Last Day in Singapore

Waking up at noon? Yeah – it was pretty awesome.

But then came the realization that this was my final night here. And that as I went to sleep tonight it would be on an airplane over a strange sea, headed to a place I knew not where. And that? That was less settling.

I ate lunch, and then I broke out my laptop, watching World of Warcraft being played on a neighbouring computer. While one attempted to bring glory to the hoard, I tried to book final flights, and buses.

By the time I was done, almost everything had been set in motion. I was without my ticket to Buffalo, but I did have my ticket into Hawaii taken care of. It's strange how little money seems to matter when booking a flight. The first flight I saw was hundreds more than the next, which was hundreds more than the next, if I flew on a different day.

And if I kept searching for the weeks to come, I might find one for hundreds less once again. But with flights – you just kind of book them, and deal with the rest later on. You'd never do that with a meal, ohh this meal is three hundred dollars today. Oh well, whatever. But with flights?

A lot of money has gone into them over the past few months, and I wonder how much I could have saved? Conceivably I was on the winning end of some of these, and would have spent more in another reality where I waited a week or so extra to book them. All this time later, I still don't understand how flight prices work – but that's alright, as I take solace in the fact that no one really does.

As time got closer to when I had to leave, we went out for a last meal at the Indian place just behind her house (I also discovered there was a top notch BBQ ribs place there – how that went beyond my discovery until it was too late, I do not know. Imagine, right behind your house, a BBQ ribs place? what a disaster that could be!

And the meal was good. And perhaps too large with the last – warned against – bite pushing me beyond my limit. But the lime juice? It was a delicious treat I'd not known anything like since Cambodia.

Rather than waving me off as I headed towards the airport alone, I was accompanied on the bus, all the way to the airport. Never have I had a more stress free week this year. Everything we did, perfectly planned – without any desire to stray from it. Arrival? Departure? All accompanied. And it was fantastic. Even when I had to wait an hour to check in, I had someone to hang out with, and talk to – despite constant attempts to save her the hour of waiting with me. Really, I could stay on my own – but it was delightful not to need to.

Then, as I cleared through security, there was much waving, until I finally rounded the bend, and found myself alone.

In the airport, I read, and I looked – unsuccessfully – for something to spend my few remaining dollars on. The book stores also sucked up a good hour, as I looked at every title wanting to buy some, but not having the twenty bucks to grab even one of the cheapest titles there.

And then the flight was called, and on we got.

Food was eaten, and I searched through the various movies on the in-seat entertainment unit. There were a good five I wanted to watch: Lost in Translation (though I should stay away from mopey movies while flying), Memories of a Geisha (I'd been meaning to see this for ages), Planet 51 (because I like cute films), Sherlock Holmes (It looked alright – he's like a real world Batman, though not very real world.), and Avatar – because, you know, Space Marines.

Just as I was about to start watching, I'm sure, I found myself waking up with only an hour and a half of flight left.

Of course.