I've spent 10 days away from home, and finally heading back to Singapore tomorrow. It's been such a long work trip, and I can't wait to get back. Home will always be home, nothing beats the feeling of familiarity and being in the arms of your loved ones.
This trip has been memorable, all in all. Surprisingly, I didn't do much sightseeing for this trip but there were lessons I've learnt from the days that I've been away. Interesting things that I know I won't experience every day.
This happened two nights ago, when my supervisor organised dinner for the whole set of crew when we came back to Manchester from Houston. He wanted to bring us to his friend's restaurant and so we did. But what happened was simply so different from what I had expected, I didn't know that it was going to be quite a formal dinner with the boss and his business partner sitting down and having dinner and drinks with us all.
He took care of the orders, from starters to mains all the way till desserts- meaning he ordered only the best stuff for us. It took us quite a while to realise that dinner was on the house, and it's certainly unexpected. We thought we were going for a simple dinner gathering, but what we got was 5-star service from the big boss himself who made time in his busy schedule to spend the night with us.
I thought that it would end there.
But it didn't. We spent hours having dinner course by course, and when we finally got to the end, Jack, who is the owner of the restaurant, told us that he has arranged for a few cars to escort us to his KTV bar.
At that point of time, we were all pretty much amazed by the VIP treatment we've gotten thus far. It's not every day that you meet an entrepreneur who would casually bring you around to have a good time.
Karaoke is probably one of my favourite entertainment ever, but I'm one who could do all the fun without a single sip of alcohol. For the rest of the crew, they had free flow of alcohol throughout the night and of course, everybody started to get loud and happy in no time.
Halfway through the night, Nigel, who is Jack's partner, turned to me and said, "you're very independent" and I asked him why he had said that, and he said that the amount of self-control I have is amazing. And then I knew what he was referring to. I realised that I was the only one in the room who was completely sober that night.
"I hope you stay this way," he said, "you know what you want, and what you don't want. And I hope that you'll remember this random man in the bar telling you this and remember what you told me about your plans. Never change."
And my heart, my heart mellowed.
There are so many people out there who are always trying to get me to drink, like I don't know how to have a good time. So many who are always unsuccessfully trying to influence my mind. But you don't get people like Nigel who would tell you the exact opposite, the things you needed to hear, to assure you that you're doing the right thing for yourself whenever you're ever in doubt. It puts a smile on my face when he said that to me all of a sudden.
To see that there are people who are aware of the battles that people like me face in social situations like these, and how things can get a little awkward just because I'm not like the rest. I've gotten to a point whereby I've already accepted the person that I am. But his words, it really gets to me in the best way possible. I just have to write it down to remember that moment. I don't think he's even sober when he was talking to me, but his sincerity, yes, I do feel it.
What a night.
I will remember this for the rest of my life. The first time I've ever gotten myself in such an unlikely situation, having such different conversations with people I thought I would never be able to cross paths with.
Right now, I'm still recovering from food poisoning that I've gotten since yesterday. I guess I might have gotten the virus from drinking tap water. It's the first time I fell sick when I'm overseas and I never want to experience it again. Being sick all by yourself, so many miles away from home just felt like the loneliest thing that could happen to anyone. I'm so thankful for the nicest crew who came to pass me medication, checked on me from time to time and even bought me soup because I was simply too weak to head out in the 1-degree weather outside.
I even had to call for a doctor from the hotel, and dealt with series of vomitting and diarrhoea throughout the day. The doctor said that if this continues the next day, I wouldn't be able to operate the flight back home and that would mean that I would be inconveniencing the crew by having one crew down- thankfully, I'm feeling a lot better today. Even managed to eat something without throwing it up. So I guess I'm making a recovery, and I'll just have to hang in there for one more sector before I get to rest fully back at home.
Eventful trip, it has been. Nothing will make me happier than being back at home right now, definitely can't wait to see my parents and my sweetheart. 11 days is a long time, feels like an eternity. But I'm coming home.
Love,
Ashhy
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