Can You Read My Mind? – Singapore – [03/04/2015]

You know you have an amazing manager when she agrees to give you an extra hour off so that you can have more time for your semi-annual theme park escape. True story. I swear! There is one thing I can always say, the flagship team – in some ways – knows me very, very well.

There was no question that I would go to Universal Studios, it’s become tradition, and with this week marking the half-way point of the entire voyage, I found myself in need of the complete break from reality. The park, as usual, was sweltering- there’s a reason I was saying to everyone that I was saving my heat-tolerance (which isn’t great) for today.

I did break somewhat with tradition this time, in that I didn’t go alone. One of my team-mates has a similar theme park weakness to me, and so jumped at the chance to ride the cable cars over to the world of the movies.

I was actually surprised at just how empty Sentosa itself was. Normally, even early in the morning, I find myself slaloming through crowds to get from one end of the island to the other. Today the people were so thin on the ground that picture that you would normally never stand a chance at getting a clear shot at were easily accomplished! They had decorated the main island in celebration of the recent Chinese New Year, so there were splashes of red and gold and hanging lanterns everywhere. I would love to see what it looks like at night as I’m sure a lot of those lanterns will light up.

Making our surprisingly quick way past the ticket booths and finding ourselves on the small scale reproduction of a busy New York City street we looked at each other and ask where to first….

Much to my continued disappointment the Battlestar Galetica dueling rollercoasters are still closed, for what appears to be indefinite refurbishment as they have been closed for at least two – if not three- years now. Everything else was open though. And this year I was finally brave enough to discover what I had been missing by skipping the Revenge of the Mummy ride all those seasons before. It wasn’t until I went on the one in LA that I realized it was a dark-coaster, which I love, and as seemed to be the case in most places today there were virtually no lines! Usually the line for Mummy is 45 minutes! We walked straight on! Chalk one up to theme park karma.

Of course, whenever I make my way to Universal there is my ongoing battle with a certain water rapids ride. This time, I was determined. Therefore, I informed my companion that she had one duty today, should she choose to accept it – she was to make me keep my eyes open. This may have something to do with the fact that a certain somebody made rather a point of making fun of me for refusing to keep them open before this (thanks a bunch Big Brother!); and keep them open I did. Although, I have to admit…the ride was more intimidating when I kept them closed. Because – as is often the case – what you can come up with in your own imagination to go with the narrative the ride provides is much better than even the best audio-animatronics. BUT now I can say I did it…so there. Ha.

Though I will also admit that the whole time my imagination was screaming at me “it’s a big bloody dinosaur and IT’S GONNA EAT ME!”

Get the swat team!

We don’t have TIME for the swat team!

Perhaps that’s why I was so overly pleased when I ordered a snack for lunch that was in the shape of dinosaurs (what?! Kids’ meals are cheaper, and come with free stuff! I finally have a lanyard for my keys now!) And they were shaped like dinosaurs! I found this highly amusing for some reason).

Side note: I have never understood the appeal of the Jurassic Park movies. They’re all the same plot! Resurrect dinosaur, dinosaur gets loose, chases people, eats people, gets caught, gets killed, park closes. Park is miraculously reopened by the time the next movie takes place and not only have they not learned from the events of the previous movie, they’ve made worse ones! ….I don’t get it…

I like the rides that go with it though!

We got extremely lucky with characters, as there are not normally many out in this park.

As is far too often the case, I find myself unable to pass the souvenir shop in ‘Ancient Egypt’ without walking out with something. My excuse this time is that my statuette of Bastet that I usually travel with is now missing an ear, and I’m worried about her getting damaged further, so I didn’t bring her with me – so I got a replacement. Hey, it could have been worse, they have some lovely jewelry there.

Way more money than either of us had intended, we crawled gratefully into the air conditioning of the island’s Hard Rock Café for our one drink of the day. This is where I first got hooked on the Hard Rock’s pomegranate martini, and thankfully it is still as yummy as I remember it. I didn’t add the glass to my collection however, as 1) I was out of money for the day and 2) I already have a glass from Singapore.

There are a lot of people who never quite understand my dependence on theme parks. The simplest explanation I can really give is this: sometimes, when the job gets to be too much and the homesickness is almost crippling, the best cure in the world is to grab someone by the hand and go be a kid for a while…