Yesterday was a busy day. There were a few things which had to be done before our flight to Singapore. First of all I had to bring in the clothes that were hanging out on the lines. The weather was already very humid and unbearably hot even in the morning. I usually have the clothes on the lines by six in the morning and by 10:30 a.m. they would be dry as bones! However, I was checking my email when I heard the clock striking many times. OMG, it's already 11:00 and the clothes are still out!
I rushed out to bring them all in and as I was folding them, two pieces were not as dry as bones. Part of the waist bands were a tiddly damp, so I didn't fold them but hung them up indoors to dry. They would, by midday. No way was I going out into the heat just to hang two pieces of almost-dry pants.
Then I told my spouse that we ought to go for our lunch as there were a couple of errands to run as well. We shut the windows and he drove us to town. Then I looked at my watch. Oh dear! It was just about 10:30!! That meant that I had heard wrongly! The clock had struck nine times instead of ten. No wonder the two pieces of clothing were not absolutely dry! Another sign of age catching up! I believe the young people call this being "blur". I can imagine my niece saying, " Old folks nowadays very blur"! In local dialect the Chinese would say "Moong Char Char". My long-suffering spouse didn't say anything when I exclaimed that it was too early for lunch! I guess he's used to my being "blur".
The bank was the first stop. He had a check to deposit and we were at the cheque deposit machine. It's astounding how most things are done via machines now. He has never deposited a cheque before and was quite "blur" how to go about it. Well, I've done it before so I more or less tapped the first few steps on the screen. Then it came to tapping in the account number, which he did. Oh, horror of horrors! The screen came back with the words " Invalid account number"!
"Hey, you sure you got the right numbers?" I asked him. I thought there were a couple of digits still missing as accounts have a certain number of digits, either ten or twelve, I can't actually remember. Then he keyed in again and this time the machine went on to the next step which was to key in the amount on the cheque. This he did and then a red light flashed on, in the slot where the cheque was to go in.
This was the part where I was also "blur". Which way should I put the cheque, the logo on the right side or left side? The red light was flashing all the time. Ah... there was a picture of a cheque in the slot so quickly I placed the cheque the way it was indicated and the machine greedily sucked it in! Then a printout appeared and my spouse took it. " That's it?" he asked. "Ya, that's it." That was his first experience of depositing a cheque and it was successful. What a relief! Case of the blind leading the blind.
The next stop was the pharmacy. Kelly the pharmacist was there. I asked for face masks and a decongestant as I still had the tail end of a cold. She told me to be careful as her friend was quarantined in Singapore for 7 days the previous week. She asked if I had a fever and I replied in the negative.
Purchases complete, we went to a nearby coffee shop for chicken rice lunch. This particular small corner shop serves good chicken rice. The rice is fragrant and the portion of chicken is generous. We chose the steamed chicken rather than the fried one. I normally eat very little rice but when it comes to chicken rice, I usually polish off the plate! That's the greedy me! I love fragrant rice, whether it is chicken rice or nasi lemak, the latter being rice cooked in coconut milk. Both these rice are fattening and not good for one's cholesterol levels. But what the heck? Eat while we still can is the usual line you hear among seniors these days.
Come 3:15 p.m. it was time to head to the airport to check in first so that we could bring the car back home. Then when our daughter returned from work she would then send us to the airport to be in time to catch the flight. The traffic was horrendous! From four lanes, the traffic had to squeeze into two lanes as we approached the area where a flyover was being constructed. It didn't help that impatient motorists were trying to cut in from left and right! I hated these queue cutters! If I was in a good mood I would let someone cut in but more often than not, I would move my car very close to the one in front so that the errant motorist would not have a chance to squeeze through. If others can queue, why can't he or she? Yep, there are women drivers who cut queue too. However I wasn't in the driver's seat and my sedate spouse just let people cut in. No wonder his blood pressure is very normal, whereas mine tends to spike whenever I drive.
At last we managed to get to the airport and I went to do the necessary while he went to find parking. This is a recurring nightmare as the terminal does not have a designated parking area for cars and you can see cars parked everywhere, ignoring the double or single yellow lines. The carpark there is only for staff parking. This might be because the terminal has been deemed to be a temporary one until the expansion at the main terminal is completed. Might be another couple of years by the looks of how things are progressing at a snail's pace. Anyway he left the car along a spot with yellow lines just like the other drivers. You know, there's company, so you don't feel so bad. Nevertheless he was closeby, ready to drive off should the traffic cop come along.
Finally the counter opened, our bags were checked in and we drove home, no cops around. I had enough time for a drink and a bun before the children came running in through the door. "Hello, Poh-poh, Kong-kong," they chimed. My daughter told her father, " Let's go" and he said "So soon?" and her reply " Ya, the traffic is heavy and it will take some time to get across the road (at the bottom of the hill)". So off we went. By the time we crossed the road, I realised that I had forgotten my eye drops. Sigh! Blur again! I didn't tell my daughter or she would find it very stressful to have to turn the car around and go through the hassle of the heavy traffic. I can picture her saying " Mummy, why don't you ever make a list? That way you won't forget." Ah, my dear daughter, I always forget the list that I'm supposed to do. I usually count off my fingers. Anyway, it's just for a few days. The eye will just have to behave.
"Did you take your panadol?" came the reminder from our daughter. "Yes, I did and I made daddy take too", although he didn't see why he had to since he didn't have any fever. This was a precaution she insisted upon so that we wouldn't be quarantined on arrival at Changi. I had been having a cold for the last couple of weeks and although it was tailing off, she said I had better err on the side of caution. Surely I don't want to spend a week in quarantine over there. We agreed and dutifully took the panadol.
I found that I didn't have to wear the face mask after all. No one did and I wasn't about to draw attention to myself by wearing one! The interior of the airplane was very cold. You could see the cold air streaming down from the vents. I guess they upped the coldness probably because of concerns that someone might have the virus and ...... well, I honestly don't know but this is definitely the first time that I can actually see the cold air streaming down.
We landed twenty minutes earlier than scheduled but by the time we completed all formalities half an hour had elapsed. We had walked past the thermal scanner without a hitch and I looked around to see if anyone had been called aside. Thankfully I didn't detect any. What a relief that we are now in Singapore. No quarantine so we can look forward to a pleasant Father's Day weekend with our son, who is working here.
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