Saturday, April 01, 2006

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.



36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just so that some Golds can be denied :).

Great snaps

Sumit Tada said...

Silver at least!!!!
By the way whats slumber party?
Aur haan Sayesha singapore tourism department must be very happy with your blog....I cant wait to get there!!!
The guy in boat may be just having fun, even I drive zig-zag on roads(if they are empty) few times just for sake of fun.......it must really good to drive like that in water.........and use kya pata thaa ki koi uski pics le raha hoga upar se?

Anonymous said...

I wanna be in Shingnapoorrrrrrrrrrr

Sumit Tada said...

Hey no word verification today??? I thought that picture is not loading just because of my slow connection, lekin lagta hai u r trying to make life easier for us ;)

Lalit Singh said...

report that guy for rash sailing/driving/watevea.. lols

the view from the bathtub is so awesome.. lovely.

Sayesha said...

#Anon,
Arre! You're gonna get it man! Anonymous person takes off with gold?! :D
ps: Thanks! I credit the cam actually! :P

#Sumit,
Slumber party is basically a sleepover party... you basically play games, stay up late and talk till you fall asleep. There are pillow fights too. :)

You're coming to Singapore?? Batana kab ok?

//use kya pata thaa ki koi uski pics le raha hoga upar se?

Haan baat mein dum toh hai! :)

#Someonewhocares,
I think I know who you are, sweetheart! Come to Singapore na! :)

#Sumit,
I granted Naina her wish yaar... she really hates word verification, so I took it off to see if I still get spam... so far, not too bad... let's see how long it lasts :)

#Lalit,
//report that guy for rash sailing/driving/watevea.. lols

Hahahaha! :D

Yeah, the bathtub view was awesome! :) Ghar aisa hona chahiye yaar! :/

Dewdrop said...

Hiee... have read a helluva lot of ur posts and I love the simple way in which you put down even the smallest of details...

I believe you work with a firm which makes edu s/w for kids... I'm working with an NGO which is currently undertaking a project to literate street kids with basic computer skills... It'd be a great help if you can provide me with some idea on the kind of s/w used and / or links. You can reach me at sanghamitra@gmail.com. Thanks a ton and keep blogging!

Dewdrop said...

Hiee... have read a helluva lot of ur posts and I love the simple way in which you put down even the smallest of details...

I believe you work with a firm which makes edu s/w for kids... I'm working with an NGO which is currently undertaking a project to literate street kids with basic computer skills... It'd be a great help if you can provide me with some idea on the kind of s/w used and / or links. You can reach me at sanghamitra@gmail.com. Thanks a ton and keep blogging!

Sudeep said...

Cant see any pic frm company.. all crosses here
sab bimbos miss ho gaye kya re? :((

anyways s'pore ke naam se dar lagta hain... my company's client wahin ka hain... brrrr!!!!

last sat had gone to a hotel n some of the rates were 58, 87, 103
???... pataa nahi kyun... the owner must be numerology expert n not food expert toh pukka

I was up at 7, my usual waking hour
*sulks*

R said...

I'M HERE BEFORE THE GIRL!

Sash, I'm happy that you took a break. I've always a lot of my friends talking about such parties.. Cool!

Enjoy!

Unknown said...

gosh..you whiled away your saturday like that?? tsk tsk.. what of the assignments...what of all that work????
lol. j/k
good that you took a break. sometimes one needs to take a forced, guilt-free vacation, always helps to recharge.
and nothing better than a girls night-out for that. yaar, those are the fine privileges of havin two x chromosomes! :)

Sayesha said...

#Dewdrop,
Thanks for your kind words :)
Oopsie, we don't make educational software, we publish books. We do have e-learning, but we get third parties to write the software, we don't do it ourselves. Sorry! :)

#Sudeep,
Areee! Everyone can see and you can't? Aisa kaise? Auto-censhorship ho gaya lagta hai! Kyun re, teri neeyat theek nahin thi kya? Hahahaa! :D

#Rohit,
Yeah, they're a lot of fun. Do guys have that too? I guess guys don't 'intentionally' have slumber parties... it's more like "I'm too drunk to drive, I may just crash the car. Maybe I should just crash here instead!" Hai na? :D

#Ipanema Girl,
Hahahaha! Nice try to make me feel guilty. You failed muahahahaah! I just finished assignment #1. Tomorrow I shall finish #2, and still be able to go watch Iqbal. Guilt-free. Ha! :D

Prayank said...

seems that looong posts are the flavor of the season .. anyways luvly pics .. u r surely helping tourism in s'pore

Anusha said...

Man, I feel like a woman.

Hee! Trust you to write something like that at the end! ;)

Great that you took a day off! I miss slumber parties! God knows when I'll be able to have one next - I spent the entire Saturday on an essay due next week. :'(

Anonymous said...

Aaahhh! That half-filled bottle of Vokda must be calling out to me. Hmnnn, I'm feeling thirsty all of a sudden! ;o)

Shekhar said...

I knew Singapore was nice...but this is fabulous !! :) How I would love to be there..

Rays Of Sun said...

