Still not yet recovered from the mental exhaustion of socializing on such a large scale last Saturday, I had little enthusiasm for the prospect of immersing myself in a noisy crowd of tourists on Sentosa Island today. While I ended up just going with the flow, the flow whipped us past the aquarium exhibits at such high speed that we arrived at the ocean dome wondering whether we had gotten our money's worth. (In sharp contrast, touring the Washington DC zoo during the winter months grants you wide, uncrowded footpaths and the full attention of the zookeepers, who have much fewer human guests to contend with.)
The high volume of tourists proved challenging to the gatekeepers at the aquarium entrance, too. I must have appeared invisible at the rear of a clump of people, because my ticket never got scanned even as I held it out to the gatekeeper. All afternoon I would be looking for opportunities to give away the ticket so somebody else could benefit.
Too jaded from the overstimulation of the past week, I had difficulty cultivating the necessary sense of wonder to fully appreciate the displays of teeming marine life. When Mom pointed out the "synchronized swimming" of a school of fish, which changed directions as if following a conductor's baton, I couldn't help but see a parallel in the way our own species coordinated its movements to get through the twists and turns of the aquarium in an efficient manner.
It was around noon when we wrapped up our tour of the aquarium and set our minds to the task of deciding on a venue for lunch. The authenticity of the local interpretation of American cuisine could be best established by visiting a franchise of the Chili's chain, although the nearby South American restaurant also looked appetizing. The apparent price difference drove us to Chili's in the end, where we had tortilla chips, egg rolls, and mango chicken salad. The picture of hot chocolate cake on the dessert menu looked delicious, but we still had plenty of leftover desserts at home, so we opted simply to pay the bill for our three main courses.
Also among the leftovers from Saturday's party were two large containers of mee goreng. Mom tried to convince Katherine to ride with us to Kent Vale and take back one of the mee goreng containers to her home with Brian. In the event, Katherine stuck with her alleged plan of a quiet home-cooked dinner and alighted the bus across from her condo on Pasir Panjang Road.
Back in the Kent Vale flat, I donned my headphones in front of the 14-inch laptop screen and watched August Rush, so as to fill the two-hour gap between our return from Sentosa and the arrival of Louise and Paul (who would take us to dinner at The Curry Wok) with something other than a nap.