inklingfair It’s the 37th EDSA People Power Anniversary today, and instead of being at Bantayog, I’m at home. A week ago Daniel had his third seizure, the night Josh and I were at the Lent announcement in MTQ. The doctor upped his epilepsy medication, and I finally got down to printing out a daily routine for him so we could be sure he’d nap and sleep on time (lack of sleep is one of his triggers). It went swimmingly the first couple of days, thanks to Josh miraculously being able to put him to sleep within 30 minutes of staying in the room with him (I have not yet succeeded under one hour). But today I’m feeling a bit deflated because he slept an hour later than bedtime last night and woke up an hour earlier than the schedule this morning, happily shouting, “Wake up! Wake up!” in my ears and handing me my glasses. Right now he’s exhausted, napping two hours early.
Amy on the other hand has the sniffles and an itchy throat (thankfully not COVID), and needs me to put in her eyedrops twice a day. The silver lining is she looks adorable in her new pink glasses, and she loves them.
No, the silver lining is more than that.
Last week I was able to have a few days to myself, to break my routine and zoom out. I went to Singapore to present at a workshop — I don’t think I can say much more about that — but it was a welcome change of perspective. The last time I was there was in 2019, with Josh, for the U2 concert, and I regretted not being able to explore more.
I was lodged along Bencoolen Road and my first order of business was to have some spicy mutton curry at a roadside canteen. When I got back to the hotel, my laptop wouldn’t turn on, and I panicked. I wondered if the heat and humidity or the plane ride made my new battery short circuit, and I called reception to ask if they had computer rental. They didn’t, but there was a mall in the back of the hotel with a computer shop.
What they didn’t mention were the karaoke clubs, massage spas, and dim corridors that looked like Makati Cinema Square’s. I only found a gaming shop, in which I’d have probably stuck out like a sore thumb making my presentation (even if it did have lightning-speed internet). I walked four floors hunting for a repair shop, or at least a phone shop that had a torx screwdriver to remove my laptop battery (I didn’t think it was likely anything else was busted).
My unlikely hero was a pale, bespectacled convenience store clerk at the basement in a store bursting to the seams with late night snacks, smartphone accessories and (surprise) model toy cars all stacked up on one side. He handed me a tiny flat screwdriver, which, thank goodness, worked. I set about unscrewing the bottom cover of my laptop, and awkwardly placed it on top of the ice cream chest freezer while I wrestled out the battery. When I asked if I could test if it worked plugged in, he politely asked me to wait as he rung in SIM cards for a group of Thai (neung, song, sam, si) tourists. When the group left, he plugged it in — and it booted up! I thanked him profusely, bought a sarsaparilla, and all but ran back to the hotel.
At my desk, I found out to my horror that I had just forgotten to switch on the power for the plug earlier. The trip to the questionable mall was for nothing.
Well, maybe not. At least I had an Adventure.
The presentation slot I got was the dreaded after-lunch hour, but I made it through, and no one fell asleep. It was an eye-opening discussion all around, if a bit too short. I marveled at the sprawling campus in a city where real estate costs at least thrice as much as it does in Manila. Josh reminded me later that it was probably government-subsidized. Fair.
After a few of us participants shared a Grab back to the hotel, I quick-changed for the Twoset Violin vs Davie504 concert, which I bought tickets for at the last minute — because who knows when a work trip will coincide with a fandom thing again? The driver dropped me off at the stage door, ten minutes after the published start time, and I ran up four or five flights of escalators. When I got to my seat panting, thankful I had thought to bring a bottle of water, the show still hadn’t begun.
Twoset were in fine form, and seemed more relaxed onstage than they did at their live online concert two years ago. The high points: Davie playing Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah, the trio roping in an audience member to play Rainbow Road Mario Kart with them for the intermission, and Edwina flirting awkwardly with a fan she brought onstage.
I thought about taking the train straight back to the hotel and having drinks with my workshop colleagues, but I couldn’t get the stage door off my mind, so I made my way back to the drop-off point, and lo there were other Twosetters furtively sneaking peeks at the door. The security guard eventually came by to say Twoset didn’t want any selfies or to sign any autographs, and anyway they may not pass through this door after all. A few discouraged fans trickled away. At around 11, though, the looming figure of Davie504 came through the door, and he and his companion loaded his bass into a waiting car. Some fans took photos with him, and one gave him a gift bag. I called out a thanks to him for playing Hallelujah. A few minutes later Brett and Eddy came through as well with their violins, and we all shouted our thanks as they bowed and waved.
While waiting for a ride home I met A, another Filipino, who didn’t have dinner before the concert either, and we ended up having char kway teow and beers in one of the bars behind my hotel. He came all the way there just to watch Twoset. He and I wandered around Parklane (the shady mall) and peeked into the cyberpunk-esque karaoke bars with satin capes and feather boas hung around the stage wings. Chatted about fandom, family, data, death, and dating (he wasn’t having much luck at Bumble). It was a conversation I’d have had with Ribi or Stacey or Mich had they been there, random and freewheeling. Reception called him a cab in the wee hours and I didn’t hear from him again. Hope he finds his way.
The next morning was aggressively hot, so I stayed until checkout in my blessedly cool room, sending and answering emails (don’t pity me, I regret nothing). After buying Ginsberg’s last book at Parklane’s used book shop and getting my laptop battery screwed back in by a kindly tech at the vlogger/podcaster store, I took a couple of buses to the ArtScience Museum (nothing interesting — I didn’t care for the sneaker exhibit), walked near-fainting of heatstroke around and through Marina Bay Sands (so-so) to get to Gardens by the Bay (everything worthwhile needed a ticket), and decided eff it, I’ll just wait at the airport.
Best decision of the day. I leisurely had a kaya toast set, walked to my gate, put up my blistered (socked) feet and read my book. On the plane I had a cold beer and wrote in my journal.
I took home my unopened char siu chicken in a (clean) barf bag, and ate it at home while regaling Josh with my shady mall capers. I’m pleased to report, by the way, that my laptop is working fine.
