Talk nineteen.
Singapur, 17th December
- I’d like to finish our conversation about Andrzej. Also because, it’s time we closed the subject for good, since it’s still so difficult for you. It’s over twenty years since your divorce.
- Let me put it all a little bit facetiously: See, how unforgetting I am! You are right. Thanks to our talks I may stop coming back to the story. Not even in my thoughts!
- I don’t mind. I think I know a lot about your relationship, and also I know how difficult it was. For both of you. I don’t pass any judgements.
- After we parted, Andrzej left for a mountain spa and came back shortly before Easter. He called me asking for a meeting.
- Supposedly there was NEVER, wasn’t there?
- Yes. But the death of my mother, when he was away, let’s say, put me out of adjustment. I decided to meet him without any expectations. Maybe at the back of my mind there was some hope. I don’t know.
- Would you go back?
- I wouldn’t know. Anyway, what met me at his place exceeded the most daring expectations I might’ve had.
- I can’t wait.
- Andrzej was sober. I forgot to mention that it happened on the Good Friday. Up to know I’ve been calling it my personal Golgotha.
- He scouraged you and finally crucified!
- Today I allow you to make fun of it. But those were not jokes for me then. In cold, he attacked me telling me that the only good thing in his life was breaking up with me and becoming free.
- Getting free from you or from something else?
- I wouldn’t know. In short, I was informed what a monster I had always been destroying everybody and everything around me. What a horrible egoist and ingrate I was. What a bad man I was who didn’t respect anybody’s feelings.
- There might’ve been some truth in it, don’t you think?
- Even if there had been some, I didn’t deserve such examination of conscience performed in such a way by him. He wanted me to suffer. He wanted my suffering to be as big as his. He wanted to inflict the suffering on me, and he managed to. My Golgotha got fulfiled .
- Is that all?
- No! Listen a bit more to these grievances.
- OK. It was I who started it. But let’s take a break. I’m a bit overwhelmed by all this.
- I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention. I’m telling you this because I’d like you to understand why my life rolled along the way it did and how important it was for me to have met you.
- About me are we going to talk? You met me … wait, let me think. We met seven years after you’d left Andrzej, didn’t we?
- Correct. After he’d thrown me out. Now, yes, we’re going to talk about you! Everything in order. I’ll tell you that without my previous experiences our relationship, which is now over twelve years old, wouldn’t’ve had a chance to survive.
- My experiences don’t count, do they?
- They do. We’ll talk about them as well.
- I’m already scared.
- Let’ enjoy Singapore for the moment.
- I felt tired after that short, barely two-hour flight from Bangkok.
- The Cathay Pacific airlines seemed to provide good service but…
- Yes, it was an ugly surprise.
- A huge Boeing 777 got filled up with passengers very quickly. How many Chinese must’ve been there in our cabin?
- Over a hundred.
- Apparently, all of them knew each other and looked extremely befriended. Everybody was helping everybody else and everybody was talking with everybody else out loud. Very loud. Preferably across the cabin.
- I was pissed off because the flight attendants didn’t react when those pain in the neck passengers couldn’t get along (shouting) where each of them was supposed to sit. Later on it just got only worse.
- My cold caused by Bangkok air-conditioning system set for low 15 degrees Celsius, made my head split of pain in the aircraft.
- I felt the same.
- The noise and clamor almost killed me.
- Some sort of compensation we got in our boutique hotel in Singapore.
- You know, it’s a special quality class, however, for the price we paid (no breakfast), we could only get a small tasteful call. With a classy bathroom and the Internet as speedy as a hurricane. Besides that – peace and quiet!
- I’ve never seen a hotel room furnished in such a practical and effective way on six square metres! We found there, everything we needed to relax, didn’t we?
- Without feeling claustrophobic.
- It could’ve been that huge bed on a dais occupying two third of the room that gave such an nice impression, right?
- Maybe the colours of the walls and furniture, and the paintings?
- The little room was great and the bathroom from” the top shelf”.
- Don’t you think that after the rest we took, our evening outing to the centre was great?
- As usual the China Town was impressive. It’s almost impossible to describe it in any original way, but as far as I’m concerned, I haven’t seen so much Chinese stuff at one place!
- And those prices!
- We’re not going to talk about money. All I want to say is that the prices are much higher than those we can afford to pay, which means it’s good we are soon leaving for Bali!
- The downpour didn’t allow us to peacefully visit „our” Arabic and Indian neighbourhoods. The rain stopped us under the arcades of our hotel for almost an hour
- And still another downpour made us stay in our cosy hotel room. I think, we took good advantage of the time, didn’t we?
- Sensational! The evening in the biggest commercial neighbourhood of Singapore – the vicinity of Orchard[1] Street (no orchards there!) with Joy, had its charm, too, didn’t it?
- Joy, a Singapore Chinese, responded to my note at the PlanetRomeo, which I put earlier announcing our arrival in the city.
- He did his best to show us all the shopping malls in numbers exceeding common sense.
- In Singapore everything is different than in the other parts of the world: bigger, newer, more modern, richer, more coloruful and… more crowded.
