The Joy of Travel? Or the joy of escape?

At the end of a long hard day, I am glad I can blog! Although staring at the screens are getting painful to the eye :P

I caught up with an old schoolmate for dinner on Saturday. Let's call her Manama (which incidentally is the capital of Bahrain - trivial pursuit ;) Manama is relocating to Vancouver, Canada (how I envy!) for a few years, and is catching up with old friends to say goodbye & good luck - closure.

It was strange how she opined (accused, rather ;) me of escaping in my travels, like other Singaporeans do. The accusation I have no issues about - everyone has the right to his or her opinions. But since we hadn't met for YEARS, I took slight offence at her jumping to conclusions about my motivations - travelling and otherwise. So if you want to accuse me, please accuse with knowledge of me ;)

For one, if anyone knew me, I don't exactly fall into the category of "Singaporeans." As much as I love this country, I doubt I am in any way the typical Singaporean. Two, I don't go on vacations, I genuinely travel and explore and meet people, go off the beaten track. That's why I can travel alone or in small packs (hound dogs ;) and not much on packaged tours which Singaporeans love -- for the best cultural experience in any place I visit.

Anyways, I was bemused by Manama. I defended myself a bit, but since she was doing most of the talking of the evening (she was the one leaving ;) I left her to her own perceptions. She was slightly bitter about Singapore, people, maybe the world in general, so best not to pick battles with her ;)

But Saturday was also full of laughter. WWW & I caught up over a meal at Marmalade Pantry for my birthday treat. YUMS! And we watched MI 3 which was BEYOND LUDICROUS, I promptly fell asleep 10 minutes into the show.

WWW was sweet. Got me 4 books on top of the meal & movie treat for my birthday :D Two of the books were on travel - A Guide to Athens; The Joy of Travel, an athology of travel tales; an anthology of macabre tales (think Addams Family ;) and --- an illustrated book on Love. Why the book on love -- coz I maybe in love, she says. HAHAHAHA

The books were a good read! The travel book was like a children's book, with plenty of pictures and few words so it was a fast read ;) Well, with my state of mind, why wouldn't I read this right?

On the book on Athens, she said, "Hint for you to go to Athens with your new boyfriend." ERRRRRRRRRRR what new boyfriend? ;) What impure thoughts she's putting into a holy Moslem gal hehe

The Joy of Travel book has been promising. Enjoyed the Foreword and the first story on Rome by Bill Bryson. He's SUCH A RIOT!

Will share insights on The Joy of Travel & Bill Bryson soon :)

PS I stopped reading Romeo & Juliet :D