meeting inside an adjacent room, I meet the senior staff member who tell me he has been trying desperate to call me and had text-messaged me on my phone earlier. I had heard nothing because the phone was inside my bag, and as anyone using an iPhone might tell you, the ringer is really quite soft and completely inaudible if you have kept the phone inside a bag.

It appears that the client has cancelled the meeting and I was asked to call her at her home later on and work the details through over  the phone. Now, for the third time today I have to detour off my scheduled plan, and find myself in the bus for the journey back uptown and home. I get on the bus, get off the bus, get on the train and get out of the train. Then I realised something interesting, that as a result of all my travel in such a brief space of time, that the transit system counted it as one long journey, and some portions of the journey was charged "0" and another just "0.12" until I finally completed my journey by arriving at my final destination. But I was not bothered by then to check what the fare was, as I already knew that it would be much cheaper than if I was charged a new journey for each leg.

I get changed at home and put on casual and comfortable clothes - football UEFA shorts and a nice fresh cotton tee and after checking emails and updating my harddisk with data from the notebook, I head off down to the coffeeshop for brunch. Half the foodstores are closed and I meander a bit to decide what to eat. The Indian fish curry looked very good and I order that, accompanied with spinach and served with basmati-bryani rice, at S$5.00. This time, I was quite confident the meal did not include trans fat, although the ghee in the bryani had much oil, it is natural butter and not margarine. That would have freaked me into a quick heart attack.

I slurp up the hot tea with lemon and feel quite satisfied, and on my walk back home from the coffee shop, figure out in my mind what changes to the client draft I would make, and how I would take the opportunity to amend the structure of the chart as well. I have now done all that, and emailed the amended chart to the client and text messaged her. Now, I just await her call, at any time convenient for her, and wished her children to get well soon. It is already 1.15 pm. My  world awaits. I hope it will be a fulfilling day and no more detours.

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