Of SQ Girls & Multi-Grain Croissants from India

It's a little past 6am and I'm bleary-eyed and floppy-tailed at Changi Airport. The flight was comfy but the SQ girl is charge of my cabin was kind of a doofus. She keeps waking me up to ask me questions about my comfort. "Miss Frou, do u want to drink?". "Miss Frou, do you want to eat?". "Miss Frou, do you want to pang sai?". Not only that, she will stand there with that doofus face until l wake up fully and answer her. It must be in the SQ Manual on How to Annoy Passenger Till They Eat Our Awful Food.

The older SQ girls are more tactful but not less annoying. There is this one in a red kebaya (she must be Chief) who keeps appearing out of nowhere when I least expect her. For example, I was looking for the outlet for my headphone plug and lo behold she appeared BEHIND me with her fingers tapping meaningfully at the outlet at the back of my seat. (How long has she been there?) after which, she asked me the quintessential question, “Miss Frou, do you want to eat NOW?”. OK! OK! I will eat! I will eat!

After a funny meal of prawns antipasti and seafood tang hoon soup (btw, I hate seafood), another senior SQ Girl in a different colored kebaya than Doofus kept offering me fruits. I wanted to tell her it is bad to eat fruits after a meal because it just sits on top of all the food you ingested and ROT there but I was too tired to say all those words and I was also too tired to say No and incur a “Miss Frou, are you SURE you don’t want any fruits” so I said ok. She appeared later with a big basket of fruit and promptly tripped over the feet of the guy next to me. After straightening the basket and her wits (no fallen fruits, thanks to her superb SQ Girl balancing skill), she asked me to pick what I want. Friends of mine will know I don’t eat raw fruits and there she was, presenting a whole basket of them to me. I pointed at the least offensive item (the seedless red grapes) and she said something. I took off my headphones and ask her to repeat herself. All I hear is mumbling above turbulence. I ask her to repeat again, she did and I ask again until finally she shouted, “MISS FROU! PLEASE TAKE THE GRAPES FROM THE BASKET YOURSELF. I CANNOT DO IT FOR YOU DUE TO HEALTH REASONS!”. (Hehehe. I made a SQ girl shout.)

It was a relatively short flight from Bangalore to Singapore and time really passes by quickly when you get to sleep horizontal. When we landed, I immediately went and check on my precious loot stored in the crew’s gallery – a box of multi-grain croissants from my hotel in India. They are seriously the tastiest croissants I ever eaten; even better than the ones I tried in Europe. Apparently, the Indian chef learnt it from a German pastry master, strange enough. They are so good that I asked the chef to bake me a batch to bring back to Singapore. The airline officer at the check-in counter told me it will be impossible for me to get it through Indian Customs but I managed to flirt my way through. I even tossed my hair around (this is when having long hair comes in useful). My boss, who was with me this trip, was duly impressed.

I was not impressed though, when I realize the plane landed in Terminal 3 when my car is parked all the way in Terminal 2. Dragging your luggage, laptop bag and a box of croissant all the way from one end of T3 to the other far side of T2 is no fun at all. By the time I reach my car a good 25 mins later, all the rest I had in the plane was depleted. Then it was another 30 mins drive home – which was actually quite nice because one of the things I love about coming home to Singapore after an overseas trip is watching the Marina Bay skyline along ECP, especially in the wee morning before rush hour (Do I get brownie points from SG Gah-Ment for saying this?)

When I (finally) reached home, I switch on my phone and found several “Words with Friends” and “Hanging With Friends’ games pending my move. No thanks to my stupid anal retentive habit of clearing all phone games before going to bed, I finally slept at 8am. And now, it is nearly 1pm and I don’t feel like working but I am sitting in front of the computer stoning out. Am taking imp’s advice of casually checking emails without replying except I did send out a few cursory emails to show people I am ‘sort of’ there in spirit (but not in mind obviously).

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These are the aforementioned croissants. They don't look that fab but they taste like heaven!

 Forgot to add that they were even tagged and screened by Indian Customs
and had its own own luggage tag with an official stamp

These are 2 really cute baby tunics that I bought from Fab India. They are hand woven and made from all natural Indian cotton.

And this is the lucky baby who will be wearing them; my 1M old niece. She is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to meet her in person soon. (Thanks smudgie for correcting my spelling of her name!)