Feelgood Friday

Yesterday was a great day! Annika and I were very efficient and laughed a lot. She asked me sometime during the afternoon why the weather is always too hot and perfect for a day by the pool when you have decided to spend a lot of hours in town walking down streets. I had no explanation but simply answered Singapore. The weather likes to mess up your plans. When I decide to take a day by the pool it starts to rain just as I am about to leave and it does not clear up until the evening.

We left the apartment around ten and took the MRT to Somerset. I have never actually gone to this station and so I had a moment of confusion with finding the right way out. Maps did not help either since it was so confused with me being underground and then emerging into the world a second later. This caused us to stand by the traffic light waiting for a green light to appear so we could cross the street, when I realised that the building we were going to was right next to us. We took the elevator to the fifth floor and a wooden wall with an equally wooden door granted us access to the Swedish Embassy. Inside was a medium sized room with four or five chairs around a low table. To the left was a notice board with papers talking about Swedish things in Singapore. To the right was a stand with three magazines of SWEA. The wall opposite the door had two glass windows, one of which we approached to explain our visit. Annika started talking in Swedish, since it felt natural to do so, but the woman behind the glass did not speak Swedish. I found this peculiar, but then again why should not a Singaporean woman be able to work at the Swedish embassy? I was handed a paper, I sat down and with Annika's help I filled out my information and my parents'. I handed in the paper and we stood by the notice board to read everything while waiting. I found svensklistan and made a note to myself to sign up when I got home. Eventually I was called to the second glass window where I got to talk to a lovely Swedish woman. She took my picture, showed it to me and I was glad to see that I appeared to have a bit more colour than my last passport photo. I scanned my forefingers and wrote my name in the small digital board. After writing Ell I asked the lady to remove and let me start again. My name is really long so I squeezed the two words together and decided it is good enough. When I saw the last result I noticed that the o in my name looked like a u, but I can not write it better than that and accepted the information given about me. I paid two hundred and twenty five Singaporean dollars for my new passport. It will take at most two weeks to process. I will update when it arrives.

Then Annika walked up to the window to ask the two women if they had any favourite sushi restaurant nearby. Yes, yes they had and they seemed very eager to tell us about it. Both of them gave different directions on how to find it, but we thought we understood and left the embassy. Outside I felt touched, perhaps a bit homesick and in need of a hug. It felt so good in my soul to talk to Swedes again.

I will write a separate post about the sushi restaurant because it was such an experience.

After lunch we decided to explore this new mall we were in called Orchard Central. To begin with, it was huge as every other mall in Singapore but this one had a logical and comfortable design. The escalators were placed next to each other so there was no need to circulate every floor. I could not see a store I recognised so everything felt new and unique (even though I bet half of them were franchises). We started at the seventh floor. Outside was a Korean BBQ that looked good and had strange campaigns, such as 10% off if finished by 7pm. I would want to eat there some day! The view was amazing; we could see Orchard Road stretching out on both sides, disappearing under the huge trees that could be seen all the way to the horizon. Across there was a beautiful garden on a rooftop, the plants swaying in the wind.

On another floor we found a shop selling guitars, violins, cellos and ukuleles. The ukuleles had so many different colours that we could not resist entering the store. We discussed whether we should buy one for John, until I explained that John greatly dislikes ukuleles. The clerk came over and we asked her to play for us. To our surprise she agreed. We sat down, she tuned the ukulele and played a short song. It was a cute song and I was really tempted to buy one to learn how to play myself. Then I reminded myself that I live with a man that would not appreciate it. We thanked for the private short and simple concert and walked to the next store over. It looked like a sports shop, but after looking at a few items we concluded it was a joke shop. Among the many items we found: sauna suits to help sweat out some extra weight while you are in a sauna, ball pocket that lets you keep one tennis ball at your waistband in case you meet a dog on the street, massage stick to roll along your hip if you do not like normal massages, a private fan that hangs around your neck and is placed underneath your shirt between the breasts so you can walk around like a model with the wind constantly in your face. Along with many other quite useful items for a fair amount of money.

 

We found a bridge to cross from one mall to another, then went down a few floors and found another bridge. Still I am not sure if we went over to the one we had just been inside or somehow crossed to a third mall. It was difficult to know since the malls are so connected. We decided where we were going and started walking towards Plaza Singapura. It lied by Orchard Road but a bit further down and away from all the gigantic buildings with the well-known brands. Inside Plaza Singapura it took us some time to find the right store. When we eventually found it we stayed there for quite some time. It was a huge art store called Art Friend and Annika was looking for a travel-easel. For a moment we stood together debating the easels they had but she did not like any of them. We split up and walked around by ourselves for a while. Half the time I was looking for sewing supplies but that aisle had very few products I liked, the other half I was looking for Annika and by the time I looked behind me I discovered she had followed my footsteps. For how long I wonder...

We left the store with nothing bought. Annika wanted to walk to another art store that did not lie that far away. Maps told me it was a fifteen minute walk. We headed towards it. Even though my feet were hurting and my brain was slowing down I soldiered on. On the way there I told her I needed something and suddenly we see a fresh orange juice vending machine. For two dollars I got a medium sized mug, almost filled to the top with kind of sour but still very tasty juice. Just what I needed! Also it was fun to watch the machine squeeze the oranges. A few more minutes of walking and we had reached our goal. I noticed we were close to Sim Lim Square. The art store was called Overjoyed and had two small rooms with art-stuff. It felt like we were there for a long time. First Annika walked around looking for stuff, then another round to show me stuff, then over to the other room to see some easels, pick one and then we did another round in the first store to buy more things to top up to the amount required for a twenty procent off! I became a member of this store so she could get the discount. It was a lot of fun to walk around with her to see what she likes: the pencils, the oil paints, the papers, etc.

We had one last thing to do before going home. We needed to go to the hospital. It lies close to the malls we had been in earlier that day, but since I was buying a Nuva-ring I needed it to be the last thing we did. Instead of taking a thirty minutes bus or walk for that long, we ordered an Uber Pool and paid six dollars to take us there. My phone died before we arrived. It did not matter. We found Guardian, I bought my ring and lens solution for Annika. Outside we asked a man for directions to get to the nearest MRT. He pointed us in two directions but soon we discovered that we were one street away from Orchard Road. Once there we knew where to go and went home.

My feet we sore and I could barely walk. John was working late and did not come home until ten o'clock. Annika made dinner, kind as she is, and served John when he got home. It was a wonderful day, full of joy and new sights. My soul is warm and my mind is pleased. I love those days. It will stick with me for a long time.