- We wanted to buy a Samsung tablet since the prices should be lower here.
- Ambitiously, he would take us to all electronic departments and make us believe that in Singapore you could buy just anything.
- Not really true. Almost true. In spite of a tropical rain, we were running up and down Orchard Street illuminated with millions of glittering Christmas lights. We had our umbrella but I got wet to the skin anyway.
- One for the three of us! At least we found out that the dripping implement must be put in one of plastic bags hanging at the entrance of each shopping mall.
- We’d talked about the cleanliness and order in the city. I didn’t expect there to meet an ugly experience. I didn’t expect any obstacles on the footpath. When I was closely looking at the architectural details in the Arabic neighbourhood, I suddenly almost disappear under the ground.
- Trully, you disappeared from sight!
- I fell into a hole in the middle of the pavement injuring both legs to the blood. Fortunately, there were no fractures.
- It was shocking! Across the concrete pavement ran the rainwater gutter about twenty centimetres wide and thirty centimetres deep!
- When I’m thinking about it now, in my opinion, we should’ve called the police to have documented the accident and then have claimed the damages.
- Now are you telling me this!
- What happened, happened. At the end of the day we went with Joy to the bar nearby our hotel.
- What was the name of the drink you ordered to a great surprise of the waitress’s?
- The barman served me the drink personally asking whether I was sure what I’d ordered.
- What kind of craziness was it?
- I was called graveyard. It had: rum, vodka, gin, tequila, and whisky. Small amounts of everything in a tall glass filled up with guinness beer.
- Joy and I were watching you to see you survive it or not.
- No kidding. My Polish head is used to having to manage many things stronger than this. But a strong drink was what I really needed that day.
- Was the conversation with Joy what we needed that day?
- I think, it was what we needed. At the beginning he listened to our story which he was amazed with, and said he had never met such a case in his life.
- So we can be classified as „a case”?
- You see, we are so exemplary!
- Our Singapore guide looked as a guy without any complexes, however…
- After several drinks he would talk about them openly. Once again we talked about things which are essential in the gay world.
- It’s always known that what counts there are: youth, beauty, and well… money!
- What does „beauty” mean for gays?
- A beautiful figure, a well taken care of, sporty body, good design clothes and so on.
- Haven’t you forgotten about anything?
- Well. Yes. The sizes also matter.
- The size of the chest and biceps, the breadth of the shoulders, and …
- Keep naming.
- OK. So called package counts as well.
- Well, the world likes stereotypes.
- The bigger the stereotype, the better. Is that what you wanted to say?
- To please everybody’s tastes.
- Let’s go back to Joy. Objectively, he’s not particularly attractive. He’s nice, and despite initial embarrassment he turned out to be quite interesting.
- I felt he wanted to share something with us; there was something in him biting him, what he wanted verify with us.
- That’s true. The problem for him is his age (45 years), low stature and lack of conspicuous good looks.
- This limits and inhibits him in his pursuit to find a steady partner.
- He said he was ready for a relationship.
- The lack of comeliness he makes up with working out hard in a gym in order to be able to impress with his figure.
- His little self-confidence is supported by his good job and economical security with high income.
- What did he expect from a conversation with us?
- This what he’s got. A denial that there was no chance for him. A confirmation that he had a lot more to offer than only a broad chest and cash. That he was an interesting individual and that a personality was more important that what could be seen on the outside.
- Where you frank with him?
- You kept confirming that I was right. He was in a good mood when we left him.
- I have to confess to you something.
- Go ahead.
- Saying good-bye to us he whispered to my ear that he wouldn’t decline an invitation to our room.
- And…?
- And he left quickly. The following day was much more interesting for me.
- Taking advantage of a surprising break in the rainfall we hurriedly went towards those three towers joined at the top with a huge structure looking like a ship. The building fascinated with its unusual architecture right from the moment one would approach the city from the airport. It’s located by a bay – one of many recreational areas of the Singapore citizens.
-Truly, there one can see and feel advanced technologies of the twenty first century.
- Marina Bay Sands[2], we are talking about, was raised by the Singapore Bay as an enormous hotel and leisure complex. It’s said to be the most expensive detached casino which entailed expenses of eight billion dollars.
- It’s worth looking into the Internet…
- It’s also worth live visitng one of the best known in the world hotels – theRaffles[3] which is a Singapore landmark. A little bit of history: It came to life as a colonial hotel in 1887. It has a rich history and is known for its architecture and decor of the times, luxurious apartments and gourmet cuisine. It’s gained international recognition over the years.
- In spite the fact that many of the hotel’s part are exclusively available to the hotel guests, we managed to do some impressive photo snaps...
- Why wouldn’t you like to stay in the hotel for a while?
- I wouldn’t feel good there!
- On the contrary, I’d feel fine!
- But we aren’t going to move to the hotel, are we?
- Stop kidding. I’m happy with the luxuries we’re enjoying in our Sultan Hotel.
[1] Orchard Street Singapore
[2] Marina Bay Sands Singapore
[3] Raffles Hotel
