ThE GaTeWaY

... to my much needed getaway. As previously mentioned, after spending way too much time on the phone with United then getting hung up on, I had to get out of the house.

Tragically, however, the apartment we were staying in the last two days (some lovely friends of friends were letting us stay with them) had fingerprint entry into their building/elevator and condo. Therefore, since no one was home, if I left I couldn't get back into the house. awesome.

But I had to, I knew I was a few minutes away from totally losing it. So, I did the most logical thing I could think of... go for a walk and not come back until I knew someone would be home. But how do you kill nearly five hours? Easy!

1) You walk down Orchard Street sipping on a Starbucks (don't judge, I needed caffeine) and window shopping
2) Get caught in a torrential downpour without an umbrella
3) Use the map you'd just procured to run to a store and buy an umbrella

4) Walk 30 minutes to the Singapore Botanical Gardens (maybe 45, I got lost in the underground mall maze while trying to cross the street)
5) And take the best pictures you can of the Orchid Garden with your iphone camera, until the battery dies. All...however many varieties I thought looked pretty, at least. There were:

teeny tiny ones

the seemingly red-headed stepchild ones

the restaurant-typical ones
(with the occasional starry bunch)

Some funky ginger plants thrown in for good measure

and my personal favorite, the white/pink orchid named after the King of Jordan
(Margaret Thatcher's was in the step-child bunch and Laura Bush's... meh)
*here's proof I was there. Please don't mind the dark circles under my eyes or the rained out wet-hair look. I got rid of some stress, saw a bit of Singapore along the way and got a nice bit of exercise in ta boot. So all in all, a fine 4.5 hours spent in my book!