I was thankful, no, overjoyed, when told that we'd be heading to one of my favorite downtown hotels for a weekend breather.
It didn't matter to me that I was very familiar with the place, that I'd gone there many a time (over the years), and that I'd been there not too long ago, in fact, only a couple of months earlier this year.
Because every weekend breather is different.
And no two times at Hotel Jen Tanglin is the same.
I was hoping, for instance, to be able to have a picturesque stroll at the Botanic Gardens- just down the road- this time round.
But, as it turned out, I didn't.
There was no time.
Exactly what it was we did that enabled me to have no time (again!), I don't' know.
It might have been that instead of going down Holland Road, we went down to Orchard Road.
It might have been that instead of wandering about the trees of the 164-yeard old UNESCO World Heritage site, we were busily bobbing up and down between the malls of ION, Wisma, Paragon, Ngee Ann City and 313 Somerset looking at the shops, and everything that they had to offer.
One of the things we (very likely) did was to go down to the Cold Storage in Tanglin Mall because we like looking at the meats and the salmons and the frozen fruits and the cheeses and the snacks that they have there.
And very likely we went to the Little Farms store in the same mall because they've got great sea salt dippers (nachos) at a wonderful price over there.
One thing I'm pretty sure of is that this breather wasn't one of those tedious ones that we sometimes have.
And I'm glad for that.
Because it means that we got to appreciate the room better.
It means that, unlike the previous time where we spent a good amount of time painstakingly going through bound books in red and blue, this time there was none of those work-related stuff we had to do, and i could spend more time looking out the window to the (allocated) view beyond.
Sure, it's not panoramic like the view of some other properties might be, but that's how it is here at Hotel Jen Tanglin, where you get sight of Camden Medical Center, the Singapore Tourism Board building, and a lot of condominiums once you look out the window.
It's not all that bad.
Beyond Grange Road, you get a view of the trees, the roofs of pretty little houses, more trees, then somewhere in the distance, what I think is part of Tanglin Road, and Alexandra Road.
Perhaps one of the things I do remember most about this breather were the meals that we had.
The meals that we have are all just as meaningful as I sitting on the couch, lounging on the bed with my book and phone, and watching Chinese movies on the cable channel with a bag of chips in between.
I remember the nice, slow hotpot lunch at Happy Lamb over at Pacific Plaza on Scotts Road where, besides the thinly-sliced, symmetrically arranged slices of fresh, cold beef, there was lettuce, cute little handmade meat balls, and spongy, triangular-shaped pieces of soft tofu.
I also remember breakfast next morning at J65 where, besides my cup of coffee, I loaded my plate with a small portion of fried noodles (I can never resist), chunks of dragon fruit, an omelet with cheese, mushrooms and onions, a quarter of waffle that I saw was fresh out of the pan, and... ice cream.
It might have been a simple, quiet getaway that I had this time, but there's nothing that I didn't love about this breather at Hotel Jen Tanglin.
No doubt, I didn't get to go to the Botanic Gardens (again).
But there'll be another time, I'm sure.
And I'll definitely fuel up more at the breakfast buffet this time.