One night in a hotel room with the ex-es

So yesterday after work, I did not go home.

Instead, I spent the night in a room in the Ritz-Carlton with my ex-es.

My friend (who is also my ex-colleague) organised a slumber party last night in the Ritz-Carlton for her 27th birthday. All the invitees were her ex-colleagues.

After dinner at Billy Bombers, we were all set to raid our room. We managed a decent job trying to "behave" as we made our way to the hotel room. Amidst nachos, vodka and cranberry juice, there we were, about a dozen noisy editors, catching up on one another's lives.

The bottle of Grey Goose vodka was soon halved. Being the kind of person who gets high on orange juice, I was careful to put only about two tablespoons of vodka into my cranberry juice, otherwise I'd have been out like a light within half an hour, and missed all the fun.

Now usually, a big all girls' group tends to make me slightly queasy. I am fine when I meet a few of my girl friends at a time, but I'm always freaked out at the thought that it does not take much to transform a big group of girls talking harmlessly, into a bimbo party. But this time, I did not feel like that. Could have been the vodka. Or could have been the fact that editing children's books makes the level of nonsense we talk, diferent from the nonsensical talk usually associated with bimbos.

We watched two movies - The Princess Bride, and a Malaysian movie called Sepet (which I'm incidentally in love with, and have watched thrice over). There were games we'd got along with an intention to actually play them, but we ended up making up our own games. For example, we decided to bridi-fy one of the very high editors. With a long pillow for a dress, and a white table napkin for a veil, there she was, pretty and perfect - our own 'Pillow Bride'. Sorry I can't post pictures of the Bride, as we may end up with a 'Kill Bill - Revenge of the Bride' situation here.

Then we decided to take a series of crazy photographs, which I named 'The racial harmony symmetrical shots', in which the two Indian girls in the room occupied the left and the right edges of the frame, all the Chinese were asked to occupy the space in between, and the only Chinese-Indian girl was asked to take the centrestage.















The view from the room, with the shimmering Singapore lights, was so utterly beautiful, I could not get over it. Spot the reflection of the table lamp in the photo?




















We were laughing our asses off looking at the prices of the food items on the menu. "Hainanese chicken rice for $21.50!" read out my friend. If their prices were ten times those of the 'normal' ones, I wondered what the 50 cents was for. Perhaps to confuse the reader so much that he ends up ordering it?















Mineral water bottle (250 ml) for $8.00. Hahahahahahahaha! :D I know 'water is precious' but this is really taking it too far.

We ended up talking till about 4 in the morning. Some of the people had left by then. Others stayed on. Though I have three assignments to submit next week, I had scheduled to work on them in a way that I would not feel guilty indulging like this. At about 4, people had started flopping down in random areas of the room. I did not realise when I fell asleep.

I was up at 7, my usual waking hour on Saturdays.

Then I got up again at 8.

Then at 9. Then at 10.

Finally I got up at 11. Under normal circumstances, I would have found this type of waking behaviour inexcusable, but I deserved this break, so what the heck.















I walked to the window, and was greeted by this incredibly beautiful view of the Singapore river.




















Even the bathroom had such a beautiful view, with blinds that you could control using a switch. They had an electronic scale which was perhaps calibrated wrongly, and hence showed 2 kgs less than your actual weight. Of course, all the very delighted girls took turns to weigh themselves on the 'magic scales' that helped in weight loss. My friend J's theory - "It's the vodka."

Slumber parties can get really funny. You see the side of people you've never seen before. For the first time, many of my friends saw me in my pyjamas and my nerdy glasses. They saw how I looked like when I'd just woken up. They saw how my hair looked after a shower. The birthday girl remarked to me, "Hey, your hair is curling up nicely. You look like that girl in King Kong - Naomi Watts." I almost thought she said I looked like King Kong in errr... King Kong. Sheesh.


While the birthday girl decided to take a long soak, J and I sat down to talk over Scottish breakfast tea that she made for me. We talked about careers, philosophy, love, education, shoes, piercings, vacations, marriage, religion, parents, and what not. And as happens every single time I meet her, we explored the answers to deeper questions such as "What happens if you're with a guy you love and respect, and then suddenly you meet your soulmate?" and "What is the real difference between the one you choose as your best friend and the one you choose as your lover?" Such tricky questions, and what might seem as the obvious answers are often very deceptive.















Later, J cut me a mango, and we sat by the window, enjoying the view once again. I took more photographs.




















The Oriental and its bright blue swimming pool




















This is one of my favourite shots from yesterday. This pool was directly below our window, and I had to pretty much press my nose against the window to take this shot of this lone guy in the pool.















The orchid - a symbol of Singapore. In my opinion, one of the most unique looking flowers ever.















The morning traffic















The Esplanade

Suddenly I caught sight of a guy in a speedboat, who was making rather drunk statements in the water. He was going round and round but the rounds were not quite... errr... round. If you get what I mean. J's theory was that he was trying to make a figure eight in the water. Mine was that he was trying to propose to his girlfriend by writing a message on the water. Whatever it was, it was pretty evident that he sucked at it.















Was he doing a figure eight?















Or was he trying to draw an engagement ring on the water?















That's one shapeless engagment ring! Looks more like an Indian toilet, doesn't it?















Finally, the poor chap gave up, and left. My guess is that the girl must have said, "Nice try. Goodbye forever."




















Singapore - concrete jungle or nature haven?

And as I sat there, I felt strangely comfortable. And it wasn't the air-conditioner. It just felt really good to just be with friends, look outside the window and talk about random stuff, without getting bogged down by work, or feeling guilty about 'whiling away a precious saturday'.

Even when I looked at the people exercising on the bright Saturday morning, I felt no guilt.















Can you spot the tiny jogger in the picture here? Click on the picture for a bigger version.

Lately, I'd been getting too bogged down with the restructuring in the office and assignments and presentations at university. To be able to get away from all that clutter - both physically and mentally - felt really really good.

I realised how much I needed a break like that.

I realised that a bunch of gals getting together does not always imply bimboism.

I realised that there are some things that you can only talk about with your girl friends.

I realised that there are some things only your girl friends will understand.

Man, I feel like a woman.