Mistaken identity

The very first time I travel by air without The Man, I leave the tickets and passports behind. Well, I’m not perfect, am I? The thing is, the Dreamer was struggling with a combination lock, so I irritably told her to step on it and stalked off in a huff!

Luckily, I realised I couldn’t find my folder at the top of the lane, but that didn’t stop the Beautiful Dreamer from really rubbing it in! “Huh! A very nice state of affairs. You’re always lecturing us, practice what you preach, will you?”

Our bags were grabbed by a porter, and guess what, I think it was a case of mistaken identity, since he just sailed through all the security checks, no-one stopped us, we just marched through. A representative of the airline we were travelling on whisked us to a counter that had no-one queued up behind it.

 I pretended not to notice the curious stares of the people at the other counters. We realised we had no local currency to tip the porter and so he happily departed with what we gave him!

Very important

 I told The Dreamer we must be looking Very Important, because never have we got through so quickly. She giggled her head off saying, “One thing it’s different travelling with you.” We descended on Dancing Doll shrieking in unison, whilst she tried to quiet us down in vain. Her flat mates had to get ready and go to work anyway, and they greeted us warmly.

My heart sank when I surveyed the unholy mess in the kid’s rooms. I rattled off a few of what I thought were essential items, but D.D. said she didn’t stock them. So, first stop was the supermarket, where I well and truly stocked up for our stay and afterwards too.

Then, the next item on my list was to sort out B.D’s belongings, discard unwanted items and get the rest ready for shipping. I really don’t function well in confined spaces, due to my size I keep bumping into all the sharp edges and corners and end up generally like a Big Bruise.

Huffing and puffing

So, after a lot of huffing and puffing, we managed to sort out what she wanted back home. These were then placed in a large carton. Unfortunately, we had no packing tape. That would take at least an hour to get. So, rather than waste time, I had a Not Very Bright Idea, and we decided to place everything upside down and once we got the tape, upturn it and tape it up. Baaad choice folks! Anyway, with our combined woman power, we flipped it over. It was a bad decision!

Then I cooked, scrubbed, swept, mopped, washed and generally tidied up as much as I could.  Pink sheets, blue pillows and psychedelic bedspreads haphazardly adorned the beds. Towels draped all surfaces. So, I proceeded to wash mounds of linen and re-organised things so they were more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. In the culinary department too, I faced a severe setback, as my favourite and most essential piece of equipment, the food processor, apparently wasn’t working! Groan, moan and tone muscles. As a result, what I normally did in seconds took minutes.

Retail therapy

But I did manage to have fun too, and I read an entire book in a week, something I would never get to do at home. I heard the kids telling their dad that I wasn’t going out anywhere, only cooking and cleaning!

So I was summoned to the phone and asked in shocked tones why on earth I hadn’t shopped. “Take a taxi if you’re tired,” he said. “Use your credit card if you have finished your money.” So, since he was so worried at my strange behaviour and I didn’t want him to get stressed out and worried, the three of us went out for some Retail Therapy. Of course the kids bought more than I did. Golden opportunities should be snatched at!

I met up with a very dear friend of mine who lives there as well. B.D. found time to re-do her tattoo since she wasn’t satisfied with it, even though I explicitly forbade her to! I’m definitely against self-mutilation. I sampled the cuisines of Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, America and of course the best was the Sri Lankan Pepper Crab! But for me the very best thing is that D.D. has food to last her through her exam and she won’t starve! I can imagine her saying, “Oh, muuum, you’re crazy!”