A Sunday of misery

I allowed myself to sleep in on Sunday, having gone to bed the night before in the wee hours of Sunday morning. At 7.00am, I awoke to a warm room. A powercut, on a Sunday morning.

Ignore it, I told myself. Continued napping till 9.30am. The power came back on. Now that I'm fully rested, I went thru my usual morning motions, then dressed up and venture out for breakfast.

As usual, I had no direction of where to go. So to the roads I took, and let it lead me instead. Habit, or familiarity, took me Saigon Square. Cool, I could grab a couple of movies. It must have been a holiday season somewhere. There's more tourists than usual at the Square. The appeal of fake branded clothes and bags must have been too much to resist.

Walked a block for breakfast. It's the usual Highland Coffee chain, not that much different from Starbucks. The variety of food is lacking, but hey, it's Vietnam. Starbucks would be here if the conditions are favourable. I took my leisure at munching my American breakfast set. Oh, how I miss the roti canai, char kuey teow, bak kut teh, chee cheong fun, dim sum....

Halfway thru my runaway thoughts, I noticed a westerner enter the cafe, lugging a notebook. Intent on catching up with some work I guess. He's in a world of his own too. Sat opposite my table, he held the menu in his hand, and stared out the window. I didn't notice him placing his order (was too engrossed with my bacons and eggs). He got up. Setup his notebook with power cable, and powered up. Then he walked outside. And sat down outside to enjoy his cigarette. I noticed that he sat with his back to the notebook. It's amazing how remarkably calm and confident he was, to leave his stuff unattended like that. I would have not been able to do so.

After breakfast, I took a ride to a hairdresser. Not for a cut, nope. I've got a cropped top to last for another couple of weeks. More to passing time, I suppose. I liked this shop. They provide a nice hairwash, followed by a back massage. I even had manicure and pedicure treatment in the process, all for less than RM20. As it was only midday, there's no other customer in the premise. It was really peaceful, to the point that I dozed off.

Rain again.

The afternoon shower cooled the temperature a little, but offered small respite for only a short, short time.

I got home at 2pm. Lounged on the couch, CSI back-to-back on the telly. And hey presto! Power cut again! (grumble... grumble... grumble...)

10 minutes. Power came on again. I resumed my show. Just when I thought it's fine to relax, the door bell rang. Lady at the door spoke some gibberish, and showed me a bill for the apartment's maintenance fee. I gestured best as I could, we'll pay tomorrow at your office.

Back to the show. Doorbell rang again. The guy from the convenience store wanted to know how many water bottles did we put deposit on. Two.

Back to the show. Doorbell again. Guy from the telephone company came to collect payment for the bil. Again I gestured, we'll pay tomorrow. (I'm holding off cos I've not received the share of payment from the roomies).

And back to the show. Time passed. The show I was waiting for came on. 300. The Spartans that defended their homeland.

Sunday, the misery of the week. I had to endure two interruptions on the HBO channel, by none other than the Ho Chi Minh City Television Station Cable Company (I must share this news article). They had to advertise their Company, at the point of excitement in the show. Twice. That's it. I had enough. These idiots still have not got over the agenda of propaganda yet. They must be so insecure of their customers' loyalty, that they had to resort to slip-in advertising. What's the point of paying for cable then?