Some of my closest friends from P&G AP group, namely Rome, Caloy and April, came over for a break last week. I realized that coincidentally, we had all been payment analysts before – hence the title of this blog. It was an exhausting but very enjoyable four days indeed, especially since I hadn’t seen them in nearly a year.
Day 1
We checked into Marriot Hotel for one night. Thanks to April’s frequent flyer points, we got a couple of rooms for free and even got bumped up to privileged class, giving us access to the lounge with free buffet breakfast and bottomless cocktails at night.
We walked through Orchard Road to find Charles and Keith, only to realize that it was inside the very first mall we had ignored, the same mall where we had a very late lunch (3pm) at the newly opened Marche restaurant. Sorry naman, guys! We had meat and sweet crepes but couldn’t finish the meat ones because it was nakakaumay. After eating, April bought a pair of typical “April” high-heeled shoes with criss-cross strap designs from Charles and Keith.
We had cocktail drinks and food at the Marriot for dinner. Then while chatting in the bedroom, Caloy fell asleep on us; I somehow envy him for being able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. We weren’t able to go out and meet the merlion as planned, so we watched American Idol on TV instead. Everyone was so tired that they fell asleep before the show ended. I woke them up so that April and I could go to our room and Rome and Caloy could sleep properly on their bed.
Day 2
We had buffet breakfast at the Marriot. I had a funny moment with the coffee-maker when I made a cappuccino then got surprised when I drank it because there was no coffee in it, just milk. I had removed the cup before the coffee was poured. We checked out of Marriot and moved to my flat. But before that, we had some photo ops by the pool and did some shopping at the adjoining Tangs mall, where Rome bought a pretty blue bag. She reminded April of a sapin-sapin in her purple-and-yellow ensemble.
After stashing their stuff in my room, we headed to Vivo City where we had a very late lunch once again, this time at Food Republic. They tried the hokkien mee, thunder tea brown rice, barbeque chicken wings, chicken rice and saba fish. Then we rode the train to Sentosa island.
First up was the luge and sky ride. Since it’s open and so high up, Caloy couldn’t move and April kept her eyes closed for the duration of the ride out of fear. I’m not too crazy about heights either, but playing with Rome’s Canon DSLR distracted me. Just proves that distraction as a coping method is totally underrated. Everyone enjoyed the luge ride, even though this was what April was scared of initially.
Then we walked towards the merlion and rode the Tiger skytower. It was my first time to try out the latter and it was very nice – you get to see the entire island from all sides in an enclosed glass space, so we weren’t scared anymore. Our last stop was the Songs of the Sea (my sixth time), a fire-light-water works musical extravaganza. They were impressed, but said the plot could have been better, like there should have been dangerous fight scenes or Ami should have been transformed to a real girl, thrown out from the sky to the shore.
Day 3
Upon waking up, Rome hugged me, saying: “Dee, namiss ka namin!!” Err… isn’t it late for that? We’ve been together three days already. Haha! We weren’t able to wake up early enough to exercise but we had time to cook breakfast. Rome made french toast while Caloy fried up some Singaporean sausages we found in the grocery store. We ate breakfast with my flatmates.
Since we were already late, we grabbed a cab to get to Ikea. I got an earful from the cab driver for pronouncing it as |ay-ki-ya| and said the correct way is to pronounce it as |ee-kya|. Whatever, Kuya. He was also amazed at how happy we were, because we were laughing so much while talking to each other. I was tempted to tell him, “Masayahin talaga kaming mga Pinoy, Kuya.” When we got to Ikea, I brought them to the cafeteria where we ordered some poached salmon, Swedish meatballs, chicken wings, french fries, blueberry cheesecake and Coke. They loved everything, especially the chicken. So much so that the entire lunch hour was peppered with “Sarap!” (delicious) exclamations.
Gelle met us there and we shopped for some stuff (I ended up buying a couple of lovely items while everyone else bought more) and laughed some more about “lapis alerts.” We were tempted to take a cab (especially me with my full length mirror), but they strictly allow only four passengers per cab here in Singapore, so we had to ride the free bus to Bedok where we rode the train to Chi and AA’s place in Tiong Bahru, where Gelle’s birthday party was to be held.
Rome, a professional makeup artist, did Gelle’s makeup while I curled her hair using my hair straightening iron. Then the guests arrived and we dined on Sarpino’s pizza, Mang Kiko‘s liempo and lechon manok, and homemade gelatin dessert.
Day 4
We were finally able to wake up early to jog. I brought April and Rome to the nearby park while Caloy cooked our breakfast. While Rome sprinted, April had a pictorial around the park. She eventually found something that made her sweat – sipa, which she borrowed from an old man. They both fell in love with the park though, saying that it was beautiful and convenient.
Then it was time to head to the airport, so I called for a cab, whose driver’s gripe with me this time is that I should’ve said “lobby” instead of “main road” when I dictated my address for pick up.
Caloy said I am an RFT (right first time) hit for cab drivers here.
Caloy checked in his luggage before we had lunch in Burger King (Rome fell in love with the tendergrill) and headed to Expo, only one station away.
The girls could only check in two hours before their flight so we had to bring their luggage while shopping. They bought a lot of bags and shirts at a Johnny Little sale there, then we rode the train back to the airport where they checked in and I bid them goodbye.
Will miss these guys again. See you in July!
