The Celebration Dinner this particular evening would be at Tanuki Raw at JEWEL, and so it was that we found ourselves on Bus 36 from the bus stop opposite Marine Parade Central towards Changi Airport.
There is no time, I tell you, that I will not want to go to the airport.
I will always want to.
I've liked the place since I was, maybe, 13 or 14.
Maybe younger.
These days I have the freedom to go there as and when I want to, but the funny thing is... I don't.
It's not that I don't want to, but the thing is that there're so much other stuff I have to do elsewhere that I'm not able to spend enough time there, and every time I'm there I feel like I want to hang around more.
That feeling- that unsatisfactory feeling- can feel downright awful, I tell you, but that doesn't mean that I won't embrace any opportunity for me to be there.
Which is why, instead of other outlets that Tanuki Raw has (Orchard Central and Cross Street) we were going to Changi Airport.
The fun of going to Changi Airport doesn't begin from the time you enter the terminal.
No, it begins from the bus journey, and today it began from somewhere just after Marine Parade- Mandarin Gardens, maybe. (I can't quite remember)
But the bus turned onto the East Coast Parkway ECP, and the view changed.
Almost immediately the sight of concrete buildings on the right hand side of the bus disappeared, replaced, instead, by the sight of charming little bougainvillea shrubs, and majestic, graceful large canopied trees.
I've never been able to describe this view properly, because, really, this part of the ECP is pretty much a straight-route expressway, but the view's good.
You find yourself admiring the curving branches of the trees, getting mesmerized by the intricate patterns formed by small little leaves, and being surprised by the pop of fuchsia that those bougainvillea shrubs bring you.
It isn't all about the green though.
There's the hint of the sea, which from the bus you can't really tell, but just know it's there, what with the uninterrupted expanse of sky, the horizon, and the presence of coconut palm trees here and there.
I always find myself drifting into some sort of stoned mood whenever the bus trundles down the expressway.
It's not deliberate; it just happens, always without me realizing it even.
It doesn't even matter whether I manage to take pictures or not.
I still end up stoning away, and only when the bus reaches some sort of a landmark, like this overhead bridge, or this gantry sign, that I feel like we're nearing our destination.
By that time, however, I'm usually so offed out that I never can remember whether I'm actually soon reaching the airport.
But no matter.
There're other landmarks.
Like this overhead bridge which I think connects the bus stop to the SATS Freight Center (something like that)
And this grand-looking flyover upon which many a plane has passed us by.