Someonw who was me..Login karneko..pak raha tha:O
Man! waking up at 11:00 Inexcusable bheavior?????????
:O:O
Wait until you meet me..Hehhehehe
7 baje koi uthata hai kya:P
8 $ mein idhar mast khana milega:))
But that trffic wala pic looked fab.......I wanna come:(

Sumit Tada said...

I am not COMING to S'pore but i WISH I could.........yaar "bhavnaon ko samjho"
Aur haan the guy who made the menu must have been an engineer........whenevr we "make up" readings in our pracs, we always make sure that results look like 4.567,87.876,93.20 etc.etc. so that teacher should not become suspecious ki humne lab mein experiment kiye bina hi readings likhi hain!!

Sumit Tada said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sayesha said...

#Prayank,
Hahaha! This post became long due to the photos yaar! :)
ps: Look at me, trying to defend myself, hehehe! :P

#Vikram,
Aha! Eyeing my friend J, eh? Remember the ski thingie? Stay away! Ha! :D

The mango thing is damn easy. You just cut off a slice, and then cut a chessboard pattern (only on the flesh, not the skin). Then you just invert the slice, and whoala! :D

//I know Singaporeans are crazy but this is going too far.

Oye! Zubaan sambhal kar! Hehehe! :D

#Clueless,
After exams, we can have our own slumber party, girl! :)

#Meena,
Sheesh! You should have joined us. We did not have enough drunk girls! :D

#Shekhar,
Get your company to send you na! :)

#ROS,
I knew it was you bacha... mera comment padh na :)
8$ mein kitne pani puris milenge wahan? I always use my pani puri index! :D
ps: Vacation maar, aur yahan aa, seriously! :)

#Sumit,
Tu aur teri Bhavnayen, offo! Kitni saari gfs hain baap re :)
Oye I'm an engineer too! And I used to do the reading wala cheating too, hehehe! :P

virdi said...

abe mast yaar... and mangooooooooooo... wah wah wah... aaam ke aam guthaliyon ke daaam... b.t.w is your friend very rich?? looks like... ;-)

V...

Anonymous said...

vadde log...vaddi batein.

Abhishek said...

hmm...i just love vodka...
but da last time i had it with ajay...
i bloody blurted out all the secrets.

R said...

Yeah, You got it.

Jeevan Baretto said...

Yesterday our juniors had arranged Farewell party for us at DAMAN. We too ended up boozing and in the end exchanged all those senti things.. But I'll tell you, one of my friend gave me one beautiful thought. I usually am a short tempered person, so this guy told that if we start counting from 10 to 1 the moment we get angry on someone, the temper would be down by that time..!!
Surely, you get to learn lots when u r with your friends...

Nice pics and nice post.. would love to visit singapore at least once..:-)

Sayesha said...

#Virdi,
Hahaha! Well, my friend is just as poor as I am if you're talking salary, but she has 'connections' otherwise known as family! :)

#Sumedh,
Hahahahaha! :D

#Abhishek,
Hahaha! That's the prob with vodka. If you have too much of it, you tend to spill out secrets you never even had in the first place! :D

#Sumedh,
Nice try! You think I am still so drunk with my two tablespoons of vodka that I would do a tag like that? Hahahah! You wish, buddy! :D

#Rohit,
:)

#Jeevan,
Yeah, I've heard a lot about the count down from ten strategy, but never really had a chance to try it. Hope I never do :)
ps: Yes yes, you should visit Singapore.

Unknown said...

Sunken bath! With a view!
(Too distracted to see/read anything else)

That's it- I need a husband who can afford a sunken bath.

Anonymous said...

wow sayesha pics were nothing less than stunning...I wish somebody gives me a two way ticket to singapore as my b'day gift this year(friends are you lreading this! this is what I want)....all girls party or even an outing is sure a lot of fun...you can stare at all the good looking guys openly and can comment on all the oversmart and over made up girls(what all the guys call b'ful girls)without the other chap telling you that sheis better than what you look even when u r best dressed...and certainly talk about every possible topic under the sky.Oh how much I miss my hostel midnight pajama parties.

Anonymous said...

This is treachory!

Kusum Rohra said...

Hey even i am planning a trip to coorg with my frd i hope even we get to spend it as luxuriously as u did :)

YIPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEIiiiiiiiiiiii

oh sorry i got exicted hehehehh

Raj said...

Kasam khai hai kya lambi posts likhne ki??

I haven't read it yet but the photos are nice :D

Sayesha said...

#Jupiter,
Hahaha! I actually have a bathtub in my place, but the view is not worth talking about :)

#Anon,
Make Sinagpore your next holiday destination, babe! :)

#Sumedh,
Hum toh aise hi hain. Take me or leave me :)

#Kusum,
Blog about it, okay? And put up photos!
ps: Errr... where is Coorg? :$

#Raj,
Arre yaar, patience hi nahin tujhme! Chalo at least photos toh dekha, yeh nahin ki post length dekha and gave up on me! :P

Kusum Rohra said...

Aare coorg is in karnataka, is also known as the scotland of India, has got lovely coffee plantations and all, and we are planning to get a bunglow in one of those plantations .


YIPPEiEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Sayesha said...

#Kusum,
Wow that sounds fabulous!! I need a holiday!!!!!!!!!! :O

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